My opinion on flyaways/mechanical failure

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I'm a numbers person. So I'll use some wild guesses on numbers to show how I feel about crashes, flyaways, etc. DJI predicted they would sell 1,000,000 drones in 2015. I don't think they made it, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they sold 500,000 units. If each one of those has been flown 40 times that's 20 million flights. If every 1 in 5000(guess) flights results in a disaster, that's 4000 crashes and problems. 4 thousand incidents is enough to fill the entire internet with depressing stories. But 1/5000 is pretty good reliability. These are great machines. But happy stories aren't as widely published because it's business as usual. I feel the same way about "other" drone companies. Many people say they want a q500 or a solo because "I've never heard about any problems with them" But dji accounts for ~70ish% of the industry! You don't hear about these incidents because there are less of them. Does anyone feel the same way?

(Most of these numbers are theoretical. It's the principle of it that I'm trying to get across.)


Sent from my iPod touch using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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There were lots of flyaways with the early Phantoms. DJI never admitted to a problem and most users who lost one, bought another one. I guess it was good for business.
The P2 had early problems with the "smart" battery causing them to fall out of the sky. This was quickly and quietly fixed in firmware.
The P3 has also had battery problems where the software indicated a nearly full charge when the battery was in fact pretty low. In flight, the firmware would detect a low level and shut down the quad to save the battery, resulting in a crash which of course usually destroyed the battery as well as the rest of the bird. This problem has supposedly been fixed in the firmware.
To compound these problems, DJI, until recently, had a horrible service record.
If you never experienced these issues, it is easy for you to blame the user. The number of failures might be small compared to the number sold, but they are huge if they happen to you and not all users come here to complain.
As far as the competition, I am happy to see that some are providing a pretty reliable product and reportedly great service. I believe this has already encouraged DJI to improve their service and lower prices, which is great for all of us.
I am looking forward to the next generation.
 
There were lots of flyaways with the early Phantoms. DJI never admitted to a problem and most users who lost one, bought another one. I guess it was good for business.
The P2 had early problems with the "smart" battery causing them to fall out of the sky. This was quickly and quietly fixed in firmware.
The P3 has also had battery problems where the software indicated a nearly full charge when the battery was in fact pretty low. In flight, the firmware would detect a low level and shut down the quad to save the battery, resulting in a crash which of course usually destroyed the battery as well as the rest of the bird. This problem has supposedly been fixed in the firmware.
To compound these problems, DJI, until recently, had a horrible service record.
If you never experienced these issues, it is easy for you to blame the user. The number of failures might be small compared to the number sold, but they are huge if they happen to you and not all users come here to complain.
As far as the competition, I am happy to see that some are providing a pretty reliable product and reportedly great service. I believe this has already encouraged DJI to improve their service and lower prices, which is great for all of us.
I am looking forward to the next generation.

I don't like blaming "the pilot" because I was "the pilot" once with one of my other quads. It felt bad. I'm just trying to put the numbers in perspective. I'm not denying that these problems exist, I just think that a lot of the negativity I hear about the phantom isn't that much statistically.


Sent from my iPod touch using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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