Just crashed and lost mine:( [FOUND!]

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I think my motor must have seized up.. started spinning on one axis and crashed down hard.. I could hear the crash, but haven't been able to find it:(

-mark
ps - even if I did find it I doubt if anything would be salvageable.. It was coming down fast...
 
Re: Just crashed and lost mine:(

diomark said:
I think my motor must have seized up.. started spinning on one axis and crashed down hard.. I could hear the crash, but haven't been able to find it:(

-mark
ps - even if I did find it I doubt if anything would be salvageable.. It was coming down fast...

Ugh, that's terrible :( Sorry to hear about this...

On my first day out with the phantom, maiden flight straight out of the box, one of my ESC's failed causing it to invert and crash hard into the ground. Luckily it landed on grass and only did minor damage, but I'm wondering if you encountered the same thing... ie ESC failure.
 
Re: Just crashed and lost mine:(

So.. a happy ending to this..

I used my friend's drone (a week later! he was at burningman and was the only person that I knew that had a drone..) to get some overheads of the area, and found it -
found.jpg


Managed to find a kind soul that let me up the fire escape next door to retrieve it.. best part is, it's basically ok..

Missing a propeller (so perhaps it came loose during flight and flew off?) and landing gear is broken/gopro is slightly damaged; and the battery is dead (low voltage..).. but basically oK:)
phantom1.jpg

phantom2.jpg


Some interesting pictures on it.. Looks dizzy.. (weird part is that the gopro stopped taking pictures mid-air..)

dizzyphantom1.JPG

dizzyphantom2.JPG
 
That's great news. Were you recording video, and if so, have you analyzed it at the point of failure?
 
Very happy you were able to retrieve your Phantom and that the damage was repairable.
 
I was taking pictures once/2 seconds.. For some reason it stopped taking pics while still high up (or maybe it crashed down in that two seconds..)

I'm really surprised it's not more damaged then it is.. stripped one of the landing gear screws; one prop was missing ( most likely vibrations/nut fell off which caused the accident in the first place), gopro is damaged but works; battery was originally dead but I think I was able to revive it; gopro mount is broken..

Overall about $50 in replacement parts (not including the gopro).. not bad at all for something I had written off..

Was able to fly it just fine with taped together landing gear / replacement propellers..

-mark
 
Wow that is incredible it survived so well. I think you got a 1 in a million impact on the most impact resistant part... that leg must have taken 80 of all the force and cusioned the body when it broke. It has to be said they have their faults but DJI have made a tough cookie!
Glad you were able to recover it (especially with the help of a fellow pilot!).
I think you are right about the prop coming off rather than the seize up... the fact the prop nut is gone says it all as if that was ripped off in the crash the prop and shell would be shattered everywhere. I have those CF props and i find I need to tighten them every flight just to be sure. Nylock nuts next time?
You probably have done already but I'd bin those props just incase too... Carbon is a strong but brittle material and with the forces involved in flying a hairline crack could shatter the prop mid air.

Nice to see a happy end to such an event! :D
 
DeweyAXD said:
Wow that is incredible it survived so well. I think you got a 1 in a million impact on the most impact resistant part... that leg must have taken 80 of all the force and cusioned the body when it broke. It has to be said they have their faults but DJI have made a tough cookie!
Glad you were able to recover it (especially with the help of a fellow pilot!).
I think you are right about the prop coming off rather than the seize up... the fact the prop nut is gone says it all as if that was ripped off in the crash the prop and shell would be shattered everywhere. I have those CF props and i find I need to tighten them every flight just to be sure. Nylock nuts next time?
You probably have done already but I'd bin those props just incase too... Carbon is a strong but brittle material and with the forces involved in flying a hairline crack could shatter the prop mid air.

Nice to see a happy end to such an event! :D

Yeah I've already trashed the remaining 3 carbon props..

To be honest I didn't care for them so no big loss.. maybe it was just this set, but I felt like the flight was better w/ the plastic props..

It was upside down when I found it tho.. but obviously the leg took the brunt of the force (and probably flipped afterwards..)
-m
 
DeweyAXD said:
I have those CF props and i find I need to tighten them every flight just to be sure. Nylock nuts next time?


I have them too, and noticed that the nuts have a tendency to not stay tight with the harder CF as compared to plastic props. Fix was to make some Delrin washers to go between prop and nut. The Delrin is mechanically strong, but does add a little elasticity to the "sandwich" and keeps the nuts up snug. Washers don't have to be Delrin, then could be any tough plastic such as nylon etc.

bumper
 
those DJI prop nuts are garbage - - - after I had a couple of them fly off, I bought simple locking nuts which are actually reliable to stay on.
 
Re: Just crashed and lost mine:(

diomark said:
Missing a propeller (so perhaps it came loose during flight and flew off?) and landing gear is broken/gopro is slightly damaged; and the battery is dead (low voltage..).. but basically oK:)

Glad you recovered it!

If the prop and prop nut were nowhere to be found at the location of where it crashed down, it's a 100% probability that it unscrewed and flew off in-flight, causing the crash.

But hopefully you can get it all fixed and good as new.
 
I've seen this recommendation several times now. For those of us with early version Phantoms, all Righthand thread prop nuts, what is the thread size? I'd like to find a source for aluminum locknuts with nylon inserts.

More recent Phantoms have two silver (RH threaded) prop nuts and two black prop nuts (LH threaded), which should reduce, but won't eliminate prop nut loosening concerns. Also use of CF or other aftermarket props with non-keyed mounting holes are more likely to have issues with loose prop nuts.

I keep the little DJI wrench in my pocket and torque the nuts whenever I change batteries.

Steve

zma said:
those DJI prop nuts are garbage - - - after I had a couple of them fly off, I bought simple locking nuts which are actually reliable to stay on.
 
I am REALLY hoping this outcome also finds Glockindahaus and his missing Phantom. Looks like a similar deal. I'll bet its on a roof in the business park it went down in.
 

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