Recently crashed

davesdrones · Jul 27, 2017

I recently lost control of my P4P and it went into a tree, luckily it was a tree with lots of leaves. It spun around and then dropped slowly and i caught it....

Battery popped out, a prop broke and the little plastic covers near the landing gear are gone on 2 legs.

I powered it up after and everything said good to go for takeoff. Any advice? Should i be worried or just thankful? I dont want to fly it if its unstable.

Thank you in advance!

Dave

martin b · Jul 27, 2017

for what it's worth, my p3p went into an oak tree, broke a carbon fiber prop, then landed 20 feet below upside down on the sand path beside my house. i looked it over,blew it off with compressed air,replaced the props and all systems were showing ok to go.that was 25 flights ago. don't want to give advice, but this was my experience with it....good luck..peace

Techcop50 · Jul 27, 2017

You might want to re-calibrate the IMU and compass, but it sounds like you dodged the bullet. Congrats!

Techcop50 · Jul 27, 2017

Check the landing legs for cracks, too. Some folks have had those appear.

martin b · Jul 27, 2017

Techcop50 said:
Check the landing legs for cracks, too. Some folks have had those appear.

hey Techcop50...can you tell me exactly what the gray wire inside the front right leg of my p3p is? it is cut, but if it's the antenna, it's still flying perfect.also,any thoughts on upgrading antenna strength if that's it. thank you for your reply...

Techcop50 · Jul 27, 2017

Sorry, you said P3P. Let me look.
It's one of the antennas, for sure. If it were the compass, you'd be screwed.
Look into the ITElite panel antennas for the remote. I've got the DBS-01 on my P3, works great, doubled the range without a bird-side mod.

Techcop50 · Jul 27, 2017

Here's a video that might expand on the leg wires:

ImFly · Jul 27, 2017

davesdrones said:
I recently lost control of my P4P and it went into a tree, luckily it was a tree with lots of leaves. It spun around and then dropped slowly and i caught it....

Battery popped out, a prop broke and the little plastic covers near the landing gear are gone on 2 legs.

I powered it up after and everything said good to go for takeoff. Any advice? Should i be worried or just thankful? I dont want to fly it if its unstable.

Thank you in advance!

Dave

Be sure to check the health of the battery if a cell is damaged it can cause intermittent flight power loss. I had a P4 and it crashed like you describe with the oak tree slowing its fall after a bird strike 395' battery popped out. It flew but it would randomly lose power and drop like a rock. On its last flight I noticed that the battery status was showing a cell that did not look like the other cells. Lets just say it had a proper burial at sea.

AirMan05446 · Jul 27, 2017

Good luck getting it back in the air. You gotta watch those trees. They look slow but when a drone comes ANYWHERE near them they pounce like a cheetah.

And yes be thankful. No one got hurt and the only property damage was to your drone. Sucks but could have been worse.