I landed my phantom in the water today.

[Wolffboy]

It is hard work being an old fart. Everything is harder. I was over a river taking a video of a large concrete bridge. I got some beautiful shots from every angle. I was dropping down and looking at the massive concrete arches. I was really caught up in the beauty of it all when my video went out. I was only about 200 meters away. I looked up from my iPad and my phantom was setting in the river. I think it was actually floating. I brought it up out of the water and flew it back to me. The camera just hung down not working. My dad's house was nearby. I went there and took a hair dryer to it. After that I took it home and was still shaking water out of everything. I disassembled the gimbal. I put it and the battery in a dehydrator for 7 hours. I put it all back together this evening minus props. Everything works good on my living room floor. I let it run for quite a while checking out everything. I'll do calibrations tomorrow and take it for a test flight.

Sounds suspicious - Please post video or photos you said you were shooting during the incident.

 

[Lov2shoot]

I calibrated everything. Battery cells all good and even output. I took it for a test flight in GPS mode. I let it hover in front of me and I flew figure 8's. I took it to 400 ft. up and flew it 3000 ft. away with no problem. POI worked good and so did atti mode. Everything just as before the river landing.

I have a occasional vibration that was there before. Like the phantom has a bad cold chill. I will probably make another post about that.

That's great news!!! Mine landed in some water and did not have your results...

 

[WV. Rootman]

That's great news!!! Mine landed in some water and did not have your results...

How did all the sand get into the body? It looks like it was buried.

 

[WV. Rootman]

Sounds suspicious - Please post video or photos you said you were shooting during the incident.

I know we have some nuts around. I tried to post a video of a vibration I have. I couldn't make it work. Easy for some but not for me.
If I could get a video on of my water landing, it wouldn't show anything. I was looking up at the bridge while descending and the video stopped. I just checked the flight records and I was a - 13 below take off. I could have taken pictures of me shaking water out of the battery, but I had more important things on my mind at the time.

 

[Lov2shoot]

How did all the sand get into the body? It looks like it was buried.

It was. A terrible mishap. My blessed P2 was buried for a week in a river. There had been an excess of water from high rains and so I was delayed in finding it and pulling it out. Believe it or not, my battery still lit up and my camera worked (ish).

 

[Russ43Phantom]

My P4P Pro was in the water for only 15 minutes. I let is dry out and it was as good as new in terms of its flying perforance. The gimbal and the camera were another thing. Their circuitry is denser and never recovered. DJI offered to do the repairs (for a high price) but by policy does not warrant any servce of water damage. I learned not to trust obstacle avoidance in the spring when the obstacle is thin branches without leaves.

 

[Jthomp]

.... The battery has two bars left and looks fine.

My P3S was in fresh water for about 2 minutes after it tangled with a tree branch. I pulled it out and drained the water out of the body but did not pull the battery at that time (actually I waited until the next day to do that - and by that time there was no water in the battery.). I let things dry out for a couple of weeks, then put the battery in. It showed 2 bars so I put it on the charger. Two hours later it still showed only 2 bars.

Methinks that battery is toast...

 

[SteveCobb]

It is hard work being an old fart. Everything is harder. I was over a river taking a video of a large concrete bridge. I got some beautiful shots from every angle. I was dropping down and looking at the massive concrete arches. I was really caught up in the beauty of it all when my video went out. I was only about 200 meters away. I looked up from my iPad and my phantom was setting in the river. I think it was actually floating. I brought it up out of the water and flew it back to me. The camera just hung down not working. My dad's house was nearby. I went there and took a hair dryer to it. After that I took it home and was still shaking water out of everything. I disassembled the gimbal. I put it and the battery in a dehydrator for 7 hours. I put it all back together this evening minus props. Everything works good on my living room floor. I let it run for quite a while checking out everything. I'll do calibrations tomorrow and take it for a test flight.

Good luck, I think you were lucky.
I was doing fine and have some nice video, but yesterday, at 350 feet away and 85 feet of elevation my drone simply fell from the sky: suddenly no power or signal. It dropped into 2 feet of water. When I found it the battery was out. Don't know if this happened before or after the drop but I suspect the former. Anyway, I returned it as it was still under warranty but suspect that DJI will look only at the evidence of water immersion and not address the fact that it suddenly quit flying. I hope I'm wrong, we'll see.

 

[WV. Rootman]

Good luck, I think you were lucky.
I was doing fine and have some nice video, but yesterday, at 350 feet away and 85 feet of elevation my drone simply fell from the sky: suddenly no power or signal. It dropped into 2 feet of water. When I found it the battery was out. Don't know if this happened before or after the drop but I suspect the former. Anyway, I returned it as it was still under warranty but suspect that DJI will look only at the evidence of water immersion and not address the fact that it suddenly quit flying. I hope I'm wrong, we'll see.

The batteries have a short circuit protection and turn off if there is a short. DJI will see the whole flight records and at what point of the flight it turned off.

 

[Buzz In California]

How about uploading the segment of the video of the drone sitting on top of the water, I'd like to see that

 

[WV. Rootman]

How about uploading the segment of the video of the drone sitting on top of the water, I'd like to see that

I was trying to do that at one time, but couldn't get it to work. It doesn't show it sitting in water, because I had the gimbal on 30 deg. Looking up at a large concrete arch. The next thing I knew the camera went dead. I was trying to reconnect on my iPad and then I looked up and saw it in the water. I don't know how that map thing works for downloading. It shows my flight ending when it went into the water, but I flew it back to me.

 

[Buzz In California]

I know we have some nuts around. I tried to post a video of a vibration I have. I couldn't make it work. Easy for some but not for me.
If I could get a video on of my water landing, it wouldn't show anything. I was looking up at the bridge while descending and the video stopped. I just checked the flight records and I was a - 13 below take off. I could have taken pictures of me shaking water out of the battery, but I had more important things on my mind at the time.

Wolfman, do you actually beleive that Rootman would take the time to post something untrue? You are the one I can't beleive

 

[UpLift Aerial]

How did all the sand get into the body? It looks like it was buried.

The propellers probably I'm assuming.