17th flight, 1st crash

[darwin-t]

I moved my battery wires and connector outside of the body because it was such a pain using my 2700 MAh battery otherwise.

Since the battery has been sitting in the battery compartment for several days, I didn't think to check the battery door.

It isn't hard to figure out what happened. The door wasn't properly latched, the battery slid out and became disconnected and the quad fell about 30 or 40 feet. It broke one of my propeller guards, which I epoxied back together.

I wish my GoPro had been recording.

 

[PortPilot]

The first day I had my Phantom out for test flights, the battery door popped open and I was lucky the aircraft was not very high up, and I was able to find the battery, and only lost two props. I have since installed prop guards and dual outboard batteries. Some sort of secondary system to secure the door or a small velcro tab on the battery and the battery slot would provide good insurance against that happening again.

As far as the difficulty with the door and a larger battery, you can get a larger size replacement door that allows you to use bigger batteries. I ordered one myself, but now that I have dual outboard batteries, I really don't need it. I currently have the door removed. I'll probably make small cuts in each side of it so I can keep the two inputs to the splitter outside the door.

Glad to hear the damage to your aircraft was not substantial. That could have been expensive!

 

[Lonewolf]

My 1st flight I did a similar thing. I was so anxious to watch the led's I forgot to secure the battery door as well and took off when the led's showed green. Before doing any real flying though, I like to do a short flight check fwd, rev, left, right, spin at 6' of so. On the spin I saw the open door and landed right away. Palms and brow all sweaty. Whew!

I found your comment of leaving the battery in the compartment unsettling. I'd rather lose a $25. battery than a $500. aircraft or a house from a defective battery cell gone wrong. After flying RC planes with battery power and knowledge of the dangers of fire from a bad cell I ALWAYS discharge or charge my batteries to the "STORAGE" settings using my charger and place them on the concrete floor in a LIPO SAFE bag.

 

[PortPilot]

I found your comment of leaving the battery in the compartment unsettling. I'd rather lose a $25. battery than a $500. aircraft or a house from a defective battery cell gone wrong. After flying RC planes with battery power and knowledge of the dangers of fire from a bad cell I ALWAYS discharge or charge my batteries to the "STORAGE" settings using my charger and place them on the concrete floor in a LIPO SAFE bag.

Same here, I have a large size battery storage sack from Venom and I always keep all the batteries in it when not using the Phantom or while charging. I also keep the little lipo batteries from my Husban copter in there as well.