3DR Solo Flyaway

Classik-XI · Dec 13, 2015

Has any body experienced a SOLO fly away?
If so, in what;
1) Flight mode
2) Environment
3) Situation did it occur

I am about to try flying in Manual mode, and from what I have read the warranty doesn't cover fly aways in any other mode than the standard GPS mode.

jesse pena · Dec 13, 2015

i have experienced a fly away not to long ago.
i was in standard fly mode, i had brought solo home, as it was hovering i decided to pause solo so i can get a shot i wanted. as i paused, it paused for half a second and decided it was going to take off by itself, luckily it just hit a tree and fell down.there were quite a bit of trees around, so it happened to be a gps issue.only damage i had was one of my legs cracked, and all 4 props were destroyed. nothing else was damaged luckily. i sent my logs in to 3dr immediately and they are sending me some leg replacements as well as props.

Marich · Dec 13, 2015

Sound like a auto return-home attempt.
You know, I'm not sure, but I think that Solo does return home even if in manual on low battery or signal loss as long as gps lock was there at takeoff.

jesse pena · Dec 13, 2015

Marich said:
Sound like a auto return-home attempt.
You know, I'm not sure, but I think that Solo does return home even if in manual on low battery or signal loss as long as gps lock was there at takeoff.

i think you are right. i believe there is a gps bug that they are trying to fix. ive read on other forums that they are working on improving that, and the next update should fix the gps issue..

erikgraham · Dec 13, 2015

Classik-XI said:
Has any body experienced a SOLO fly away?
If so, in what;
1) Flight mode
2) Environment
3) Situation did it occur

I am about to try flying in Manual mode, and from what I have read the warranty doesn't cover fly aways in any other mode than the standard GPS mode.

Well, I wouldn't call them fly aways, but I've had my Solo get carried away on the wind in Fly:Manual more than once. If I'm having trouble compensating for the wind, I just flick it back to GPS by pressing the Fly button on the controller.

As a general rule, UP is safe. Down is bad. It's kind of opposite to our natural human reactions. But when in trouble, if you give it full throttle to go up above the trees you can avoid a lot of crashes - and your Solo will have a better view of the sky to get GPS lock back.

pyrate · Dec 13, 2015

not a flyaway if it was trying to return home.
not sure one has ever been logged

Matt Chevalier · Dec 14, 2015

Yes I have. Every time I switch to acro mode, when I switch back to fly manual, fly, pause, or RTH, it always recovers from he acro mode and goes back into gps mode, and then it always shoots off on its own until it looses controller signal, in which it then does a proper RTH on it's own.

Ian [P13] · Dec 14, 2015

Classik-XI said:
I am about to try flying in Manual mode, and from what I have read the warranty doesn't cover fly aways in any other mode than the standard GPS mode.

That's not entirely true.

Obviously if you're in a non-GPS mode and simply crash that's your fault, but again if there's a code problem that say for example causes the Solo to simply fall out of the sky in Fly:Manual then 3DR would still cover it.

Fly:Manual in the Solo is altitude hold, so it'll still use GPS for RTL if GPS is available, so it's not fully manual.

Classik-XI · Dec 14, 2015

Ok

Ian [P13] said:
That's not entirely true.

Obviously if you're in a non-GPS mode and simply crash that's your fault, but again if there's a code problem that say for example causes the Solo to simply fall out of the sky in Fly:Manual then 3DR would still cover it.

Fly:Manual in the Solo is altitude hold, so it'll still use GPS for RTL if GPS is available, so it's not fully manual.

A friend of mine had a DJI Phantom and it flew away and since then I have been so over cautious. My main concern was to ensure if i changed the mode and it some how managed to fly away with me telling it to, that it would be covered.

Marich · Dec 14, 2015

Matt Chevalier said:
Yes I have. Every time I switch to acro mode, when I switch back to fly manual, fly, pause, or RTH, it always recovers from he acro mode and goes back into gps mode, and then it always shoots off on its own until it looses controller signal, in which it then does a proper RTH on it's own.

That, right there, is quite possible the most reassuring-sounding post I've ever seen for a newbie-type flyer.
You're flying in acro, switch to fly, Solo makes a beeline for parts unknown - but comes home anyway!
Good deal.

Vegasrobbi · Dec 14, 2015

Do NOT fly Solo in the ACRO mode until you know Solo inside out and have lots of stick time. The ACRO mode does not have self leveling or altitude hold. Master the manual mode then Sport mode before considering ACRO. When trying out ACRO get lots of altitude and keep your finger near the FLY or manual button(button A for me). Basically without experience if you enter the ACRO mode your Solo is an impact waiting to happen. Once you figure out ACRO you can do this

J R · Dec 14, 2015

Vegasrobbi said:
Once you figure out ACRO you can do this

Now that's some serious skill!!! Mad skill!!!

Jerry

FlyAwaySolo · Dec 15, 2015

erikgraham said:
to

Classik-XI said:
Has any body experienced a SOLO fly away?
If so, in what;
1) Flight mode
2) Environment
3) Situation did it occur

I am about to try flying in Manual mode, and from what I have read the warranty doesn't cover fly aways in any other mode than the standard GPS mode.

I experienced a flyaway. When an obstruction caused SOLO to lose signal. 3Dr says they don't replace a flyaway because my neighborhood is a bad area. Due to power lines. If the solo did what it was suoposed to do it would fly home at 150'feet but it did not each it's proper return home altitude and they are saying because of user error it did not reach its Retuen to Home Altitute they are a bunch of Liars. Do Not Buy Solo

Matt Chevalier · Dec 15, 2015

Vegasrobbi said:
Do NOT fly Solo in the ACRO mode until you know Solo inside out and have lots of stick time. The ACRO mode does not have self leveling or altitude hold. Master the manual mode then Sport mode before considering ACRO. When trying out ACRO get lots of altitude and keep your finger near the FLY or manual button(button A for me). Basically without experience if you enter the ACRO mode your Solo is an impact waiting to happen. Once you figure out ACRO you can do this

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This doesn't speak to the fly away associated with acro. I fly acro at 400ft. when i switch from acro to fly is when the flyaway takes place.

Vegasrobbi · Dec 15, 2015

Matt Chevalier said:
This doesn't speak to the fly away associated with acro. I fly acro at 400ft. when i switch from acro to fly is when the flyaway takes place.

Right, I don't have an answer for that. I use to fly in ACRO a lot but not anymore with the gimbal attached. I would lose GPS and satellites when in ACRO due to being inverted, so I would switch to manual coming out of ACRO then normally land in manual. If I wanted to switch to FLY I would first switch to manual and give it a minute to reacquire satellites, then switch to FLY.

Jubalr · Dec 15, 2015

Matt Chevalier said:
This doesn't speak to the fly away associated with acro. I fly acro at 400ft. when i switch from acro to fly is when the flyaway takes place.

Acro at 400'? Your eyes are better than mine!

Matt Chevalier · Dec 18, 2015

Vegasrobbi said:
Right, I don't have an answer for that. I use to fly in ACRO a lot but not anymore with the gimbal attached. I would lose GPS and satellites when in ACRO due to being inverted, so I would switch to manual coming out of ACRO then normally land in manual. If I wanted to switch to FLY I would first switch to manual and give it a minute to reacquire satellites, then switch to FLY.

You may have just solved my problem. I too have not done ACRO since installing the Gimbal, and at the time I would just hit FLY or Pause. Loosing GPS from being inverted makes a lot of sense, and then since I wasn't switching to Manual, and just hitting FLY, RTH, and Pause, that could have been the culprit for the fly aways. I will have to give it a shot tonight and post back.

Thank you

Matt Chevalier · Dec 18, 2015

Jubalr said:
Acro at 400'? Your eyes are better than mine!

I would just get up really high because I the rolls would be so big and I could never recover without switching to FLY mode, so i wanted to make sure I had plenty of room to screw up. LMAO, Ive never seen an object fall from the sky faster then SOLO going limp lol. I was pounding that fly button and praying to God "Recover, Recover, Recover" lol I would sweat bullets, it was pretty funny.

Dirby · Dec 18, 2015

erikgraham said:
Well, I wouldn't call them fly aways, but I've had my Solo get carried away on the wind in Fly:Manual more than once. If I'm having trouble compensating for the wind, I just flick it back to GPS by pressing the Fly button on the controller.

As a general rule, UP is safe. Down is bad. It's kind of opposite to our natural human reactions. But when in trouble, if you give it full throttle to go up above the trees you can avoid a lot of crashes - and your Solo will have a better view of the sky to get GPS lock back.

Don't fly near trees.
fly in laghe open areas.