P3 crash, ugh!

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I have about 100 hours flying my P3 when it crashed today. Getting some video of fall foliage, when all of a sudden, after I cleared the tree line height, she was went crazy on me! Banked hard right, my app started saying "atti mode", even though I never hit the switch, went out of sight, I heard the motors revving really high, all I could do instinctively was just increase the pitch hoping she would get higher and I would be able to regain control, but no such luck. I heard it crash onto the street nearby, luckily I didn't hit anything or anybody.

Damage - three out of four of my carbon fiber props were broken at the hub. Found only one of the missing pieces at the scene. Two of the camera gimbal rubber supports were broken, but other two held and gimbal was still attached. Battery ejected. Shell scratched on top and lots of cracks now at the motor mounts. Not sure whether the crash caused those cracks or they were cracked before and thats what caused the crash. I never balanced my props and I'm thinking that may have been the cause? Maybe lost a blade in flight and things went downhill from there? I have no idea how hard it really hit.

Anyway, what's done is done, and am now left with what to do. It powers up fine, and I even put the old plastic props back on just to see if it would power up, all motors sounded good, so I took it up and just hovered it around a foot or two, and it seems fine. So, should I buy a new shell and replace it and fly it again? Can I trust it? Kind of shaken up now. Anything else I should do to get it flying again?

Thanks in advance for all your help out there.
 

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You should definitely replace the shell. You can buy one on Amazon, eBay, or directly from DJI. I'd suggest you at least wrap a plastic zip tie around each arm if you must fly in the meantime.
 
What about the flight log? Shows normal flight for about four minutes then a rapid turn and decent to the street. V.S. at one point hit 79 mph! Damage doesn't look that bad though right?
 
What's weird is that at the end, it's still showing it's at 79 feet when it hit the ground. Flight started at zero feet.
 
If the camera didnt break then you won that shootout. Now get a new shell get back on that horse and ride cowboy!!!
 
Never fun when a $1300.00 toy or tool goes down. Great that it still flies.
I would replace the shell. And you might want to check that antenna on the left foreground in the last photo.

Would you mind posting the flight logs? I'm wanting to get another P3P (or P3A) but I just keep reading these same stories....Seeing the flight logs would be very helpful to many I'm sure if you didn't mind. A while back I thought that if I waited a while these issues would become far and few in-between (machine fault). All in all, these incidents probably are rare overall considering how many are out there.

"she was went crazy on me! Banked hard right, my app started saying "atti mode", even though I never hit the switch, went out of sight, I heard the motors revving really high, all I could do instinctively was"


This is such a recurring theme. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that all these people having quite a few flights under their belts are doing something so different as to cause this in each case.

With the flight logs it could likely be determined if it was a GPS or compass fault or something else.
 
I got the .dat files off the aircraft, but can't upload them here on this forum for some reason.
 
Ok, heres the file from the app.
 

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I have about 100 hours flying my P3 when it crashed today. Getting some video of fall foliage, when all of a sudden, after I cleared the tree line height, she was went crazy on me! Banked hard right, my app started saying "atti mode", even though I never hit the switch, went out of sight, I heard the motors revving really high, all I could do instinctively was just increase the pitch hoping she would get higher and I would be able to regain control, but no such luck. I heard it crash onto the street nearby, luckily I didn't hit anything or anybody.

Damage - three out of four of my carbon fiber props were broken at the hub. Found only one of the missing pieces at the scene. Two of the camera gimbal rubber supports were broken, but other two held and gimbal was still attached. Battery ejected. Shell scratched on top and lots of cracks now at the motor mounts. Not sure whether the crash caused those cracks or they were cracked before and thats what caused the crash. I never balanced my props and I'm thinking that may have been the cause? Maybe lost a blade in flight and things went downhill from there? I have no idea how hard it really hit.

Anyway, what's done is done, and am now left with what to do. It powers up fine, and I even put the old plastic props back on just to see if it would power up, all motors sounded good, so I took it up and just hovered it around a foot or two, and it seems fine. So, should I buy a new shell and replace it and fly it again? Can I trust it? Kind of shaken up now. Anything else I should do to get it flying again?

Thanks in advance for all your help out there.
Post the flight log here, there are some people here that can give you advice based on that, in the mean time i would contact DJI & get a RMA moving, because that takes a long time.
 
Now go to HealthyDrones.com and upload that file there and you will get some information about the flight
 
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Can't really figure out what happened though. Just that at the end it kept switching back and forth from atti mode to gps mode, like every second. So I guess it lost gps signal, but why would that make it fly so erratic? The dat file show very erratic attitudes at the end, like over 60 degree banks. What would cause that? Think I broke a prop in the air? Or some electronic glitch? I'd rather find that I broke a prop, that way I know I fixed the problem. Worried that this will happen again.

Regardless, new she'll is on the way and I'll have it tomorrow thanks to b and h free expedited shipping. With any luck, I'll be flying again by the weekend. Can't wait the 6-8 weeks for dji repair.
 
Quick look seems you had some kind of compass abnormality.

While you got it open check all the connections. Keep a close eye on the compass mod values going forward
 
It was the one friggin time I didn't calibrate the thing. I've always been doing it, before every flight. Kinda f'd up that one little thing like that can cause this sucker to completely lose control!
 
Well, to be honest, you really should only do a GOOD compass calibration if you've changed location by about 100 miles or more. It could actually have been the last calibration that caused the crash.

I check my compass mod value every week, but haven't done a calibration in over a month. (about 50 flights since last calibration)

Get a GOOD compass calibration (by the book) then check the mod values and leave it alone.

That's the recommended procedure for the compass.
 
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im not a professional in looking at logs (still learning), can some one correct me if im wrong.
to me it looks like a combination of atti mode and stong gust of wind ?
 
HealthyDrones says the signal was good ?

I did see your phantom seemed to be going back and forth between ATTI and GPS.
To me it seems like a GPS / Compass issue.

Did you take off underneath all those trees?
 
If you went into ATTI mode and were not able to control it then sure, that would do it too.

Ok...maybe this....

You climbed up above the trees then because the tree tops blocked the signal, it went into ATTI mode, then you lost control because you could not control it in ATTI mode withthe wind blowing?
 

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