P4 Fly Away

[Gregory Johnson]

I bought my P4 last September from Amazon (Beach Camera). This July, I flew it straight up to about 400' to shoot fireworks display in town nearby. Nothing happening so I hit RTH. P4 tried to land on the edge of my roof. I cancelled RTH and with the right stick I attempted to guide it back to Home Point about 30' to the right. While pulling back on the stick before bringing it down, the drone suddenly shot away from me at about 45° up and away at Max speed. I had to fight it with a right stick down, but it kept trying to fly away. It eventually won the battle and hit a power line, spinning it straight down onto a driveway. Now my drone has a gimble assembly hanging by a ribbon. I've read so many negative statements about DJI, so I am reluctant to request you an RMA. Should I contact an authorized dealer? I believe this should be warranted, or should I try to fix it myself?
Greg

 

[macoman]

Never hear before a phantom 4 flying away... this could be the first phantom 4 flying away. You could try contact DJI but first upload the data for us to analyze what went wrong. Link here: DJI Flight Log Viewer

 

[Meta4]

I bought my P4 last September from Amazon (Beach Camera). This July, I flew it straight up to about 400' to shoot fireworks display in town nearby. Nothing happening so I hit RTH. P4 tried to land on the edge of my roof. I cancelled RTH and with the right stick I attempted to guide it back to Home Point about 30' to the right. While pulling back on the stick before bringing it down, the drone suddenly shot away from me at about 45° up and away at Max speed. I had to fight it with a right stick down, but it kept trying to fly away. It eventually won the battle and hit a power line, spinning it straight down onto a driveway. Now my drone has a gimble assembly hanging by a ribbon. I've read so many negative statements about DJI, so I am reluctant to request you an RMA. Should I contact an authorized dealer? I believe this should be warranted, or should I try to fix it myself?

If you want to find out what happened, go to DJI Flight Log Viewer
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record from your phone or tablet.
Come back and post a link to the report it provides and someone here might be able to analyse it and give you an understanding of the cause of the incident.

Replacing the camera of a P4 is not something you want to do yourself.

 

[With The Birds]

If your home point was recorded properly on takeoff and 30 ft from the corner of your roof the AC was performing and expected, RTH initiated within a 20m radius of homepoint and it will land where it is. That is only part of the explanation however. To get an idea of whether this is likely to be a warranty covered issue follow Meta4's suggestion and upload the flight log.

 

[brianmcg]

Never hear before a phantom 4 flying away... this could be the first phantom 4 flying away. You could try contact DJI but first upload the data for us to analyze what went wrong. Link here: DJI Flight Log Viewer

Not the first. There have been others. It is rare, but not unheard of.

I had one (two, actually) back in June and posted the information here Fly Away. This was my first issue in over a year of flying it. The first fly away was at altitude and I was able to recover by hitting RTH, but the second was down low and trees prevented it from ending up in the neighbor's living room. Repairs were necessary and it's flying again.

 

[WWK888]

Not the first. There have been others. It is rare, but not unheard of.

I had one (two, actually) back in June and posted the information here Fly Away. This was my first issue in over a year of flying it. The first fly away was at altitude and I was able to recover by hitting RTH, but the second was down low and trees prevented it from ending up in the neighbor's living room. Repairs were necessary and it's flying again.

I believe that was sarcasm...

 

[brianmcg]

I believe that was sarcasm...

You're probably right, of course. It's so hard to tell on the internet.

 

[Meta4]

I believe that was sarcasm...

You're probably right, of course. It's so hard to tell on the internet.

I don't think it was sarcasm at all.
Despite so many reports of supposed flyaways, looking at the actual flight data almost always shows that the Phantom did not fly away at all.

 

[Gregory Johnson]

Thank you all for your input. Here's the Flight Log in text and CSV. I really appreciate your input.
Greg

 

[Gregory Johnson]

I don't think it was sarcasm at all.
Despite so many reports of supposed flyaways, looking at the actual flight data almost always shows that the Phantom did not fly away at all.

If almost all supposed fly always are not, then what are they?
Greg

 

[Meta4]

If almost all supposed fly always are not, then what are they?

Way back in the early days of drones, users would lose their drones for all kinds of reasons but there was often no way of knowing what caused the incident.
That's when the flyaway was born.
If you came home without your drone it was easy to say it flew away and people would often believe it.
Since the P3 series, DJI drones have had a flight data recorder built-in to the app and even if you came home droneless, you still had the recorded flight data.
Investigating data from many, many flight incidents shows that Phantoms don't just fly away.
There are lots of common reasons that users may lose their drones but just flying away isn't one of them.

 

[With The Birds]

The log reveals your home point was set to the middle of the roof of the house and that you flew straight up to 160 odd ft and hovered for a bit before hitting RTH, no mystery why it was trying to land in the house. No clues as to how you managed to fly into the neighbors house however.

 

[Meta4]

That's interesting that the home point plots to the roof of the house.
The only way I can think of that happening is if you launched early and it acquired GPS as it was passing over the roof?

I cancelled RTH and with the right stick I attempted to guide it back to Home Point about 30' to the right.

There's the most obvious thing I can see in the flight record.
You thought that you had cancelled RTH but from 4:49.9 till the flight record ends, the Phantom is autolanding.
It never received a command to cancel RTH.
You got down to 8.2 feet and the Phantom stopped descending before you started pushing the left stick to take it up - this is most likely due to obstacle avoidance as the VPS is now giving its own altitude readings that are changing as you move over the pitched roof.
Following that I count 7 periods where you are pushing the right stick hard to climb and 5 shorter times you used the right stick.
But the whole time the Phantom was trying to get back to its autolanding where it believed home was.

While pulling back on the stick before bringing it down, the drone suddenly shot away from me at about 45° up and away at Max speed. I had to fight it with a right stick down, but it kept trying to fly away. It eventually won the battle and hit a power line, spinning it straight down onto a driveway.

Looking at the Phantom's horizontal speed and comparing it to the stick movements, I see the only times Phantom has horizontal speed, there are matching right stick movements shortly before.
It does not appear that the Phantom suddenly shot away at max speed.
What's happened is that you've pulled it away from the autodescent it was trying to perform and it has shot back to the autodescent.
This is not a flyaway but more of a tug-of-war between the pilot and autodescend.
There would have been a note on the top of the screen the whole time to advise it was autodescending and the controller was probably beeping.
Had you cancelled the RTH, either with the X on the screen or by pushing the RTH button, you wouldhave had full control and been able to fly the Phantom wherever you wanted.

 

[Gregory Johnson]

Thanks Meta4, that seems right on to me. Unfortunately I thought I had cancelled RTH, but apparently I did not. My next question is where might someone recommend I send this in for repair. Two gimbal arms are broken, an upper and a lower. Two landing arms are split open with no other apparent damage.
Thanks again!
Greg

 

[macoman]

Thanks Meta4, that seems right on to me. Unfortunately I thought I had cancelled RTH, but apparently I did not. My next question is where might someone recommend I send this in for repair. Two gimbal arms are broken, an upper and a lower. Two landing arms are split open with no other apparent damage.
Thanks again!
Greg

You can try dronenerds.com if you are in the US. They are DJI authorized vendor, have a repair facility and most important, they provide an outstanding customer services something you will not get with DJI.

 

[Gregory Johnson]

Thanks!

 

[Dredd]

Never hear before a phantom 4 flying away... this could be the first phantom 4 flying away. You could try contact DJI but first upload the data for us to analyze what went wrong. Link here: DJI Flight Log Viewer

Actually it's heard of... perhaps you should read a little more before commenting in the manner you have. This fella is also a little upset, rather be helpful and supportive : )

Peace

 

[Meta4]

Actually it's heard of... perhaps you should read a little more before commenting in the manner you have. This fella is also a little upset, rather be helpful and supportive : )

I've heard of lots of people that thought their Phantom just flew away - but Phantoms don't just fly away.
There is always a reason and it's often able to be tracked down with flight data.
Pretending that flyaways are real is neither helpful nor supportive.
Learning what caused flight incidents makes everyone a safer flyer.
The sooner we can eliminate the myth of the flyaway Phantom, the sooner everyone can concentrate on things that are real.

 

[Southern Style]

GREAT READ Meta4....... I could not read that until you relayed each action.. After going back, I see where all of that information became visible..... The date log truly explains each action of the drone AS WELL AS each action of the pilot... I wonder, since the Home Point was set in the center of his roof, could it be possible that he turned it on INSIDE the house and the RTH Point was automatically set.. as in his living room? And when he went outside, it was trying to land where the living room was? Not understanding that there was now a roof there??

I made this mistake flying on the beach. Set the RTH Point.. after the flight, I went to another section of beach, and realized the RTH Point was still set at the other beach.. LOL, fixed that real quick. that could have been disastrous!!