How to NOT lose your drone (flyaway) - Beginners Guide

We keep reading of drone owners losing their drones due to failed compass or switching to ATTI mode and drifting out of control, this video will talk about why this occurs, how to avoid a drone loss and prepare for it.

CORRECTION: By mistake we mentioned 'Mavic 2' instead of 'Mavic Pro' when referring to "dual compasses", the Mavic 2 actually just has a single compass.

FEATURED PRODUCTS:

VIDEO CONTENTS:
00:12 - What is a drone flyaway?
00:50 - What is drone ATTI mode?
01:42 - What causes a drone flyaway?
02:26 - Is there a backup drone system?
03:08 - When to calibrate drone compass?

---------------------------------------------

OUR FILMING/VIDEO EQUIPMENT:

Support us by buying via our Affiliate Links, we make a little bit of commission which helps us to keep DroningON running!

Also visit us elsewhere on the interweb ;)

[asifshaikh-ewvt]

I wish I saw this before 15 mins ago lmao rip my drone

[nryder]

Just suffered ATTI mode. It flew away directly into a tree then dropped into the lake. I fished it out quick and pulled power along with the memory card. All videos were not lost and after an extensive drying session the thing has come back to life and it surprisingly didn’t suffer any arm or propeller damage either. Will definitely recalibrate EVERY time. I did not do a calibration before this flight. Lesson learned. Haven’t flown it again yet but hopefully it’s all good

[Glenrsi]

Interesting and thank you, 90% of the time i fly all my drones home manually and do not use RTH unless i have to. As for calibration mentioned, i agree 100%, better safe than sorry.

[gimpman]

I always calibrate before my first flight of the day. I also test the RTH at close range (where it’s easy to take control if there is an issue) before sending it out far.

[IaninLondon]

Hi Ash; I think the most frequent cause of flyaways for Mavic Mini owners is the inability for the Mini to maintain its position due to wind or when it's unable to overcome the wind on RTH. And people underestimating the higher windspeed up above is the key cause of Hope You're keeping well matey! :) Ian in London (in Essex)

[Jonasgamertv]

I have had the first "cheap" drones which required you to do literally everything. Very great experience to learn how to fly!

[lukecarter]

Been flying the Mavic air 2 a lot lately and realized I haven’t calibrated the compass nearly enough. Thank you!

[tonakkie]

Thnx Ash to remind me again. I started flying in 2017 and regularly calibrated the compass that time, but over time, since it always went well, i started to skip the good habbit of re-calibrating before a new day of flights. It has to go wrong only one time. Thanks👍🏻

[rcmedia]

Awesome video. I had an hs510 flyaway and I was able to save it, I practiced with a bugs3 mini. Been flying for one week now, if I hadn’t practiced with the bugs that drone would be gone I think. Nice advice here thank you.

[edw]

Excellent video! It is always great to get a reminder to do something like compass calibration, this will become my routine at the beginning of every flight day. Thank you for sharing and I would like to see you produce further such educational drone videos, as I find that I always benefit from these type of helpful tips!

[FR-PL-UA-WARSZAWA]

So, I will now calibrate my Air 2 as often as I can. So easy and quick!

[ConjoFPV]

I just experienced what i now believe is my first fly away. Only there where some real odd factors at play. At first. Without watching this video before i already do calibrate the compass before each fligth, it just seemed to make sense. So i did this time too. I actually was filming graffiti on walls which could of easily been done with a handheld camera as i wasnt flying higher than myself and actually walking along with the drone. It was a bit windy but nothing crazy, visited the beach last weekend and that was crazy but the pro 2 performed like a charm. But before i fully drift off. I was filming walls, i make a turn to go straigth towards another wall across a grass field. I start by positioning the drone in the straigth line i want it to go in and ever so gently start to push forward. Instantly i notice the drone is moving forward in a 45degree diagonal line quite fast, instantly all of a sudden above a creek which was next to me heading towards the trees on the other side of the creek. In full panic mode i pushed pause. Nothing, again and again and then it crashed into the trees. I was so lucky that it passed the branches over the water and made it acros to crash in leaves. Luckily no physical damage at all but im baffled as to how this could of happened and im still coming down from shock. Im not super experienced but experieced enough to know that this was beyond odd and i cant explain it. No signal lost no weird interferrence or nothing. Im so glad i wasnt at an higher altitude or further away or near people or that it crashed in the creek. Of course im out of my warranty period. This is my first crash ever and i hope it will be my last. I hope you can bring some sense to this and help me calm down a bit. I love my drone too much and im always carefull. I just want to understand what happenend here. Ps. I was flying a Mavic Pro 2 in position mode. Thanks from The Netherlands!

[savethelighthouse]

My first brushless GSP drone was a Hubsan H501S. Of course I bought it on Banggood and it was shipped from China. Boy, what an exotic experience that was. I got emails in Chinese! I waited 3 weeks for it to arrive. When it was delivered I charged up the battery. Little did I know this would be the "good times" and the only memories of our time together. I have no idea if I calibrated the compass correctly or not. I had never had a GPS drone and I had no concept of the difference. It flew in my backyard to a height of 6 ft so I thought I was ready to take it to the park and fly it around. As soon as I got to the park I flew it above the trees to get a look at my neighborhood. That's the last I ever saw of it. I looked at my watch and it was just 6 hours from the time UPS rang my doorbell. That's when the madness took over...

[AnubisArtsTJGrady]

I’m a little different. I only calibrate when I change areas by 30 miles or more. Only ATTI modes I have had happen is when flying under some bridges. Metal not a good friend to the compass 😎. Absolutely love your thumbs down comments with all your videos. Thanks for sharing Ash

[Alan-sbhm]

I'm really fortunate that I found your page thank you for the advice I really appreciate you giving us your drone Knowledge with me being a newbie to the Drone world

[MattGregoryGuitar]

I was flying my holystone hs700e today in good conditions - minimal wind, clear blue skies.
I was flying in tripod mode too.
All of a sudden my drone went berserk and flew away hard left at full speed and would not respond to any manual input from the controller.
I had to keep visual on it until it hit several trees and thankfully fell to the ground rather than being stuck up at height in a tree.
Was this 'drone fly away' or was it some other malfunction?

[cadetmedia]

Good video very educative. Thanks for sharing . From now on I will always calibrate my drone before every flight.

[carlcee]

Very glad I saw your videos. The best advise to calibrate always the compass before flying on that day. KUDOS!

[onnie]

I'm with you Ash, I do it every time before I fly.

[WingView]

Probably the best explanation and advise I've watched on this subject thumbs up!