The DJI AVATA Does NOT Crash Itself! - EXPLAINED 

Really well presented analysis. Thank you!!! So many other pilots and content producers have focused on the drama of the product with this issue. You broke it down and explained it. Solid work!!

Vortex ring state. It happens with other drones as well. All my ducted quadcopters will do it. Ask any Tiny Whoop pilot and they'll tell you about vortex ring state. The only way to avoid it is to stay out of the dirty air ... i.e. don't do a quick yaw turn like you demonstrated.

its so sad that all the "drama videos" from other content creators got ten thousands or even hundred thousands of views, but this one only got a few thousand. Although this one has been the very best so far regarding this topic.

Great video. But I’m skeptical of the drag explanation and here’s why. First, if you look at your slo-mo sequences, your Avata dips in the direction away from your direction of flight. You are yawing to the left, and as the right side of the drone comes around to face away from the direction of flight, the right side dips. And drag would be acting on the whole drone, the upper part as well as the lower part, not just the prop guards. In fact the battery probably has a bigger cross-section and may be creating more drag (in a yaw) than the prop guards. Your car analogy is an apples-and-oranges comparison because the friction from the road is only acting on the tires, not the whole car. I think vortex ring state is the more likely cause. Regardless, you did a great job demonstrating the maneuver that induces the tumble so people can figure out how to avoid it.

Great information! Thanks for doing this video and showing how the Avata might be limited. Still appears to be pretty solid and very stable.

Great, thanks for putting the effort and taking the risk.

Best explanation I’ve seen so far

Finally someone who replicated it too and made also a video 🎉 when I got this issue the first time, then I replicated it many times to learn how to avoid it as you showed there, right after I sent it back to dji to get explainations, they sent it back to me telling that they replaced an antenna because it was broken and the fun fact is that the drone did not fall to the ground, and for the fact that it flips down when doing this turns they replied that they knew about this issue and to avoid that I should have turn slow... Anyway when I got it back to replicate the issue, what I noticed is that probably there is something happening in the FC in that moment when it flips, and when you give throttle back to recover it, seems like that the drone stabilize itself after a second, giving back to you the control of the drone. So, I think that it happens in that moment only and in different ways because maybe the FC processes bad informations, infact after many reports, dji added a system to put the drone in normal mode for this specific issue, and if it flips like that and falls for 5 meters it switches in Normal mode like when you press the emergency button, I don't remember if you say that in the video. Anyway, well done with the tests, if you go out again trying it out, please take into account what I just said.

Very VERY well explained, thank you! Do you by any chance know if they've fixed it after one whole year?

Like you say 'many videos about the DJI Avata crashing itself' but up until now there really hasn't been much in terms of sensible explanations just rants about the company. While we don't know whats going on here your explanation makes so much sense and the reasoning is very well explained. Thanks for this information, I have chosen to go with your explanation until DJI come up with a definitive answer, I tend to agree with you that it does not crash itself. Thanks

I agree with your findings and aviod this by always using roll along with yaw to varying degrees

Very best explaination on internet ! I just had my first flight in Manual mode today, after days in simulator, and this is an issue I bumped into very early on... 🙁 Apparently I took the habit of turning pretty aggressively, because pretty much all my turns end up in this tumble. But in my case, the drone correct itself and goes back to Normal mode :/ I contacted DJI about it, and they said it's because I am in a regulated area, and recommanded me to try it out in a non regulated area. My house is located at the crossing of 5 airports grey zones... It is regulated but still allow for the maximum flight altitude in Switzerland of 120m. There is nearly no non-regulated area in Switzerland :/ I'll train again and again but that's a real down from simulator to real life 😅 However, I understand the Avata is limited and offers, in the other hand, a very safe and sturdy first FPV experience. But I am a profesional filmmaker and getting in FPV is more than a hobby for me, it's a training to add a new skill for my profesionnal skill set. Honestly, I was hopping a little better from the Avata...

That’s a funny Avata quirk and nicely demonstrated and well explained ✅

If I moved it’s center of mass down do you think it could reduce the risk?

hi, did they fixed that issue with a firmware or it still exists?

Good video and just subscribed.

Hey Luke thanks for your video is very helpfull. I think we can make a fix with the stock motor by giving some inclination on the motors to give more authority on the yaw axis, we will loose some power on level flight but we will gain a lot of authority on the yaw and maybe solve the avata "flip of death" (on some drones of DJI I have seen this solution)

best explanation

I agree with you 100% but have something else to throw in. If you'll notice most of the video's where this becomes "fatal" it's at the end of the flight when the battery is low and prone to sag. I believe if DJI would increase the VBAT compensation a little it would help. Probably not cure it 100% but it would help. I also bet in a year or two DJI makes a V2 Avata with a slightly wider frame.

Very interesting thx

Well explained

What was your camera angle at? Interested to know if a certain angle is more likely to tip.

ok I have a question and hopefully it's not a "dumb" question. I'm completely new to fpv so I apologize beforehand if it is. I just bought the Dji Avata on January 9th and on the 24th tried to do a power loops and while I was turning the drone decided to do a nose dive and it just crashed itself. I don't believe it was pilot error. I have practiced several hours on a sim. Can someone please tell me how to look at the flight logs from the Avata. I already connected the goggles 2 to my cell and updated the flight log on the DJI Fly app and I can see the flight but I have seen other videos where you can see the stick inputs on screen. How did they do that? So I can verify whether it was truly pilot error or if the Avata just decided to take a nose dive on its own. Any feedback would greatly be appreciated. Thanks. I uploaded the video of that crash on RU-vid maybe someone with more experience can tell can tell just by looking at the crash. So now I'm considering buying a "real fpv" but I just have one final question. Do I still have to worry about built fpv's crashing on their own like the avata or the only way to crash them is basically pilot error? Hope my question makes sense. Awesome video.

good morning nice, the issue you say, with me it was solved with Axis C157 motors replaced, what do you think of it, it was okay

How do you explain that the same force works DJI FPV and it does not have the same problem as AVATA ?

It would be fantastic if you can put some weight around 150grams under the drone and try the same flight again. Because in the case you say, if there will be a go pro cameroa on top of it, it will make the same tumble even in slow speeds because the center of gravity will go more up then the propellers .

I just got one of these, i plan on getting the controller for it, i'll only be doing barrel rolls and flips. Should i be concerned? Or are flips and rolls safe?

I sympathize with your opinion very much. I'm analyzing the YAW TURN problem and making videos. We came to a similar conclusion. But dji is calling it a pilot failure.😪😔

I crashed mine yesterday after doing a not for quick turn! Hit the deck just like yours did

Thanks for the crash explanation... Good idea on high altitude training with pause button. WG7D

I'm a total newb, but I feel like the PID should be helping correct this issue better as the error between user input and accelerometer will be huge in this case where/while this is happening, but maybe the quad is too low to the ground to help correct in time.

Good theory, you can test this theory by adding a 200G weight on the bottom and fly it and test, the COG is a lot lower then. Perhaps it will still happen but at a higher speed.

Makes sense to me.

Does dji already corrected this issue?

I saw a RU-vid video that the owner controlled his drone with the DJI motion controller and this fatal crash happened also. So, it's not a Manual Mode problem in my opinion. I hope it's really a bug and DJI will find how to fix it, if it's a gravity problem, I am very dissapointed

Good video and summary. ITS A CINEWHOOP! Not a freestyle 😂

Mine does the same even in normal mode with the motion controller. This is not limited to Manual mode only

Looks like flying in coordinated flight, mix of roll and yaw for turns would prevent this. Manual mode means yuou are in charge of how it flies.

Betaflight has airmode.... this retains your last stick position whilst on acro/manual mode. i guess dji also has something similar. But not as responsive.

I typically fly for 20 min each day and this happens to me every other day or every 2 days. The avata is tuff so I don’t worry about horrible damage as the frame is easy to replace but this bug needs to be resolved as this happening above trees can result in a drone up in a tree or on a roof. I fly like I won’t fly tomorrow

Get a smart glass so you can use two hands 🙌

What really happens is the opposite to what you think. The battery will disturb the airflow to the props on the left side.. if you turn left... The flight controller will increase the power to the left side motors by increasing the I-term. There should be a proper way of stopping the I-term from growing too much but DJI hasn't addressed this. As a result the I-term will grow too high and it will take some time to get the I-term back down once the air flow is restored. During the time until the I-term is getting back down it causes the motors on the left side spin too fast and the Avata is flipping upsidedown.

It happened to me as I was flying back home. When the battery is lower (even 35%) it happens way more and easily than during your tests with >60% battery. This drone is flawed and DO crash itself. DJI doesn't acknowledge the problem and pretends it is a user error. We spend so much money for a drone that is going to fall in the water or get stuck in a tree because it turned...

I think it's a fatal flaw. Flew way smoother than you do here, doing a left turn when it suddenly crashed in the same way. I don't dare to fly it close to cars or anything else that can be damaged anymore. The risk is just too high. I still feel very confident with the old FPV though.

The battery is above the props, the fpv isnt. So it basically the drone tops over and flies to the side

I did a fairly normal turn in sports mode and it completely spun out of control. I wasn't even going full speed.

Newb here..I didn’t buy my avata for freestyle flying, I brought it to shoot footage, the most I’m doing is flips & flying threw my house.

Is this still a problem? Wanting to buy one but this is putting me off

You don't explain how you save it.

In your experience this only happend in manual mode during moderate to heavy yaw input ?

Uhhh but the motor usually cuts out when it happens. What you are doing is not recreating the error

I might accept your theory of drag and center of gravity (the car analogy) if you could repeat the results making right turns, but to date, I’ve only seen videos of this issue making left turns. I do agree that many crashes are just due to the element of surprise and inexperienced pilots coupled with flying low to the ground.

Avata V01.01.0200 Can M code?

crash + too noisy AVATA isnt good deal .. I waiting the next one

Well then they shouldn’t advertise it and pay influencers to promote these vastly extreme filming going through intense terrain. This IS NOT a pilot error at the price point it should then limit your yaw speed. There’s many issues with this thing coming from An experienced dji fan. And also fpv in general. I’ve taken the o3 unit apart and many times specially then avatas unit. I’m sorry but this drone has poor thermal paste. It’s top heavy as you mentioned. And for you to say that’s how it is sometimes? After many many people with experienced flight times in many scenarios. We are talking airspace not cars. You really want to recommend to fly way up in the sky and just test to see if it fails ? Lol I’m sorry dude but you shouldn’t release a product that can just randomly fly off or crash in and potentially harm someone or an animal. It’s meant for cinematography with the choice of a faulted manual system. Should have never been released until it was safe. Dji is money hungry they get to recycle and resell and bank off your hard earned money. This drone is literally a complete scam. Take it or leave it but the avata was their attempt at bringing BEGINNERS into the platform. With a joystick ? lol sorry man thanks for your input but this is just completely biased from you or you’re getting paid to say it’s pilot error lmao. 24 satellites and it can’t catch itself or even fly back home properly snd land where it took off. This is a beta at best.

Its a GPS issue, it goes nuts when it loses signal.

your analyse is wrong its a soft 180° error upsidedown problem gyro after quick yaw incomprehensible that DJI has not noticed and not yet corrected with update modify rate is good solution

I ask because I just bought one.

only at high-spped, dude.

This drone is trash. Dont buy this mess . DJI has done so bad. And they do nothing to solve it. Why?

When you invert the drone the motors turn themselves off. Simple.

I've seen a bunch of the crashes tumble inward too. Such as this guy watch?v=Neb0wYiTc_Y Your explanation doesn't explains tumbles outward, not inward.