I think I'm figuring out why some folks never see cracks. Over the last week I've seen three different people flying phantoms of different generations in front of my apartment which is a popular flying spot. All three were doing little flyby's and stuff that barely got into fifty meter distance. In fact I don't think I've seen a single flyer just take off and go. By go I mean take off and away, about a hundred meters up and 1 km away or more if the bird is a 3. Hence, no cracks for these folks flying at what essentially is hubsan x4 micro range. I bet these folks will never see a crack. Maybe damage from crashing into trees cause when you're this close to trees you're bound to hit one once. But I bet most of us seeing the cracks are the high and far pilots. The phantom, of any era, always had it's internals for that capability. But not the fuselage. Beautiful and perfect design but way too thin for the job, period. And the "oh it's a rare occurrence bull crap" that DJI used to spew no longer has any value by what we've seen here. If DJI does not want us doing the high and far, then mention it in the marketing material.
Anyway, repair is finished. I'm hoping it holds. I have never wanted to open the shell and frankly wasnt required in order to to adress the twin arm screw location issue. This one is different and really could use internal reinforcement. But again I've chosen to do it externally. As I've previously mentioned, invisible wasn't the goal this time due to the extreme nature of motor movement after these two cracks. Unlike the twin arm screw situation, this one cannot be prevented by glue, cable ties or duck tape. You literally have to either open the shell and reinforce the area with epoxy or wait for the crack to happen in order to glue and reinforce.
I love the phantom 3. Nothing else comes close. But why can't DJI get off its *** and build a thicker, stronger shell already. This was already a problem on the phantom 2. They had every opportunity to make the phantom 3 heavy duty and not so sensitive to screw torque. Though really, on the motor screws, one would go just finger tight on those? And can overtightening explain these screw hole to screw hole cracks I've had? Nah. The shell is too **** thin.
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