Landing Drone on Sand, Bad Idea?

[dronezone1010]

I like flying my Phantom on beaches, due to the wide open spaces, and soft landing potential. However, I've noticed on landing, the action of the propellers seems to 'suck up' a lot of sand towards the gimbal, and body of the drone.

Can sand do damage to the drone, or is it not a big deal?

 

[msinger]

It's not easy to clean sand out of the motors. You'll be better off by hand catching if you must land on the beach. Or use a landing pad like one of these.

 

[PaulSouthport]

I too often fly from beaches for the same reason. I always try to find a flat patch of damp sand to take off/land - obviously, depending where you are that may not be an option, but here in UK, damp is pretty reliable!

 

[dronezone1010]

I didn't even think about getting it into the motors, thanks for the good ideas above.

 

[livefreeanddrone]

Yes I agree it's a bad idea. A cheap rubber door mat from Lowe's/Home Depot would do the trick... keep it in the car

 

[macoman]

If you use landing gears they can be useful on the sand.

 

[sparky1111]

I like flying my Phantom on beaches, due to the wide open spaces, and soft landing potential. However, I've noticed on landing, the action of the propellers seems to 'suck up' a lot of sand towards the gimbal, and body of the drone.

Can sand do damage to the drone, or is it not a big deal?

I use a portable table that collapses into a tiny bag. It's perfect and light.

 

[Geo77]

My drone flipped on the sand, I was launching it from my DJI phantom backpack... One motor sucked up a lot of sand. Wasn't even starting, had to push the propeller for it to roll. Gimbal movement was also impacted. It was stacked. I cleaned it with Air Duster, but most probably I'll just RMA it since it's only 2 days into my new P3 4k.

 

[KongWerks]

Hand catch and if necessary hand launch. The sand can be a [EXPLETIVE REMOVED].

 

[sparkycat]

indeed i flew my drone p3S on the beach had a topple over and one of the rotors was really slow ,had to blow the roror out with my electric air can

 

[Philltayl]

Sand and moving parts never mix well.......

 

[anotherlab]

I like flying my Phantom on beaches, due to the wide open spaces, and soft landing potential. However, I've noticed on landing, the action of the propellers seems to 'suck up' a lot of sand towards the gimbal, and body of the drone.

Can sand do damage to the drone, or is it not a big deal?

I just came back from a beach vacation and I took off and landed from the walkway to the beach. It's just not worth the risk to try to land in beach sand.