Crashed my P3 Professional.....on the 2nd day.

[Garrie]

I crashed my P3P drone on the 2nd of ownership! And to make it worse. The drone was in a wide open space, no trees around, and grass patch under it. I didn't crash from a great height or fly into a solid object.

I was hovering it about 3-5 feet off the ground, and since my guy friends were with me, I wanted to show off its climb capability to them.

I pushed the throttle up fully, Or so I thought. Somehow I might have for whatever reason, pulled back on the controls instead of pushing it forwards. there was a loud whirl and like slow motion, I saw the drone drop downwards, hit the ground, blades catching the ground causing the drone to spin and flip over.

The arm-part of the gimbal snapped, the ribbon is still intact though. I restarted the bird and all 4 rotors were working. I could fly with the bottom half of the gimbal and camera dangling from the top half of the gimbal.

Hoewever I don't have any live feed. System status shows that I have a gimbal gyroscope error and I should consult a DJI technician.

I think I would have to get the replacement gimbal assembly. Sucks that this happened on the 2nd day, and sucks to have to break the news to my wife.

My local dealer said he has the bracket spare part coming in next week, I don't know if such an accessory exists, or if he really just means the gimbal/camera assembly is shipping in next week.

I have no experience in electronics or engineering. Any help from you guys would be appreciated.

 

[phantom3menace]

Another one bites the dust. Hope u get back up in the air soon.

 

[bighi]

Good luck. When you get back in the air, forget the treetop height crap. Fly far and high and you'll have a far lower risk of this happening again.

 

[phantom3menace]

Another piece of advice: never ever get too confident with flying your aircraft. If you do, disaster will sneak up on you when u least expect it.

 

[AYA74]

Garry, there are many threads on gimbal repair topics. I had broken my gimbal arm too once and it is repairable without having to replace the whole gimbal and camera. Only the arm can be fixed especially if the ribbon is not broken. Seek advice from your dealer. The repair cost should be than 200$. See attached the picture of my gimbal when it was broken. Good luck and cheer up. Your bird will soon be back in the sky, but next time, take your time in knowing your new favorite toy
.

 

[suck it up]

Garrie, look at this http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/dji-phantom-3-gimbal-repair-kit.48182/

 

[Mordor]

A advice from someone with only +- 10 flights:

Buy a Hubsan 109L, to practice and learn to master your mind...

It did help me a lot before get a P3... ;-)

However.....shits can happen anyone!

 

[trigon]

Another piece of advice: never ever get too confident with flying your aircraft. If you do, disaster will sneak up on you when u least expect it.

Man thats true happened to me once. I think I control the thing quite well but I was in Course Lock mode inside a building and forgot about it... I am used to work manually all the time and I was way too confident till I was facing camera backwards and wanted to avoid the wall and thought my controls are reversed because of camera facing back but thanks to course lock it wasnt reversed and I hit the wall directly

No damage on my P3P fortunatelly but still... Taught me alot!

 

[Garrie]

Garry, there are many threads on gimbal repair topics. I had broken my gimbal arm too once and it is repairable without having to replace the whole gimbal and camera. Only the arm can be fixed especially if the ribbon is not broken. Seek advice from your dealer. The repair cost should be than 200$. See attached the picture of my gimbal when it was broken. Good luck and cheer up. Your bird will soon be back in the sky, but next time, take your time in knowing your new favorite toy
.View attachment 26248

Thanks for the kind words. I see that u have the protective plate installed too, it didn't help much huh? Was supposed to buy it when I bought my drone and was kicking myself after my drone crashed and gimbal broke.

You are from Singapore too right? So if I bring it to singahobby they would be able to fix it?

I don't have live feed now though even though the camera is still connected by the ribbon. I wonder if it is off because of gimbal error or because the camera itself is damaged.

 

[phantomnoobpilot]

hi, am from singapore too.

Sorry for your loss. we all make mistakes from time to time, like how I crashed my P2 into a small tree due to my complacency, taking off without waiting for a GPS lock resulting in a replacement for the whole **** shell and a burnt out ESC.

After that incident, I always steer clear of trees whenever I fly, at least 10 meters above them.

You can alternatively buy those smaller quads and practise your flying skills indoors in your home if space allows.

By the looks of it, I think you probably need to replace the gimbal + camera together which is kinda pricey, and get Singahobby to do it for you provided they have it in stock or else your quad is just gonna sit with them for weeks with zero progress so you might wanna call them up and ask before going down.

 

[AYA74]

Thanks for the kind words. I see that u have the protective plate installed too, it didn't help much huh? Was supposed to buy it when I bought my drone and was kicking myself after my drone crashed and gimbal broke.

You are from Singapore too right? So if I bring it to singahobby they would be able to fix it?

I don't have live feed now though even though the camera is still connected by the ribbon. I wonder if it is off because of gimbal error or because the camera itself is damaged.

Hi Garrie. We spoke in another threat and I am the guy who invited you to join our UDS group in Singapore. You got some good advices already from your fellowmen and I am sure you will be able to get your gimbal fixed without changing the whole thing.

As for the gimbal protector guard, this one did not help as I hit a branch from the side...

Hope to see around flying safe in Singapore after you get your bird fixed.

 

[AYA74]

hi, am from singapore too.

Sorry for your loss. we all make mistakes from time to time, like how I crashed my P2 into a small tree due to my complacency, taking off without waiting for a GPS lock resulting in a replacement for the whole **** shell and a burnt out ESC.

After that incident, I always steer clear of trees whenever I fly, at least 10 meters above them.

You can alternatively buy those smaller quads and practise your flying skills indoors in your home if space allows.

By the looks of it, I think you probably need to replace the gimbal + camera together which is kinda pricey, and get Singahobby to do it for you provided they have it in stock or else your quad is just gonna sit with them for weeks with zero progress so you might wanna call them up and ask before going down.

Come join us on our Facebook page: Universal Drone Singapore.

 

[MattyDread]

I was flying the other day and a woman walking her dogs came up to me and said - 'is that a drone?' No I said - It's a quadcopter.

Media - Drones are BAD

Quadcopters are GOOD

Hope this helps

 

[MattyDread]

 

[dronebandit]

if only arm broken and cables are ok, I would glue it

 

[Garrie]

if only arm broken and cables are ok, I would glue it

But my camera isn't broadcasting a live feed now. So I wonder if the gimbal gyro error is stopping the camera from initializing or if the camera is actually conked out.
I read in forums of camera surviving. A 5 story drop onto pavement. My drone dropped down from about waist height onto damp grass patch.

 

[Garrie]

UPDATE:

Hi guys, i crashed my P3P yesterday, broke the gimbal and lost the ability to film or shoot. However, i've fixed it already.
I was at my local dealer earlier on to ask them to send my drone to DJI for repairs when i saw that the 4K camera gimbal component has arrived at their shop.
So i made the decision to purchase the new gimbal camera to replace my broken unit.
Right now, i'm sending my broken gimbal(with camera) to DJI instead. If they have that little support strut in the gimbal in their spares drawer the repairs won't cost a bomb and i'll be able to sell the repaired gimbal+camera to whoever wants it to keep as a spare.

Though i splashed alot of cash within these 3 days, I am really happy i've got my bird back and things have returned to 'normal'