Video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYqY0j9piw
Background:
My dad has a Phantom 2 Vision+ -- same as me. He had an incident a couple of weeks ago where it he was flying it in-town in his backyard and it ignored his RC controls and crashed into the ground. The camera was protected by the camera guard he bought from another user on this site. He spent the past week getting things back in order - mainly repairing a few ECS boards. I was over at his place on Friday (8/29) to video the first flight in case anything went wrong. He flew for about 15 minutes without incident. As far as we could tell, he was back in business. On Saturday, I was at my in-law's farm and invited him out to fly around - to help shake that paranoia feeling. The first flight at the farm went without incident. He flew for about 15 minutes. No troubles. No worries.
On the second flight out he flew for about 5-10 minutes. No troubles initially. I noticed that as he was taking some pictures of the setting sun, it wasn't sitting in a rock solid position like I'd expect -- especially since he had 8 satellites being reported in the DJI app and he was in GPS mode. I whipped out my camera to video things just in case he had another issue. Sure enough, it moved some more, and then went into a big circle before accelerating forward and dive bombing into the ground. All the while, he did not have his hands on the controls and had 8 reported satellites. The video of the crash cuts out since I got startled and started running to the corn field where it ultimately crashed.
Point 1: I've flow in this area numerous times with my quad without incident.
Point 2: We calibrated the compass before take-off.
Point 3: I don't see how pilot error would be involved. It should have been rock-steady in its position.
Point 4: When this happened previously, the quad ignored the RC controls completely. I have my doubts that he could have done anything to prevent this crash from happening.
He's going to contact the dealer he bought it from, but doesn't feel too confident that he'll get anywhere on that front.
Is this a warranty issue? Is the control software on the platform buggy? How do you go about troubleshooting something like this?
If it's not covered, that'll royally suck. $1300+ down the drain. This makes me super-paranoid to fly my quad now.
--tim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYqY0j9piw
Background:
My dad has a Phantom 2 Vision+ -- same as me. He had an incident a couple of weeks ago where it he was flying it in-town in his backyard and it ignored his RC controls and crashed into the ground. The camera was protected by the camera guard he bought from another user on this site. He spent the past week getting things back in order - mainly repairing a few ECS boards. I was over at his place on Friday (8/29) to video the first flight in case anything went wrong. He flew for about 15 minutes without incident. As far as we could tell, he was back in business. On Saturday, I was at my in-law's farm and invited him out to fly around - to help shake that paranoia feeling. The first flight at the farm went without incident. He flew for about 15 minutes. No troubles. No worries.
On the second flight out he flew for about 5-10 minutes. No troubles initially. I noticed that as he was taking some pictures of the setting sun, it wasn't sitting in a rock solid position like I'd expect -- especially since he had 8 satellites being reported in the DJI app and he was in GPS mode. I whipped out my camera to video things just in case he had another issue. Sure enough, it moved some more, and then went into a big circle before accelerating forward and dive bombing into the ground. All the while, he did not have his hands on the controls and had 8 reported satellites. The video of the crash cuts out since I got startled and started running to the corn field where it ultimately crashed.
Point 1: I've flow in this area numerous times with my quad without incident.
Point 2: We calibrated the compass before take-off.
Point 3: I don't see how pilot error would be involved. It should have been rock-steady in its position.
Point 4: When this happened previously, the quad ignored the RC controls completely. I have my doubts that he could have done anything to prevent this crash from happening.
He's going to contact the dealer he bought it from, but doesn't feel too confident that he'll get anywhere on that front.
Is this a warranty issue? Is the control software on the platform buggy? How do you go about troubleshooting something like this?
If it's not covered, that'll royally suck. $1300+ down the drain. This makes me super-paranoid to fly my quad now.
--tim
