Bizarre run-away altitude on return home

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Yesterday while doing a range test out in the desert (no interference and flat unobstructed view for miles) I had a rather un-nerving experience. I was flying at about 150ft and the auto return home altitude was set at 30M.

When I had reached the limit of my range test, I wanted to see how well the return home function would perform. I pressed the return home button on the controller and, as expected, I immediately got the audio confirmation that the drone was returning home and saw that the drone had changed direction and was flying back.

Admittedly, I had lost visual contact with the drone. It was a tiny spec when I hit return home and when I glanced back up, my eyes couldn't re-aquire the spec. While I was concentrating on watching the distance to home count down, I realized that when it was close enough that I should have been able to hear it, I didn't hear anything...

I then glanced over at the altitude and was shocked to see that it was over 1200ft high! YIKES!!! I hadn't touched the controls and I have no idea why it climbed up that high or how it blew through the max alt setting (which was 400ft). Now I was able to gradually get back down and land safely but I had not heard of anyone having a "vertical only" fly away before. The lateral flight path to home was right on target.

I know I should have been paying more attention to the altitude and consider it a lesson learned. I flew it 3 or 4 more times and went through the same steps and the anomoly did NOT re-occur. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

BTW, I calibrated the compass right before takeoff and the IRS (IMU?) was calibrated in the store on a perfectly level bench about 3wks prior. (They said I should not have to re-calibrate that unless there is some kind of jolt to the aircraft like a crash). Also GPS was active with about 18-20 satellites.

Thanks for the help,
Don
 
Last edited:
Known issue, DJI should fix in next firmware update. It generally (not always) happens when a long ways away and when RTH is initiated when you are already above RTH set height. It's not the GO software, it's an issue in the craft.
 
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