DJI Phantom 3 Adv. flipped" after completing Litchi mission

jimlips · Jun 7, 2017

Hello, I'm a realtive newbie. I've got over 100 flights in using the DJI GO app on my Phantom Advanced. I recently bought Litchi, and loaded it on my Apple iPad, and that is what I use to control my Phantom. I've run about 25 "missions" successfully. I always create the mission at the Mission Hub - Litchi site, save it online, then download it to my iPad. Works great.

I ran the longest mission I've ever run today (11 minutes). It came off without a hitch, except at the end. It appears the aircraft actually flipped over! I've double-checked, and there are no wires/lines/trees in that I was near. The video was pretty scary. Does anyone have any idea what may have happened here? Any ideas on how to avoid this in the future? If I didn't happen to be at a good altitude (around 200 feet), I think the aircraft would have crashed into the ground. But it somehow recovered on its own. Have a look: Skip ahead to about 8:35 to see the "flip". Thanks in advance for any ideas.

tevek · Jun 7, 2017

Bird strike? Any signs of damage or 'debris' after you landed? I'm thinking that if it were a hardware malfunction/loose battery, it would have been terminal.

macoman · Jun 7, 2017

Your phantom suffered a temp seizure!

Pharm · Jun 7, 2017

That would be a mechanical/electronic issue. Purely coincidental that you were using Litchi. Flight logs?

Fifty7 · Jun 7, 2017

Wow. Did you see that video as it was happening or only after the mission and it was home safe and sound? I'd say you definitely got lucky that or had time to right itself

DJI-PSpade · Jun 7, 2017

Could it be possible that maybe you had your gimble go through a reset as it does during startup.

rene van der meer · Jun 8, 2017

jimlips said:
.... It appears the aircraft actually flipped over! I've double-checked, and there are no wires/lines/trees in that I was near. The video was pretty scary. Does anyone have any idea what may have happened here? Any ideas on how to avoid this in the future? If I didn't happen to be at a good altitude (around 200 feet), I think the aircraft would have crashed into the ground. But it somehow recovered on its own. Have a look:

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Skip ahead to about 8:35 to see the "flip". Thanks in advance for any ideas.

That IS quite scary. What did you see from the ground? Was the drone flipping?

sparky1111 · Jun 8, 2017

I was wondering if the carbon fibre attachment you've got on the bottom moved and acted like an aileron and flipped it over.

sparky1111 · Jun 8, 2017

What was the altitude before and after the stunt?

jimlips · Jun 8, 2017

Pharm said:
That would be a mechanical/electronic issue. Purely coincidental that you were using Litchi. Flight logs?

Here is a link to the log: Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

Flipped Litchi Log 2017-06-07

jimlips
Jun 8, 2017

It went from 16 satellites to 12 when that happened. But I think that may have been because it was upside down, at least according to how the camera looked.

jimlips · Jun 8, 2017

sparky1111 said:
What was the altitude before and after the stunt?

Looks like it only dropped 6 feet, according to the log. It looked like more in the video.

jimlips · Jun 8, 2017

sparky1111 said:
I was wondering if the carbon fibre attachment you've got on the bottom moved and acted like an aileron and flipped it over.

The carbon fiber gimbal protector has never been an issue before. It can't move, as it is cable-tied in place.

jimlips · Jun 8, 2017

rene van der meer said:
That IS quite scary. What did you see from the ground? Was the drone flipping?

I could not see the aircraft when this happened, as the sun was directly behind it. I never knew it even happened until I watched the video at home. I inspected the aircraft very closely, and could find no "hit" marks or feathers.

I figured it it lost the GPS, it would just fly straight to some other direction. I also inspected the props very closely. There are pristine, not a nick or dent on any of them. You would think if a bird hit them, there would be some damage. If you look at the footage frame-by-frame, it looks like two of the motors quit, as one side of the drone drops quickly and the aircraft is suddenly on its side in one frame.

jimlips · Jun 8, 2017

DJI-PSpade said:
Could it be possible that maybe you had your gimble go through a reset as it does during startup.

Maybe, but that would not explain the sky being down and the water being up in the video. The gimbal can't turn 180°, even on reset.

Bermuda Sunset · Jun 11, 2017

WOW, amazing recovery !

jimlips · Jun 27, 2017

jimlips said:
Hello, I'm a realtive newbie. I've got over 100 flights in using the DJI GO app on my Phantom Advanced. I recently bought Litchi, and loaded it on my Apple iPad, and that is what I use to control my Phantom. I've run about 25 "missions" successfully. I always create the mission at the Mission Hub - Litchi site, save it online, then download it to my iPad. Works great.

I ran the longest mission I've ever run today (11 minutes). It came off without a hitch, except at the end. It appears the aircraft actually flipped over! I've double-checked, and there are no wires/lines/trees in that I was near. The video was pretty scary. Does anyone have any idea what may have happened here? Any ideas on how to avoid this in the future? If I didn't happen to be at a good altitude (around 200 feet), I think the aircraft would have crashed into the ground. But it somehow recovered on its own. Have a look:

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Skip ahead to about 8:35 to see the "flip". Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Update: I revisited the site, and those of you that thought it was a bird strike were correct! Here is another video:

Fifty7 · Jun 27, 2017

So you went back to the same location and some bird said "I almost got him last time. This time I brought a friend to make sure I kill it"? Wow. That's some bad luck. Glad you got it back with no major damage though.

jimlips · Jun 28, 2017

Fifty7 said:
So you went back to the same location and some bird said "I almost got him last time. This time I brought a friend to make sure I kill it"? Wow. That's some bad luck. Glad you got it back with no major damage though.

At least now I know there was no problem with the aircraft. Since I never saw the birds before, there was always some doubt. New props will be delivered tomorrow, and I should be good to go! I think the reason I never get any good shots of the birds is because I am flying away from them, and they always approach from behind. Maybe next time, I should fly backwards. Then I could get some great footage of attacking hawks! NOT