- Joined
- Jan 12, 2016
- Messages
- 203
- Reaction score
- 130
- Age
- 123
Well it had to happen sooner, or later. I crashed my Phantom 3 this evening. Was taking some night video from my driveway pointed towards the house. Totally lost my freekin' mind and punched up the "Return To Home And Land" w/o remembering that I'd taken off from the yard on the south side of my house (really large area).
Up she climbed and I almost, the key word here being "almost" side slipped the Phantom 3 out away from one of the rather tall trees in my front yard. Just clipped a branch and snapped a prop. Had the DJI prop guards on but I must have punched a small branch straight down through the guard. Anyway, the prop broke, and guard broke, and here she came. I wasn't able to get under it and it hit hard from about 35' up. I did manage to kill the motors just before it struck si it wouldn't be hopping around.
Damage: The Gimbal Guard, 2 prop guards, 1 prop, my forward facing home-made strobe (which I can reinstall sans outer case thereby saving some weight) and one, of the two, home-made landing skid extensions.
The Gimbal Guard, which I bought off ebay from Nathanprinter, was made of PET, and definitely did it's job before breaking in half. The drone came straight down at just a bit off center, and dropped directly onto the edge of the brick border around the tree. The Gimbal Guard took one hell of an impact before it flex-snapped off. However, it did it's job, as did the Killer RC anti separation guard on the camera itself. When I fired everything back up, the camera came right to life. No damage to it, or the mount. The old adage "You Get What You Pay For" comes to mind. So tomorrow I butcher two more Walmart plastic coat hangers for the gear extensions, put back on two new prop guards, and modify the front strobe light after soldering on a couple of longer wires and recentering the battery pack. Oh yeah, it was 34 degrees outside. At least I didn't forget to use a warm battery.
I still cannot believe I just didn't land it on the driveway ............. WTF was I thinking? Duh !
Up she climbed and I almost, the key word here being "almost" side slipped the Phantom 3 out away from one of the rather tall trees in my front yard. Just clipped a branch and snapped a prop. Had the DJI prop guards on but I must have punched a small branch straight down through the guard. Anyway, the prop broke, and guard broke, and here she came. I wasn't able to get under it and it hit hard from about 35' up. I did manage to kill the motors just before it struck si it wouldn't be hopping around.
Damage: The Gimbal Guard, 2 prop guards, 1 prop, my forward facing home-made strobe (which I can reinstall sans outer case thereby saving some weight) and one, of the two, home-made landing skid extensions.
The Gimbal Guard, which I bought off ebay from Nathanprinter, was made of PET, and definitely did it's job before breaking in half. The drone came straight down at just a bit off center, and dropped directly onto the edge of the brick border around the tree. The Gimbal Guard took one hell of an impact before it flex-snapped off. However, it did it's job, as did the Killer RC anti separation guard on the camera itself. When I fired everything back up, the camera came right to life. No damage to it, or the mount. The old adage "You Get What You Pay For" comes to mind. So tomorrow I butcher two more Walmart plastic coat hangers for the gear extensions, put back on two new prop guards, and modify the front strobe light after soldering on a couple of longer wires and recentering the battery pack. Oh yeah, it was 34 degrees outside. At least I didn't forget to use a warm battery.
I still cannot believe I just didn't land it on the driveway ............. WTF was I thinking? Duh !
