Good day to all.
I've had my P4 (original) since mid 2017. However, I still consider myself to be a beginner - just not enough time flying. Because I'm a beginner, I'm uber careful about everything. Aircraft condition, props, batteries. I'm in Canada and have my TC Basic pilot license and have passed the Advanced exam. But I need to get many more hours flying before I go for my Advanced Certificate flight review.
Yesterday (2020 Jan 25) was a beautiful day in Edmonton - clear blue sky, no clouds, nice sunny day with temperature of about + 4 Celsius. I haven't flown since fall last year, so was just doodling around in the parking lot near my shop. Go up to about 100 feet, go North for a couple of thousand feet, doodle around, so some rooftop inspection, come back. Simple, easy stuff.
Flew about 19 minutes on the first battery and came back when the app said I was down to about 28% battery life remaining. Installed the 2nd battery and had the P4 in a stable hover above the takeoff location. Went into the app to see where to set the home point and was on the General Settings page when I heard the drone stop. I looked up in time to see it tumble from the sky and followed it all the way until it hit the ground right near the takeoff point. The drone is pretty smashed up - one motor mount is fractured and bent and the camera snapped completely off. The battery was lying a foot or so away from the drone and was still ON and showing 4 bars.
My first thought was that somehow the battery wasn't seated properly in the P4. However, I always use both hands / two thumbs to ensure the battery is completely latched into the drone body. Do note the drone was in a stable hover at the time - my attention was on the tablet running the app. My hands were not anywhere near the control sticks on the flight controller.
A physical inspection of the drone shows that the plastic where the battery upper latch snaps in is undamaged but the plastic where the lower latch snaps in is broken. My assumption at this time is the plastic broke when the battery came out of the drone upon impacting the ground.
I've had a quick look at the text log from the flight but I'm a rank amateur at this. I'm hoping that someone with some experience can help me figure out what went wrong so I don't have a similar incident in the future.
I'm attaching several files to this message. Note the most recent files with timestamp 4:38 are the flight that crashed.
I'm not sure what tags I should associate with this post. Perhaps some kind soul can update the tags for me and I'll know better for my subsequent posts.
Other notes: 2nd battery was at room temperature when it was installed in the drone. I was flying in front of my shop, so everything not currently in use was inside the shop where it is nice and warm.
Many thanks!
dwayne
I've had my P4 (original) since mid 2017. However, I still consider myself to be a beginner - just not enough time flying. Because I'm a beginner, I'm uber careful about everything. Aircraft condition, props, batteries. I'm in Canada and have my TC Basic pilot license and have passed the Advanced exam. But I need to get many more hours flying before I go for my Advanced Certificate flight review.
Yesterday (2020 Jan 25) was a beautiful day in Edmonton - clear blue sky, no clouds, nice sunny day with temperature of about + 4 Celsius. I haven't flown since fall last year, so was just doodling around in the parking lot near my shop. Go up to about 100 feet, go North for a couple of thousand feet, doodle around, so some rooftop inspection, come back. Simple, easy stuff.
Flew about 19 minutes on the first battery and came back when the app said I was down to about 28% battery life remaining. Installed the 2nd battery and had the P4 in a stable hover above the takeoff location. Went into the app to see where to set the home point and was on the General Settings page when I heard the drone stop. I looked up in time to see it tumble from the sky and followed it all the way until it hit the ground right near the takeoff point. The drone is pretty smashed up - one motor mount is fractured and bent and the camera snapped completely off. The battery was lying a foot or so away from the drone and was still ON and showing 4 bars.
My first thought was that somehow the battery wasn't seated properly in the P4. However, I always use both hands / two thumbs to ensure the battery is completely latched into the drone body. Do note the drone was in a stable hover at the time - my attention was on the tablet running the app. My hands were not anywhere near the control sticks on the flight controller.
A physical inspection of the drone shows that the plastic where the battery upper latch snaps in is undamaged but the plastic where the lower latch snaps in is broken. My assumption at this time is the plastic broke when the battery came out of the drone upon impacting the ground.
I've had a quick look at the text log from the flight but I'm a rank amateur at this. I'm hoping that someone with some experience can help me figure out what went wrong so I don't have a similar incident in the future.
I'm attaching several files to this message. Note the most recent files with timestamp 4:38 are the flight that crashed.
I'm not sure what tags I should associate with this post. Perhaps some kind soul can update the tags for me and I'll know better for my subsequent posts.
Other notes: 2nd battery was at room temperature when it was installed in the drone. I was flying in front of my shop, so everything not currently in use was inside the shop where it is nice and warm.
Many thanks!
dwayne
