First minor crash - What to check for post crash ???

[rpratali]

Yesterday afternoon I experienced my first minor crash. It was a stupid mistake which I won't make again. To make a long story short, I was flying too close to some pine trees, without prop guards, and flying backwards so that the controls were reversed. I got distracted by my young kids arguing which broke my concentration. The next thing I knew my P3A hit some small pine tree branches about 8 feet up and tumbled to the ground landing on pine needles / tall grass. The only damaged I immediately found was that two of the plastic anti-drop pins from the gimbal were missing.

When I got home I inspected the entire P3A for damage, replaced the two missing anti-drop pins, replaced all four props (as a precaution), cleaned the P3A with mild cleaner, calibrated the gimbal, calibrated the IMU, and calibrated the compass. Upon boot up I did not see any errors, etc. I did a short 2 minute flight and didn't see any issues.

Other than the above diagnostics / repairs is there any thing else I should do prior to making another normal flight? Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[msinger]

The only damaged I immediately found was that two of the plastic anti-drop pins from the gimbal were missing.

Two were missing or only two were installed? The Phantom only ships with two pins installed.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Yes, sounds like nothing was amiss. As msinger pointed out. There are only two AntiDrop pins installed within the four rubber vibration dampers.
Advisedly: You should only be using two pins, not four.
Four may make the unit too stiff. It needs to sort of float freely.
Props sound fine. Inspecting them visually and carefully, your rotor blades may still be good, if no chips or cracks are readily noticeable/visible.

Be more careful, and do some flying practice without your juvenile distractions about. Ha

Good stuff. ;-)

RedHotPoker

 

[Reed L]

I've crashed a couple of times and just tossed the props because they are cheap and a main part of the system. I figure that my P3A has around $1500.00 into it, so I buy the nice yellow tipped DJI props because even after a close inspection, it's just not worth it to me to lose my bird from some hairline crack that I didn't find.
https://www.amazon.com/DJI-Self-tig...1343&sr=8-2&keywords=DJI+Phantom+3+9450+props

 

[rpratali]

If only two two of the anti-drop pins were originally installed with the P3A, then I didn't loose any. Makes me feel much better. I now need to remove the two extra anit-drop pins. Which two anit-drop pins should I remove? Front left, front right, rear left, or rear right?

 

[msinger]

If only two are installed, you should keep one pin installed on each side of the gimbal (diagonally from one another). You could also keep all four installed. It shouldn't cause any problems.

 

[rpratali]

Thanks to all for the updates on only needing two anti-drop pins. The prop's were slightly scuffed. Since they are relatively cheap I went ahead and replaced the all. Better safe than sorry.

Since I already calibrated the gimbal, calibrated the IMU, and calibrated the compass, is there anything else I need to do other than do some short easy flights and check for any unusual drifting, lack of control, etc?

 

[Reed L]

Nope, just start it up and put it in the air a few feet away and let it sit there for a while while you go through the app and check all of the settings. Sounds like you lucked out, they really can take a beating

 

[fastsmiles]

Check your gimbal arm to make sure it is not bent, check that the camera is level.