- Joined
- Jan 21, 2014
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 4
Well, it had to happen. With 3 and a half hours flying time on the P3P over 33,728 meters as well as even more hours on my previous Phantom P2V+ and Phantom P2 H3-2D birds, I stuffed up.
After a good flight, I hit RTH and it came back as it was supposed to. I took over control for the landing - as I almost always do, and made the fatal mistake of landing while viewing through the Pilot app on the iPad instead of visually. The P3P clipped a tree branch from about 5 meters up then fell to the ground on a gravel path. I managed to stop the motors OK.
Damage: 2 of 4 props broken, upper shell separated in several places (gaps and bends), Gimbal mount (where it screws onto the P3P bottom shell had snapped one corner off which was still attached to the gimbal. The gimbal itself was hanging loosely with the 2 sets of cables disconnected. The 8 pin cable was ripped out of the socket with the pins still attached to the ends of the 8 wires and the 6 pin plug snapped with half of it still stick in the socket.
My heart sank and hopes faded. But then I just started working on it bit by bit. I removed the remainder of the gimbal mount from the phantom base, removed the remaining rubber dampers from the gimbal, as well as the broken piece of gimbal mount. I glued the broken piece back onto the rest of the mount. I removed the retaining pins and the old dampers from the gimbal and replaced them. I then re-inserted each of the 8 wires back into the plug and pushed them in as far as I could with a small pair of tweezers. I then used the tweezers to remove the broken part of the 6 pin plug from the socket and glued it back onto the rest of the plug.
Next I removed the upper shell (slightly more difficult than the P2V+ due to retaining lugs inside the shell and different screws etc). I was able to then reposition it, make a couple of small bends and then re-attach it to the bottom shell. It is attached securely now however you can still see a couple of areas where the shell parts don't quite join together as they should.
I checked the battery and apart from needing a charge, it was fine.
I finished reconnecting and checking the gimbal and all appeared to be OK (no power on yet).
Then I did the power on, recalibrated IMU and Gimbal. Tested the motors worked OK (with the props off) and it all seemed to be working OK. So on with the props, went outside, recalibrated the compass, double checked all the data from within the app, took a deep breath and lifted off. She flew perfectly.... I was amazed but still pretty stoked at the resilience of this little craft.
Lesson learnt - always perform a visual landing
After a good flight, I hit RTH and it came back as it was supposed to. I took over control for the landing - as I almost always do, and made the fatal mistake of landing while viewing through the Pilot app on the iPad instead of visually. The P3P clipped a tree branch from about 5 meters up then fell to the ground on a gravel path. I managed to stop the motors OK.
Damage: 2 of 4 props broken, upper shell separated in several places (gaps and bends), Gimbal mount (where it screws onto the P3P bottom shell had snapped one corner off which was still attached to the gimbal. The gimbal itself was hanging loosely with the 2 sets of cables disconnected. The 8 pin cable was ripped out of the socket with the pins still attached to the ends of the 8 wires and the 6 pin plug snapped with half of it still stick in the socket.
My heart sank and hopes faded. But then I just started working on it bit by bit. I removed the remainder of the gimbal mount from the phantom base, removed the remaining rubber dampers from the gimbal, as well as the broken piece of gimbal mount. I glued the broken piece back onto the rest of the mount. I removed the retaining pins and the old dampers from the gimbal and replaced them. I then re-inserted each of the 8 wires back into the plug and pushed them in as far as I could with a small pair of tweezers. I then used the tweezers to remove the broken part of the 6 pin plug from the socket and glued it back onto the rest of the plug.
Next I removed the upper shell (slightly more difficult than the P2V+ due to retaining lugs inside the shell and different screws etc). I was able to then reposition it, make a couple of small bends and then re-attach it to the bottom shell. It is attached securely now however you can still see a couple of areas where the shell parts don't quite join together as they should.
I checked the battery and apart from needing a charge, it was fine.
I finished reconnecting and checking the gimbal and all appeared to be OK (no power on yet).
Then I did the power on, recalibrated IMU and Gimbal. Tested the motors worked OK (with the props off) and it all seemed to be working OK. So on with the props, went outside, recalibrated the compass, double checked all the data from within the app, took a deep breath and lifted off. She flew perfectly.... I was amazed but still pretty stoked at the resilience of this little craft.
Lesson learnt - always perform a visual landing
