Phantom 3 S falls out of the sky at 300 feet

[Andreas Pashiardis]

Today I took my phantom 3 standard for what was its final flight. I have around 150-200 flights recorded with this drone as I have had it for over a year. I did my usual pre flight procedure and I put it in the air for a few seconds to make sure the props were on good as usual. Once I was sure it was good to go I flew it out about 1500 feet and I was about 300 feet up and traveling about 35 mph. Now the drone was in the air for over a minute with absolutely no issues. Then out of the blue I see it falling out of the sky on my monitor. Then it says disconnected with no signal. I go to look for it and after a while I find it and it's a awful sight. I looked at the flight records and it shows that it hit the ground at close to 60 mph and it landed on hard packed and cold dirt. It is in pieces and there were parts scattered everywhere. One propeller was missing and I'm guessing this was the culprit. I have no idea how it would fly off mid flight though when considering the fact that they are self tightening. Has this ever happened before? And will DJI send me a new drone as this was not pilot error??


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[alokbhargava]

Sorry for your loss. If one of the props gets disengaged in the middle of a flight, P3 will definitely loose control and will fall flat on the ground. There could be many reasons for it's flying off but it would be difficult for you to prove that it was not your fault.

Think positive, you enjoyed its nlife, now to move ahead and buy an advanced drone.


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[Andreas Pashiardis]

Yeah I was planning on buying a new drone anyways but I liked having my first one with me. Guess there is nothing I can do now. I'll see what DJI can do for me


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[Meta4]

Then out of the blue I see it falling out of the sky on my monitor. Then it says disconnected with no signal. I go to look for it and after a while I find it and it's a awful sight. I looked at the flight records and it shows that it hit the ground at close to 60 mph and it landed on hard packed and cold dirt.

Go to https://www.phantomhelp.com/LogViewer/Upload/
Follow the instructions to upload your flight record.
Come back and post a link and folks may be able to see clues to what happened.

I have around 150-200 flights recorded with this drone as I have had it for over a year. .....
And will DJI send me a new drone as this was not pilot error??

If you've had it over a year, it will be out of warranty so the answer is probably going to be no.
But it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[Backwoody]

Same thing happened to me last summer, except my P3S was only 50 feet up. Prop came down first, the drone tumbled end over end to the ground. I was a bit luckier...repair was possible. Since then, I double check props! Good luck with yours...

 

[msinger]

I did my usual pre flight procedure

Did that involve unscrewing all of the props and checking them for damage and/or excessive wear? If not, that could have been the fatal flaw. The props do not lock on, so they can fly off mid-flight when damaged.

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

here is a link to the flight record.

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
here is a link to the flight

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

no i dont really check them that much but i have never encountered this issue before and i have never heard of it ever happening before with the phantom 3 line

 

[rocketflyer]

unscrewing and attaching the props (assuming you've been using the same props all this time) that many times can result in worn threads and potentially have them come undone mid flight.

 

[Meta4]

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
here is a link to the flight

Sorry but Healthydrones is next to useless investigating incidents.
It only shows a brief summary with no detail.
What little we can see makes the battery look like a likely suspect with voltage around 13.5V early in the flight.
Follow the instructions in post #4 above if you want to see what happened.

 

[Alex Baxter]

Is it possible that the prop flew off when you reached the altitude and backed off the left stick? If the prop is loose, this is when I think it'll fly off, as the motor decelerates and the propeller inertia spins it off the threads. Moot point though, sorry for your loss..

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
okay here you go. let me know what you can find.

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

Is it possible that the prop flew off when you reached the altitude and backed off the left stick? If the prop is loose, this is when I think it'll fly off, as the motor decelerates and the propeller inertia spins it off the threads. Moot point though, sorry for your loss..

i dont know i was going in a straight line. i think the propeller failed for some reason.

 

[QuadcopterCrazy]

i dont know i was going in a straight line. i think the propeller failed for some reason.

Since the props have plastic threads I think after so many flights they should IMO be replaced with no ones.

 

[PaulSouthport]

Cold battery warning early in the flight, followed by a sudden drop in battery voltage, then a drop in power to save the battery.
It looks like the final kicker was the compass error just before the drop


Looking at the KML the drop happened straight around the compass error/atti switch
At that distance LOS flight is real difficult (unless you have super vision)

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

Cold battery warning early in the flight, followed by a sudden drop in battery voltage, then a drop in power to save the battery.
It looks like the final kicker was the compass error just before the drop


Looking at the KML the drop happened straight around the compass error/atti switch
At that distance LOS flight is real difficult (unless you have super vision)

The compass error happened the second it dropped. The reason it fell was because a propeller came off. When I found it it only had one prop on it and it was no where In sight.

 

[JeyTea]

Silipitiria patrioti..

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[Gearbox]

You were clipping around up there pretty fast , if you slowed in a hurry & the Prop (S ) threads were not up to it , the breaking action from the Motor (s) could have loosened it as has been said .
I think thats what happened to me , I was WOT & slowed very quickly & I watched the Prop fly off & the Drone fall . Mine was 3 months old & DJI came up with three or four reasons ( excuses ) not to pay for the fix under Warranty , I had to pay for a new Gimbal assembly.
I check the Props every flight & I still lost a fairly new one . I don't take them off unless I need to & still check them just walking by my Drone & I don't slow too quickly , even if it had nothing to do with loosing a Prop .

 

[Andreas Pashiardis]

You were clipping around up there pretty fast , if you slowed in a hurry & the Prop (S ) threads were not up to it , the breaking action from the Motor (s) could have loosened it as has been said .
I think thats what happened to me , I was WOT & slowed very quickly & I watched the Prop fly off & the Drone fall . Mine was 3 months old & DJI came up with three or four reasons ( excuses ) not to pay for the fix under Warranty , I had to pay for a new Gimbal assembly.
I check the Props every flight & I still lost a fairly new one . I don't take them off unless I need to & still check them just walking by my Drone & I don't slow too quickly , even if it had nothing to do with loosing a Prop .

Wow so you think they won't give me a replacement even though it was not my fault? I was going in a straight line I did not brake or change direction. I mean my drone is trashed. Everything is broken. The body is shattered, the motors are shot, the camera assemble came off completely, the mourning bracket for the camera shattered, the battery exploded. I mean the thing it totaled.