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Reported Increase in Flyaways

If you have recently experienced a 'Flyaway' incident did your I1 also suffer 'Drop into Atti' bug

  • I have suffered a flyaway and yes, my Inspire reguarly used to drop into atti.

    Votes: 9 6.3%
  • I have suffered a flyaway but my Inspire never used to drop into atti.

    Votes: 11 7.7%
  • I have suffered a flyaway but I cannot remember if my Inspire went into atti prior to v1.2.1.0

    Votes: 10 7.0%
  • I have never suffered a flyaway but my Inspire did used to drop into atti on prior firmware

    Votes: 29 20.3%
  • I have never suffered a flyaway or had the Inspire drop into atti.

    Votes: 84 58.7%

  • Total voters
    143
Hello and welcome to the forum.

This is an old thread now and the problem associated with the Inspire dropping out of P-GPS into Atti has been addressed some time ago.

I do not think anyone really seriously associated 'Fly-aways' with an rf problem! FHSS technology is a suitably mature form of R/C control that it is tried, tested and trusted and any sort of 2.4ghz interference can be discounted. Additionally, there is receiver advanced protection written into the Inspire flight controller that will initiate an RTH in the event of anomalous perceived stick inputs relayed by the receiver to the FC.

A very large proportion (but not all) of 'Fly-Away' incidents can be put down to pilot error. Inexperienced pilots become disorientated or are just not used to an aircraft's behavior in atti mode. They then panic and over compensate on the sticks causing what they believe is a fly away.

Nearly all of the non pilot related incidents I have seen have been caused by a bad compass calibration with the tell tale TBE and ever increasing circles that manifests itself in these types of scenarios. Again, pilot inexperience causes the individual to not understand why a given stick input does not correspond to a given reaction of the aircraft. Left unchecked, the TBE increases and can cause the aircraft to crash. Switching to atti in these circumstances takes both the GPS and compass out of the equation and will restore control of the aircraft but in a moment of panic many pilots do not do this.

Bad IMU calibration can cause another problem with the use unaware of anything wrong until the Inspire pitches in a certain direction. A form of integral wind up then occurs with the craft unable to correct itself but trying harder and harder to do so. Again this type of scenario can be avoided by ensuring a good IMU calibration is done and ALWAYS checking mod values before each and every take off.

That brings us to the final number of fly aways that are caused by faulty flight controllers/IMU units. There have been a few but thankfully they are very few and far between. In these instances, other than some experienced piloting skills not very much will save the aircraft since there is little or no stabilization going on. Very few pilots coming to the Inspire platform other than collective pitch helicopter fliers would be familiar with unstabilsed flight and thus crash their aircraft.

The above is a very simplistic breakdown of categories but I believe covers 99.99% of the problems people experience.

In my opinion (and it is ONLY my opinion - people need to make up their own minds), I believe DJI have got it wrong when they say calibrate the compass in every new flying location. By far this has been the biggest problem I have seen with TBE, skewed compass data and users experiencing 'non controllable' aircraft.

Like I say, DJI will officially say you should always calibrate you compass at every new flying location. My views are well documented throughout this forum as to the reasoning behind my theory/practice so I wont type it out again (cos my fingers get tired :p) however, I will say this as I have said many times before..

  • You DO NOT need to calibrate the IMU more than once unless the craft has suffered a physical shock or you have completed a firmware update
  • You DO NOT need to calibrate your compass at every new flying location if you already have a good calibration but you should do one after a FW update
  • You DO need to have a comprehensive pre-flight checklist that you follow each and every time you are about to go airborne
  • You DO and MUST check you mod values EVERY SINGLE TIME you are about to take off - if they are wrong do not take off from that location
  • Whenever you do a firmware update as well as an IMU and compass calibration it is good practice to additionally do a stick calibration

I hope the above comments help. :)

I am respectfully questioning your statement :

"A very large proportion (but not all) of 'Fly-Away' incidents can be put down to pilot error."

From reading all that I can find on the topic it appears that 'fly-aways' are not very common. Therefore I would say that it is safe to assume that most owners get a chance to become fairly familiar with the aircraft before this unnerving event hits. Certainly in my case it was quite obvious that it was not my stick input causing the problem. My first reaction was to let go of the sticks and observe the erratic flight pattern. When it happened at a dangerously low altitude my next reaction was an attempt to climb. In my 'fighting' to bring the bird home I would (with difficulty) rotate the craft to face me and attempt forward motion. In between all my attempts at effective stick inputs I was trying the 'hands off the controls and observe' approach for several seconds to no avail.

I find this next paragraph interesting because I don't really understand it but I suspect it may be getting at what I experienced.

"Bad IMU calibration can cause another problem with the user unaware of anything wrong until the Inspire pitches in a certain direction. A form of integral wind up then occurs with the craft unable to correct itself but trying harder and harder to do so. Again this type of scenario can be avoided by ensuring a good IMU calibration is done and ALWAYS checking mod values before each and every take off."

In any case since I have just performed the latest Firmware Update, IMU and stick calibrations, I will be doing a very careful compass calibration and attachment of a Trackimo before I launch tomorrow. (my last flight resulted in a loss of control and crash into the ground.)

(your post is certainly appreciated)
 
I agree with him that most fly aways are due to pilot error. a very common mistake most people make which results in erratic flight behavior(fly aways) is powering it up and then moving it before it completes its self test. do not move it while the camera gimble is spinning and its doing the self test. I recommend placing it in the location you wish to take off from and then power it on for best results. doing the imu calibration correctly on a flat level surface is very important. there is no need to calibrate compass before every flight, just make sure you do it after firmware upgrades.
 

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