Crashing phantoms Videos

[NUPNAG]

just seen a video of a friend of mine made of his phantom this is his 2nd one the first went off by itself and never came back and now this happened to him, he thinks its the programming, be-cos after taking off he lost all capable control just after 1 minute and the rest is all the phantom flying...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLUN7dhzQ8

 

[toolman2a]

i think people need to read the manuel, it says fly in open area not around buildings or high winds, too much interference from other radio signals in urban area,, he needs to spend the two to six thousand dollers for a pro octo or hexicopter, he also looks like he is flying out of range of the transmitter,, phantoms are designed for recreation not pro photograhy work.

 

[Sac D]

After watching the whole video, it looks like the Phantom was either out of control most of the time, or being pushed to its limits. A lot of sudden and violent moves throughout, a couple of times it looked like it was going to flip in midair. It's hard to tell which are intentional and which are a result of other factors like wind or "software".

In any case, if I was observing my Phantom flying like that, either by LOS or FPV, after a minute or two my goal would be to get it back safely on the ground, not flying it all over town for another 10 minutes.

It's fortunate that it happened to slam into the roof of that building, it could have just as easily come down that hard on a car's windshield, a person walking on the street, or any number of unintended objects.

In a word, your friend is reckless.

 

[MRSpyder2U]

It sounded like the motors were beginning to spin down at ~8:30. By ~9:00 I'm pretty sure it was attempting to auto-land. Sorry to say, but what happened to the Phantom was your friend. IMMHO.
Now that the opening of this thread has been edited to give additional information (i.e. his friend lost control after a minute) I withdraw my judgement. It looks like from the environment he's flying in that there could be interference from anywhere and everywhere.

 

[Mark P]

Ummm, he did nothing DJI themselves don't promote on their facebook page. So was the open field he was supposed to fly in exactly like DJIs open field at 50 seconds on their NAB video https://vimeo.com/63762814 I doubt I consider the Las Vegas strip an open field. This video promotes flying around on the Las Vegas strip plain and simple.

What does the DJI website and instructions say ..........300 meters range and since they ship zero instructions with their product and all you get is some wiki page, where does it say to avoid certain types of movements or speeds? Everybody who's anybody knows you don't sell things to people that can't be flown further than the naked eye can see, infact when I bought mine from the distributer I specifically asked what the range was and he replied verbatim " It's 2.4 Ghz you can fly it further than you can see it" and after 42 years of flying RC, this was logical and if it wasn't, the product needs to be stripped from the shelves immediately. When I see the flying in this video, I see an experienced RC pilot at the sticks or that thing would have been gone at least 3 times by anyone without experience in RC flying. Would I fly this thing over a city 700' in the air....3 days ago I would have said without a doubt, if it has a true 2.4 GHz tx/rx why not. After watching mine go into "I'll go where ever I want at full throttle whenever I want" 2 nights ago, I'm not sure the things even safe even where I live where my closest neighbor is 3/4 miles away. This guy that was flying did nothing the DJI promotional videos aren't doing on their facebook page.

In all fairness SacD I watched a video of yours where someone could have been killed, was this your fault or DJI's fault. I would like to think the latter but after witnessing $1100.00 just doing what ever it felt like doing and flying off, I'm saying tell me how many car companies get away with selling thousands of out of control items with no QC or testing obviously

 

[Sac D]

I'm saying tell me how many car companies get away with selling thousands of out of control items with no QC or testing obviously

The auto companies have already spent billions to settle lawsuits while having the public innocently perform final testing on their products, and have generally improved over the years as a result of wanting to avoid more litigation. But they generally don't do anything they don't have to, and that slows down the process. The case of the Mustang and Pinto gas tanks being a textbook example.

I don't know much about DJI as a company, but I doubt they would be able to survive if faced with something at that level. Anyway, with the way ours took off, we're seeing a trend. It may be a small sampling, but it's only gonna get bigger while they are selling these things faster than they can keep up with spare parts, support, or even good advice.

 

[Mark P]

I'm saying tell me how many car companies get away with selling thousands of out of control items with no QC or testing obviously

The auto companies have already spent billions to settle lawsuits while having the public innocently perform final testing on their products, and have generally improved over the years as a result of wanting to avoid more litigation. But they generally don't do anything they don't have to, and that slows down the process. The case of the Mustang and Pinto gas tanks being a textbook example.

I don't know much about DJI as a company, but I doubt they would be able to survive if faced with something at that level. Anyway, with the way ours took off, we're seeing a trend. It may be a small sampling, but it's only gonna get bigger while they are selling these things faster than they can keep up with spare parts, support, or even good advice.

Wow never post after having a few drinks at a friends house........yowsers, I even said DJI shipped instructions with the Phantom.

These Phantoms are like asteroids and how many people do you hear of getting nailed by asteroids? After witnessing what I witnessed, I would never fly the thing within 3 miles of a city ever again, I would be nervous to fly at our ranch because 3 sets of our neighbors have small children even though they are close to a mile away. If someone gets bonked in the head, or should I say when a Phantom crushes someone skull and kills them and there was a Go Pro on there filming it going bonkers and the person has a recorded past of flying capabilities, then the chit will hit the fan because they will google lost/crashing/out of control/ DJI Phantoms and a lawyer will have a heyday with negligence.

When your Phantom was recovered that thing should have been at DJI quality control, shipped over night, paid for by them, with your replacement on its way to you but you see thats what makes this whole thing even more troubling, from what I understand no one can talk to a DJI representative because there aren't any, they're at NAB flying them around on the Vegas strip and hovering over hundreds of peoples heads. Maybe DJI really isn't aware they have an issue because the people like me haven't even tried to contact them but instead their distributor who really has no idea how to troubleshoot what was the cause.

I hope by some miracle I find mine, more so for the video than anything. Well that and the $1100 that DJI wrapped around a rock and fired with a wrist rocket into a reprod forrest full of Briars and Poison oak

 

[NUPNAG]

After watching the whole video, it looks like the Phantom was either out of control most of the time, or being pushed to its limits. A lot of sudden and violent moves throughout, a couple of times it looked like it was going to flip in midair. It's hard to tell which are intentional and which are a result of other factors like wind or "software".

In any case, if I was observing my Phantom flying like that, either by LOS or FPV, after a minute or two my goal would be to get it back safely on the ground, not flying it all over town for another 10 minutes.

It's fortunate that it happened to slam into the roof of that building, it could have just as easily come down that hard on a car's windshield, a person walking on the street, or any number of unintended objects.

In a word, your friend is reckless.

he was saying to me after taking off it had a mind of its own, in all of his videos its straight up and back down not reckless at all... here is a route the phantom took, most of the time he would of not have point of view ps the red dot is take off and yellow is crash site...

 

[FangsCPO]

just seen a video of a friend of mine made of his phantom this is his 2nd one the first went off by itself and never came back and now this happened to him, he thinks its the programming, be-cos after taking off he lost all capable control just after 1 minute and the rest is all the phantom flying...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLUN7dhzQ8

Wow!! That is incredible. I can see have one fly away but two and it happened to the same person. There's gotta be something that is causing major interference. I hope you figure it out. Good Luck!!

 

[JMPIRL]

Wow!! That is incredible. I can see have one fly away but two and it happened to the same person. There's gotta be something that is causing major interference. I hope you figure it out. Good Luck!![/quote]
Hi it's me the guy who made the video, this is my 2nd phantom to go bonkers and the 5th from the company I bought it from in Dublin. I was not reckless, I spent the entire time after the first minute trying to land it safely....... It was next to impossible....These are very dangerous as no specifications about interference is listed. DJI are being total dicks and saying it was signal interference and refusing to replace my equipment. It's gone legal. Will update tomorrow.
PS I've been flying RC planes and helis since I was 12 I'm 34 now......

 

[Mark P]

Wow!! That is incredible. I can see have one fly away but two and it happened to the same person. There's gotta be something that is causing major interference. I hope you figure it out. Good Luck!!
Hi it's me the guy who made the video, this is my 2nd phantom to go bonkers and the 5th from the company I bought it from in Dublin. I was not reckless, I spent the entire time after the first minute trying to land it safely....... It was next to impossible....These are very dangerous as no specifications about interference is listed. DJI are being total dicks and saying it was signal interference and refusing to replace my equipment. It's gone legal. Will update tomorrow.
PS I've been flying RC planes and helis since I was 12 I'm 34 now......

I know exactly what you're saying, you regain control for 4-5 seconds start bringing it back and wham! it gets another shot of wifi from someone router and it's off to the races yet again. Once it gets the initial interference it's like it locks and stores to memory almost as a home point so after you regain it always trys to take the exact same path even after rotate. In my experience it wanted to fly with 5:00 right stick and full throttle. I just wish I had buried mine into the ground when I regained control the first time. the second time I full cut throttle and then powered off maybe 6 seconds later. It either responded to this or hit a fir tree, either way it went down but we cant find it. I have a real helicopter hopefully on its way today or tomorrow to hopefully blow it out of it's stuck position somewhere in a 60' Doug fir. Ever seen napalm in a christmas tree?

 

[Mark P]

And also anyone saying this guy is reckless just needs to watch DJIs videos of flying over hundreds of peoples heads in an enclosed building and then out and over the Vegas strip. People have been flying RC in and around cities for decades, they even have what they call Parkflyers categories where if this thing was reliable could almost fit that category.

We have a blimp that flies around at sporting events with more wifi than a small city and never, EVER have had interference issues in over 6 years