Drone flyaway is something that you hear about from other drone photography enthusiasts and drone pilots. It’s one of those things that you hear a lot about, but you’re always so certain that it’s never going to happen to you.
After all, every drone pilot has some form of drone flyaway story, whether it’s a personal one, or from someone they know. But drone flyaways can happen to any drone, whether it’s from a factory defect or a mistake on your end. The best thing that we can do to avoid this from happening is by taking certain preventative measures every time you take your drone out for a flight.
When you experience drone flyaway, your drone may either crash into the nearest object or disappear, never to be seen again, resulting in a significant loss. Here are some steps that you can take to avoid drone flyaways when you’re shooting drone photography.
Set a home point
Before anything else, you want to set a home point for your drone, especially if you’re going to be going out for a shoot. Setting a home point helps guarantee that if your drone ever loses signal, it can automatically go back to the set home point, instead of flying off by itself, or crashing.
If you plan to move around a lot during a drone photography shoot, make sure that you constantly update your home point to make sure that your drone doesn’t end up getting lost somewhere.
Avoid areas that may cause signal interference
As much as possible, you want to shoot your drone photography in an open area. Not only does this help you get better shots and avoid injuring local civilians, but it also helps you avoid signal interference caused by nearby infrastructure.
However, even out in the open, make sure that you keep an eye out for anything that may still cause signal interference. For example, if you’re shooting out in the open ocean, you’ll want to avoid any large boats or lighthouses that emit some form of signal, as this may interfere with your drone’s signal, and result in drone flyaway.
Keep it in your line of sight
Keeping your drone within your line of sight when flying it is one of the drone laws in the United States. In addition to complying with local drone laws, keeping your drone within your line of sight helps guarantee that it is within signal range as well.
And more importantly, keeping it within your line of sight helps you keep an eye out if it ever does fall out of the air, and you are able to see where exactly it lands.