Crashed P4 on maiden flight

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Hi,

Flew my new P4 today and it didn't end up too well. Beginner mode was engaged for good measure.

First flight was for about 5 minutes which went without incident. I landed the drone, disarmed the motors. I armed them once again and took off. The drone was hovering about 30 meters (100 feet) from me at an altitude of 30m (100 feet).

I was literally just engaging RTH when I saw a bird very close to it on the screen. When I looked up I saw a seagull viciously circling the drone. The bird was really close to attacking the drone.

I imagine the drone was in RTH mode at this time, as it descended very slowly. I was also close enough that it would land where it was instead of going back to the home beacon. The drone descended to and hovered at about 30 cm (10 inches) above the ground. This is where everything went haywire.

The drone lost it s***t and erratically started swaying back and forth. I frantically tried to land it without any luck. The drone then flipped over onto its top side, with the props still spinning. After 5 seconds I managed to kill the motors.

I took the drone back to the shop where I bought it. They're cleaning it and checking it for damage.

Has anyone ever seen or experienced a P4 behaving like this? Any idea what might've caused it? The drone is a refurbished P4, so not sure if this might play any role. I will be able to post the flight video if that might help..

Thanks,

JM
 
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Sound almost like the VPS was confused. Actually I keep the VPS on my P3A turned off just for that reason.
Just a thought.
 
As fly Dawg says. I was flying my phantom 4 refurbished over short grass. It was getting wobbly
as the battery was getting low, never used VPS since. I have 4.5 hours now.
 
Yeah,

I contacted the DJI online support. They said I should re-link the remote control, and re-calibrate the Vision Positioning System. No more VPS for me.

The drone is in the shop at the moment, checking if it sustained any damage. Lets hope for the best.

What is the best and quickest way to get out of the RTH mode?
 
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Here's a photo of the bird after it ate dirt. Apologies for the poor photo quality, I was a bit shaken when I took this pic.
File 2017-06-13, 9 56 49 PM.jpeg
 
Yeah,

I contacted the DJI online support. They said I should re-link the remote control, and re-calibrate the Vision Positioning System. No more VPS for me.

The drone is in the shop at the moment, checking if it sustained any damage. Lets hope for the best.

What is the best and quickest way to get out of the RTH mode?
RTH is either cancelled by hitting the RTH button on the controller again or simply cancelling it on the app. Probably quicker to use the button since your hands are already on the controller. I see you mentioned that the drone landed pretty much where it was and not return to the home point. It will do that if you are within 20 Mtrs, you mentioned 30 mtrs but it may have been closer than you think.
I leave my VPS on all the time and never manually or auto land due to an incident early in the piece similar to the one you had.
Hope you are back in the air shortly.
 
Generally refurbished crafts were originally returned dues to malfunction not necessarily entirely repaired/fixed. This can be typically hardware issue. Before flying again you should engage diagnostic process by sharing last flight log (this forum) and review craft sensors statuses plus recalibrate where needed, in particular VPS in your case. Just Google YT or DJI website has there is many instructional vids there.

VPS should be only disabled for special flight conditions such as flying over moving surfaces close to the ground per example. Otherwise it should work fine all the time except for the special confitions mention in user manual. Also make sure camera sensors and sonars are clean and unobstructed otherwise would affect performance.

Again, don't afford just flying again once you get it back if you got not confirmation from shop problem has been solved - if so what - craft exchanged under warranty or calibrated as explained above.
 
Hi,

Flew my new P4 today and it didn't end up too well. Beginner mode was engaged for good measure.

First flight was for about 5 minutes which went without incident. I landed the drone, disarmed the motors. I armed them once again and took off. The drone was hovering about 30 meters (100 feet) from me at an altitude of 30m (100 feet).

I was literally just engaging RTH when I saw a bird very close to it on the screen. When I looked up I saw a seagull viciously circling the drone. The bird was really close to attacking the drone.

I imagine the drone was in RTH mode at this time, as it descended very slowly. I was also close enough that it would land where it was instead of going back to the home beacon. The drone descended to and hovered at about 30 cm (10 inches) above the ground. This is where everything went haywire.

The drone lost it s***t and erratically started swaying back and forth. I frantically tried to land it without any luck. The drone then flipped over onto its top side, with the props still spinning. After 5 seconds I managed to kill the motors.

I took the drone back to the shop where I bought it. They're cleaning it and checking it for damage.

Has anyone ever seen or experienced a P4 behaving like this? Any idea what might've caused it? The drone is a refurbished P4, so not sure if this might play any role. I will be able to post the flight video if that might help..

Thanks,

JM
Gezz bad read any crash bad,was compass done before first flight,that can cause big driftys,and i have had many close calls with seagulls,and i fy with vps on,for me it seems a bit more stable ,hope you back in the air soon and watch the birds,wait till you bit experenced yuo be chasing them
 
Phantom crash on descent: could VRS (vortex ring state) be the cause? As I understand it, this condition occurs on vertical descent and causes the AC to become unstable.
 
Phantom crash on descent: could VRS (vortex ring state) be the cause? As I understand it, this condition occurs on vertical descent and causes the AC to become unstable.

No, descend speed is auto limited by flight controller to avoid VRS. There is little wobble in worst case but VRS doesn't kick in. This is why when we are in rush to descend we fly forward or doing circles (to avoid reduced speed).
 
Thanks for the clarification.

Find interesting video with basic quadcopter not having flight speed limiter and explaining various behaviors including VRS. It's Syma X5C, excellent for learning flying Atti mode by the way.

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There could be the reasons, but first NEVER hover that far off ground.Your sitting on the prop wash..When landing continue coming down don't try to aim for a target or perfect landing.10" to 15" hover is asking for trouble.That may not be the case, but take off and land give about 4 ft then land same going up.4 ft.Eliminate prop wash then you know for sure it's the bird.✌
 
Sad to see.Hope your flying again soon.If you have nowhere to takeoff or land except grass or dirt.Get a cheap doormat..No grass in props or dirt flying around.Probably the best $6.00 investment for my drone.
 
Along with VRS... could the VPS been trying to "follow" the blowing grass due to prop wash? or confusing the VPS?
 
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My grass is a little "shaggy" right now, if I pause over it at less than three feet My P4 wobbles, pretty sure it's the grass blowing in the propwash making the VPS sense movement, like already stated.
 
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Yeah,

I contacted the DJI online support. They said I should re-link the remote control, and re-calibrate the Vision Positioning System. No more VPS for me.

The drone is in the shop at the moment, checking if it sustained any damage. Let's hope for the best.

What is the best and quickest way to get out of the RTH mode?

Just cancel it on your iPad screen. There is a big red X on the screen. As I thought "What would I have done", I would have cancelled RTH and just hand landed it. The wollbeness right off the ground is the ground effect for lack of a better word. it's the prop wash being it hard to land.
 

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