One day you’re out and about with your drone taking some cool stills and videos to upload to your YouTube channel, when suddenly it becomes unresponsive to your commands, and it flies away. All you can do is stare in disbelief and sorrow as your expensive investment is most likely forever lost.



This is a very common occurrence for drone pilots; it can happen to any of us, from beginners to experts.

Keep your drone in line of sight

The cost of losing a drone aside, it could potentially crash and hurt someone, so it is very important that you take steps in order to prevent that from happening in the first place.



In this article, we’ll tell you what you can do to prevent your drone from flying away, and we’ll also show you some things you can do to make it easier to recover in case it does get lost.



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Why do drones fly away in the first place?



The most common causes are electromagnetic interference, caused by flying too close to power lines or cell towers; having a low battery; flying in bad weather; and flying too high or too far away.



Sometimes, and while this may be out of your control, software bugs and hardware malfunctions (such as a motor failing) can also lead you to losing your drone as well.



Many things can go wrong when flying a drone, so what can you do to ensure you have a safe flight?



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What can I do to prevent my drone from flying away?



• Do a pre-flight check



This should be a habit for any good pilot.

Your batteries should be fully charged, your remote must have a proper connection to your drone and all components must be working perfectly.



Another thing to keep in mind is to check the weather. Rain or strong winds can cause damage to your drone.

For this particular task we recommend you use the “UAV Forecast” app.



• Set a Home Point and RTH altitude



Always make sure to set your home point properly, and ensure you have a GPS lock.



Your home point is where your drone will land on if its low on batteries, loses signal or when you hit the RTH button.



If you’re on the move (like on a car or a boat), make sure to have dynamic home point setup. Not doing so could make the drone end up landing far away or on the water.



Set your Return to Home altitude high, high enough that trees or buildings are not in the way. If you set your RTH altitude too low your drone might end up crashing on something as it comes back. Even for drones with full object avoidance, its still a good idea to do this, as object avoidance may fail on very low light, or it may not detect objects like branches or glass.



• Recalibrate your compass



We humans are creatures of little patience. It’s not surprising that one of the most common mistakes committed by drone pilots is to forget calibrating the compass.



The GPS isn’t enough for the drone to properly orient itself in RTH mode, it needs the compass too.



If you know you’ll be flying in a place with high interference (like a metallic bridge for instance), make sure to have the compass of your drone properly calibrated before you attempt to fly.

For DJI drones you can do this through the DJI GO app.



• Fly within line of sight



Flying a drone out of line of sight is actually illegal in some countries.

Not doing so can mean losing contact with your drone, and possibly endangering others.



In foggy weather make sure to keep your drone close so that you don’t lose sight of it. Also try avoiding flying it too early in the morning or too late in the evening when there’s little sunlight.



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Things you can do to make recovery easier



• GPS Tracker



Trackimo helps you to find your lost drone again.

Drone trackers are a pretty popular recovery solution.



There are different kinds and they all operate in a different way:



– Bluetooth trackers are helpful when you have an idea of where your drone landed, but what to zero in on its location. They have a small range though, about 100 ft.

These are inexpensive, so they’re a good idea if you don’t wanna spend too much money, but if you’re serious about loss prevention we recommend a GPS tracker.

For this type, we recommend The Tile, which you can stick or attach to your drone.



– GPS trackers, as their name implies make use of the Global Positioning System. They’re more expensive, but also far more accurate. As long as your drone doesn’t hide itself in a cave, you should be able to pinpoint its location everywhere.

For this type, we recommend Trackimo.



If you’re flying above water, the Getterback is a great tracker to recover your drone it case it crashes on the ocean.

You will be able to recover your drone. Remember – if you bought DJI Care Refresh you only get a replacement if you are able to recover your drone out of the water.



• Stickers and labels



It’s a good idea to put a sticker on your drone with contact info, such as your email address or your phone number, that way if someone finds your drone they’ll have a way to get in touch with you.



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“Better safe than sorry” is a phrase to live by, specially for drone enthusiasts. If you take these preventive steps, you can rest assured your drone wont fly away to find a new owner that will take better care of it 😉

