Phantom 3 malfunction and crash (flight record video)

Motorotor · May 31, 2015

Just for dissecting purposes....all feedback welcome!

EDIT: Items to note --

- Home location was actually set on the very point of the right "wing" of the orange arrow. Not in what looks like the side yard or in the garage. I'll assume that's the "within 10 feet" rule for GPS.

- Notice the negative 300 alt at the end of the crash and 0 alt when flying in the driveway

- are the joystick positions appearing with a delay? The backwards flightpath returning to my driveway shows no stick movement for the right stick until it goes in the trees.

leekiya · May 31, 2015

Adam Kontras said:
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh not me. I'm fully vested in documenting every second of this and shedding light on the exemplary customer service of Advexure throughout this process. Don't worry, you will know the outcome.

Good man, keep us posted and hope DJI sort things out for you.

Ghetto Bird · May 31, 2015

I concur ^

Ghetto Bird · May 31, 2015

Not only that there were no stick movements, if you lose GPS you should still go into atti mode instead of the drone doing 360s

Indymzd · May 31, 2015

Turbazz said:
Do you have a video recording? Of the actual flight

I was not running video recording when it was occurred. I had actually just turned it off. I snapped a photo about a few moments before. I had shut off the recording to take a photo. The video wouldn't have helped much when it went into the death spin.

It was well above anything in the air. I don't know why it went negative when it crashed, I'm guessing an error.

That satellite imagery isn't accurately aligned.. Or if it was/is.. That's just a turn around in a cul-de-sac.. It's a small tree about 15-20ft. tall. When it crashed, it was probably 100-120ft north of that spot.

-- Matt

Indymzd · May 31, 2015

I believe I mentioned it before, but I was able to download the telemetry/flight data off the Phantom before I shipped it back to DJI.

Obviously, at this point, none of us can really do anything with that information, but that's the only real substantial data from this incident that we truly have.

I'm annoyed that DJI doesn't take this more seriously, send you a shipping label to receive your broken unit back after an incident like this. Then after receiving it and confirming this issue, send you a new unit. I had the device less than two weeks and it was trashed. I'm guessing I'll not see another unit for five or six weeks. So I'll have been without a device for almost two months at the rate we heading.

I still have yet to receive my second battery. I'm really having second thoughts about this purchasing this thing.

- Matt

Shatty · May 31, 2015

A word of advice to everyone purchasing a new bird............................USE YOUR AMEX CARD!!!!!!! Amex would handle this in a few days and probably credit you back for the bird ASAP and then you can go purchase a new one. They will handle the problem with DJI or wherever you bought it from. Just one of the perks of being an AMEX card holder

Adam Kontras · May 31, 2015

Shatty said:
A word of advice to everyone purchasing a new bird............................USE YOUR AMEX CARD!!!!!!! Amex would handle this in a few days and probably credit you back for the bird ASAP and then you can go purchase a new one. They will handle the problem with DJI or wherever you bought it from. Just one of the perks of being an AMEX card holder

Everything...

...except drones. I just went through this. They read a list of exceptions to their policy and wouldn't you know it? Drones are on the list.

snowghost · May 31, 2015

Adam Kontras said:
Everything...

...except drones. I just went through this. They read a list of exceptions to their policy and wouldn't you know it? Drones are on the list.

Have to look into USAA. I bought direct and used PayPal because I was impatient.

Daninho · May 31, 2015

Looks like a prop popped off, it would look exactly the same on the map

flyNfrank · May 31, 2015

Indymzd said:
I believe I mentioned it before, but I was able to download the telemetry/flight data off the Phantom before I shipped it back to DJI.

Obviously, at this point, none of us can really do anything with that information, but that's the only real substantial data from this incident that we truly have.

I'm annoyed that DJI doesn't take this more seriously, send you a shipping label to receive your broken unit back after an incident like this. Then after receiving it and confirming this issue, send you a new unit. I had the device less than two weeks and it was trashed. I'm guessing I'll not see another unit for five or six weeks. So I'll have been without a device for almost two months at the rate we heading.

I still have yet to receive my second battery. I'm really having second thoughts about this purchasing this thing.

- Matt

Which files did you get? I wouldn't mind looking at them, depending which you have.

Indymzd · May 31, 2015

Daninho said:
Looks like a prop popped off, it would look exactly the same on the map

Props were still on the Phantom...

Indymzd · May 31, 2015

Indymzd said:
Props were still on the Phantom...

Hey flyNfrank, looks like you are local to me. Howdy! My data is sitting here if anyone wants to look at it:

http://www.mzdial.com/DJI/

There is a ZIP file with my last three flights:

http://www.mzdial.com/DJI/DJI_FLY_LOG.zip

The crash flight is the FLY009.DAT in the ZIP. I packed up the three flights, per a discussion thread by Tahoe Ed on the DJI forum where someone was trying to diagnose and submit data to DJI for analysis.

-- Matt

Motorotor · May 31, 2015

Motorotor said:
Just for dissecting purposes....all feedback welcome!

EDIT: Items to note --

- Home location was actually set on the very point of the right "wing" of the orange arrow. Not in what looks like the side yard or in the garage. I'll assume that's the "within 10 feet" rule for GPS.

- Notice the negative 300 alt at the end of the crash and 0 alt when flying in the driveway

- are the joystick positions appearing with a delay? The backwards flightpath returning to my driveway shows no stick movement for the right stick until it goes in the trees.

I discovered the exact cause of crash for *MY* P3Pro incident!

I'm a bit ashamed to admit this!!! But it was indeed user error!

...during my previous flight, I wanted to land exactly where I took off from! I came down about 3 feet away from it and so attempted to reposition, got a little too heavy on the non-throttle stick, drug the throne across the ground, and flipped the copter upside down from 0 altitude. No biggie. But when I picked it up by the throne, there was enough throttle and prop RPM that it swung around on me and cut my forearm up. ( stock plastic props, 2 scratches) I didn't think anything of it, cut power, put the battery on the charger and cleaned up my arm. An hour later after battery was charged I attempted to fly again and had this incident. ( and yes, I even recalibrated the compass)

After the incident I removed the props and checked the battery/engines for RPM and noted no difference between the four. This all happened on the 28th.

So, as I mentioned before, I took this time to order prop guards, peruse YouTube, and join this forum. Well, the guards came today on the 31st ( I ordered the SummitLink kits in Red/White and Orange/Black) and I put on the white and black guards. While replacing the props, I noticed this ---

...this was the prop on the right rear motor!!!

So I went out to look!

Was the missing piece in the area of the neighbor's tree? Or where I flipped it over?

YEAH! It was where I flipped it over!

DOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How the hell did I miss THAT!?

*I'm so ashamed!*

dalebb · May 31, 2015

FCPhantom said:
I hope DJI fully compensate your lost, not offering 20-30% discount.
Same kind of crash, where pilot was flying his Phantom over the water, DJI only said, it is not allowed to fly over the water.

Dji's web site shows it flying over water.

wat17 · May 31, 2015

Following for result.

ianwood · Jun 1, 2015

Adam Kontras said:
I'm not sure what you all think would be seen from a video of a quad suddenly spinning in mid-air. The flight log and the text I uploaded show a TON more information. It just starts spinning. You wouldn't be able to see anything. Now if someone was actually taping the quad in the sky from the ground it would be helpful... but video from the drone will show absolutely nothing...

You can tell a lot from a video. As much, if not more than what we can see from the data replay.

Motorotor said:
- Notice the negative 300 alt at the end of the crash and 0 alt when flying in the driveway

Interesting. Adam's final alt was -50 or something like that.

Ghetto Bird · Jun 1, 2015

Well I talked with DJI North America this morning and the rep was understanding with my issue and basically walked me thru the process of returning it to Cali for repairs. The rep said it could take up to 6 weeks for them to get back to me, and not and try and contact them prior to that and I quote "these calls will not be entertained". So I guess it's time to get lost in the abyss. I'm hoping that they see their was no user error and they just send out a replacement unit. That is really unlikely but just being optimistic. I will still keep update on this thread and post what my outcome may be.

Ghetto Bird · Jun 1, 2015

Buy the way I did get the rep to send a free return label, so I guess you have to ask for it but at least I didn't have to pay

snowghost · Jun 1, 2015

Motorotor said:
I discovered the exact cause of crash for *MY* P3Pro incident!

I'm a bit ashamed to admit this!!! But it was indeed user error!

...during my previous flight, I wanted to land exactly where I took off from! I came down about 3 feet away from it and so attempted to reposition, got a little too heavy on the non-throttle stick, drug the throne across the ground, and flipped the copter upside down from 0 altitude. No biggie. But when I picked it up by the throne, there was enough throttle and prop RPM that it swung around on me and cut my forearm up. ( stock plastic props, 2 scratches) I didn't think anything of it, cut power, put the battery on the charger and cleaned up my arm. An hour later after battery was charged I attempted to fly again and had this incident. ( and yes, I even recalibrated the compass)

After the incident I removed the props and checked the battery/engines for RPM and noted no difference between the four. This all happened on the 28th.

So, as I mentioned before, I took this time to order prop guards, peruse YouTube, and join this forum. Well, the guards came today on the 31st ( I ordered the SummitLink kits in Red/White and Orange/Black) and I put on the white and black guards. While replacing the props, I noticed this ---

...this was the prop on the right rear motor!!!

So I went out to look!

Was the missing piece in the area of the neighbor's tree? Or where I flipped it over?

YEAH! It was where I flipped it over!

DOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How the hell did I miss THAT!?

*I'm so ashamed!*

I'm glad you found the root cause. But how did you not see that when you removed the props after the tip over? But thanks for sharing the info. I run my fingers on the leading edges to make sure no pits or the like. Usually an afternoon flight will have insect residue.