Do we have a "Lessons Learned" forum? LOL

Haha wow.... Glad to know your ok... Use them scars to your advantage... Tell the Mrs to get you a beer, if she says no... Say you will tell people that she harmed your arm with a knife lol [emoji23][emoji48][emoji23][emoji48][emoji23][emoji48][emoji23]

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No "Mrs" to worry about. :)

I would love to know the story behind the guy with the 'back gills'. Did someone land an r/c copter next to the dude while he was sleeping??
 
Btw, wanted to kind of give a heads up on one more scenario that can happen and did happen to me as well. Buddy of mine and me were just hovering my P4 in my living room for a little bit. No problems at all until he tried to shut motors off while on the floor. Two stick command down and in and the P4 does not shut off. It goes hard left and keeps running and as I grab it it gets me with two or three decent little cuts on my arm before we got it shut off with left stick only. Now I knew this would do this but he did not. He is a P3 owner and I think they still will shut off with the two stick command. They changed this command early on in an update for the P4 because some guys were two sticking it in the air and it just falls out of the sky. So been here to allentc! LOL. So yes another lesson learned for sure.
 
I only ever use the "left stick all the way down and hold it" method (P3Standard)

I think the picture of OP's arm is valuable, as it shows that even multiple direct hits from the rotors will barely break human skin. An unpleasant injury for sure, but not the sliced, diced or amputating effect some people seem to presume.

You wouldn't want that on your face, in the eye, between the legs or some other sensitive place, but if that's the worst a Phantom can do it's not so bad really.

At the end of the day they're fairly small and soft plastic blades, nothing like as dangerous as the long carbon fiber blades of a RC helicopter.
 
1582dd40efc0a953e2eb3242f3686306.jpg

Consider yourself lucky, can you imagine what a rc helicopter can do....

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Is that Kevin Costner in Waterworld? (I know, a tasteless joke)


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I've had th DJI P4 for a couple of months now, never owned a drone or anything before. I've been super careful. Well, just after reading this post today, I went outside to film my daughter reading in the hammock. Two things happened that was definitely not good for my blood pressure.

1) at 300m altitude I got SIGNAL LOST, RETURN TO HOME, THEN SIGNAL LOST AGAIN??? I pressed the return to home button and when I got a decent signal I switched to sport mode and brought that puppy down hella fast.
2) I decided to take a few photos of her as well. As I was flying back towards myself (for a selfie because she wanted a photo of me as well) And hovered to take the shot. No hands on the remote. The phantom jolted towards me. I backed up and then IT DID IT AGAIN. I got no cuts, but I'm likely to dream about Phantom 4s flying around hunting people down. Geez

Oh and as a side note, the lenses was a little smudged. Smh
 
Okay, so since Kev 'fessed up to some less-than-brilliant thinking, I reckon I ought to as well. Now I AM a complete noob to these things, but what I did tonight was pretty stupid. LOL

I've had my P4 now for five days, and I have a whopping 4 hours or so of flying time. Yesterday I took it out for some basic familiarization. Today I flew for another couple of hours, doing more basic stuff...figure 8s, guiding the drone around the track, doing fly bys, flying between the uprights on the goal posts. That might have gotten me a little cocky. I decided this evening I would launch from my back porch, go through a relatively narrow gap between the trees, get some video of the neighborhood and come back. All was going well until I started coming back.

As you all know, this drone has front-facing collision avoidance sensors, and sensors that face down to judge how close it is to the ground. Keep that in mind. LOL As I brought the drone in over the porch railing, it appeared to be drifting backwards into the slats on the railing. Not sure if it was me giving bad stick inputs, or perhaps I was trying to land it too close to where I was sitting and the sensors kept telling the drone to back up a bit. Whatever the cause, I try to set the drone down fast before it hits the slats.

Well, it comes down at an angle, tips over and falls INTO the slats, immediately stopping the propellers from spinning. I push the left stick down, which under normal circumstances turns off the motors, and reach out to grab one of the skids to set the drone upright.

Remember the downward facing sensors? Well, they are not facing down. So the drone thinks I'm telling it "Get down FAST!!!". The minute the props clear the slats......

14332960_10210922839095771_4236657594195887423_n.jpg


Good news is the drone appears to be intact. After I put some gauze on my arm, I fired everything back up to do a system check. Seems good-to-go. Then I went to the Urgent Care for a more professional dressing than paper towels and Scotch tape. That one kinda ugly one with the meat hanging on it....that's gonna scar. LOL The video should be pretty good.
At least you have your priorities right!

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I think the picture of OP's arm is valuable, as it shows that even multiple direct hits from the rotors will barely break human skin. An unpleasant injury for sure, but not the sliced, diced or amputating effect some people seem to presume.

I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, they're just plastic props and most are just minor cuts, but I have two pretty deep ones that would have required stitches if the angle weren't weird. The PA said to just let it clot and scar. I am glad it didn't get my fingers or any of the other mentioned parts. LOL But that's kinda like the ol' "A .22 is less dangerous than a .45" It would suck getting hit with either one, and depending on the circumstances, one can be just as 'dangerous' as the other.
 
Scars are like tattoos, but with a story.
Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions.
 
Okay, so since Kev 'fessed up to some less-than-brilliant thinking, I reckon I ought to as well. Now I AM a complete noob to these things, but what I did tonight was pretty stupid. LOL

I've had my P4 now for five days, and I have a whopping 4 hours or so of flying time. Yesterday I took it out for some basic familiarization. Today I flew for another couple of hours, doing more basic stuff...figure 8s, guiding the drone around the track, doing fly bys, flying between the uprights on the goal posts. That might have gotten me a little cocky. I decided this evening I would launch from my back porch, go through a relatively narrow gap between the trees, get some video of the neighborhood and come back. All was going well until I started coming back.

As you all know, this drone has front-facing collision avoidance sensors, and sensors that face down to judge how close it is to the ground. Keep that in mind. LOL As I brought the drone in over the porch railing, it appeared to be drifting backwards into the slats on the railing. Not sure if it was me giving bad stick inputs, or perhaps I was trying to land it too close to where I was sitting and the sensors kept telling the drone to back up a bit. Whatever the cause, I try to set the drone down fast before it hits the slats.

Well, it comes down at an angle, tips over and falls INTO the slats, immediately stopping the propellers from spinning. I push the left stick down, which under normal circumstances turns off the motors, and reach out to grab one of the skids to set the drone upright.

Remember the downward facing sensors? Well, they are not facing down. So the drone thinks I'm telling it "Get down FAST!!!". The minute the props clear the slats......

14332960_10210922839095771_4236657594195887423_n.jpg


Good news is the drone appears to be intact. After I put some gauze on my arm, I fired everything back up to do a system check. Seems good-to-go. Then I went to the Urgent Care for a more professional dressing than paper towels and Scotch tape. That one kinda ugly one with the meat hanging on it....that's gonna scar. LOL The video should be pretty good.
Okay, so since Kev 'fessed up to some less-than-brilliant thinking, I reckon I ought to as well. Now I AM a complete noob to these things, but what I did tonight was pretty stupid. LOL

I've had my P4 now for five days, and I have a whopping 4 hours or so of flying time. Yesterday I took it out for some basic familiarization. Today I flew for another couple of hours, doing more basic stuff...figure 8s, guiding the drone around the track, doing fly bys, flying between the uprights on the goal posts. That might have gotten me a little cocky. I decided this evening I would launch from my back porch, go through a relatively narrow gap between the trees, get some video of the neighborhood and come back. All was going well until I started coming back.

As you all know, this drone has front-facing collision avoidance sensors, and sensors that face down to judge how close it is to the ground. Keep that in mind. LOL As I brought the drone in over the porch railing, it appeared to be drifting backwards into the slats on the railing. Not sure if it was me giving bad stick inputs, or perhaps I was trying to land it too close to where I was sitting and the sensors kept telling the drone to back up a bit. Whatever the cause, I try to set the drone down fast before it hits the slats.

Well, it comes down at an angle, tips over and falls INTO the slats, immediately stopping the propellers from spinning. I push the left stick down, which under normal circumstances turns off the motors, and reach out to grab one of the skids to set the drone upright.

Remember the downward facing sensors? Well, they are not facing down. So the drone thinks I'm telling it "Get down FAST!!!". The minute the props clear the slats......

14332960_10210922839095771_4236657594195887423_n.jpg


Good news is the drone appears to be intact. After I put some gauze on my arm, I fired everything back up to do a system check. Seems good-to-go. Then I went to the Urgent Care for a more professional dressing than paper towels and Scotch tape. That one kinda ugly one with the meat hanging on it....that's gonna scar. LOL The video should be pretty good.
Thanks for "a lesson learned" experience. I am a "noob" and could easily made that mistake. Glad your cuts were not more severe
 
I thought he was trying to catch it with his teeth until I read the post, from this lesson if ever in similar situation, if power button is accessible power off before moving drone. I bet this happens far more than its reported, thanks for the heads up.


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Wow, glad it wasn't worse! I learned my lesson early in my Quad flying career, tried to grab a drifting Quad so it wouldn't hit the house and it didn't cut me too bad. But I've learned my lesson. I'll never try to save another drone with my hands or any body part!
 
I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, they're just plastic props and most are just minor cuts, but I have two pretty deep ones that would have required stitches if the angle weren't weird.

So we can add yet another "That COULD have been nasty..." to the list, but aside from an (unidentified) drone slicing a kid's eyeball I've never heard of a serious injury from a Phantom?

I think the top 3 misunderstandings about drones are:

1. the props will slash and slaughter people like machetes... when they are actually soft plastic and incapable of cutting human bone

2. That someone flying above is spying on you up close - when in fact most such cams are wide-angle for stability, depth of focus and, you know, that wide angle bird's-eye view thing. If it's 100ft above then you're barely identifiable as a person, and at 100 meters you're barely identifiable as human.

3. That drones can carry significant explosives or other nasties, as potential guided missiles - when in fact most can barely stay aloft for 20 mins while carrying nothing, and even lightweight prop guards will shorten the flying time. If you were to try carrying a hand grenade the flight time wouldn't be as far as you you could throw the thing (I jest, but barely)

It's weird how carefully-piloted flying cameras get such bad press and heavy-handed regulation, at the same time we're supposed to accept the idea of full-size 'self-driving' cars down here among us and in traffic, as just peachy?

0-O
 
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No kidding. Most of my coworkers were saying "So now you can go full stalker mode" when they learned I'd bought the P4. I've had to dispel #2 and #3 repeatedly.
 
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My lesson learned, make sure the SD card isn't cracked or otherwise damaged before putting it into the drone. $380 new gimbal later, I'll try to be more careful. This little jewel was shorted out internally and fried the gimbal board. Oh, btw if someone has a broken camera or gimbal to sell, I'd like to try replacing the board to see if I can salvage mine.
IMG_2001.JPG
 

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