After reading about the P3s falling out of the sky I decided to share my experience with a brand new Phantom 3A a couple of weeks ago:
Shortly before going on a holiday I purchased a P3A, updated , calibrated, charged batteries, etc.
Took it out into the backyard for a test flight. Started the engines and took the bird to about 4 meters, let it hover for about 2 minutes, then take it up to about 14 meters, let it circle over the house top, return and land, switched the motors off.
Happy with everything obviously working perfectly I started the engines again and took the bird up to about 14 meters flying it around a bit. Up, down, left, right.
Not quite sure if it was imagination but moving the bird to the left felt suddenly a bit different than moving it to the right. So I took it down again and let it hover in front of me at about 3 meters height. Suddenly a very loud screeching noise from the Phantom, massive amounts of white smoke coming from one engine and it crashed immediately into the ground. It landed on the side blocking two props to spin, the other ones were still sort of spinning and I had to pull the battery to switch the electronics off. No reaction to the remote control switch off command.
The engine was still smoking for a while.There was no further damage to the craft except the copper winding of the engine was black with the clear varnish burnt off, brown burn marks on the propeller and the screws holding the motor to the frame did melt all the plastic around them !
Total flight time to disaster : 9 minutes.
The shop reluctantly replaced it with a new one. I had to fill out the dji form and sent the flight log to dji.
My engines were the old engine type by the way.
In regards to the cracks in many frames: if it is around the screws holding the engines I do believe they are mainly heat related stress cracks. The old engines and screws get fairly hot for some reason, may be only in some batches which could cloud the overall picture a bit.
There is a reason why new engines were introduced.
The replacement P3A also with old type engines has flown so far without any issues . But now there is always a constant worry that something is going to fail again. This is not my first drone, I have flown all models from the Phantom 1, 2 vision, 2 vision plus and a German Hexacopter carrying compact and SLR cameras. I am flying a lot over water and the first time since I am flying drones I am worried it will fall into the ocean. This is my very personal opinion but there is something unreliable in the electrical system of the P3 and its not loosely fitted batteries like many suggest.
If similar failures would occur in cars, these cars would need to be recalled by the manufacturer. Falling drones are extremely dangerous, fullstop. If this trend continues with falling P3s class action like legal action against DJI might be required. I do hope, it will not be necessary.
I was planning to sell my reliable P2 Vision plus. After this experience and seeing on the forum that quite a few P3s fall out of the sky for still unidentified reasons and airframes cracking I think I am better off keeping it as a backup.
Shortly before going on a holiday I purchased a P3A, updated , calibrated, charged batteries, etc.
Took it out into the backyard for a test flight. Started the engines and took the bird to about 4 meters, let it hover for about 2 minutes, then take it up to about 14 meters, let it circle over the house top, return and land, switched the motors off.
Happy with everything obviously working perfectly I started the engines again and took the bird up to about 14 meters flying it around a bit. Up, down, left, right.
Not quite sure if it was imagination but moving the bird to the left felt suddenly a bit different than moving it to the right. So I took it down again and let it hover in front of me at about 3 meters height. Suddenly a very loud screeching noise from the Phantom, massive amounts of white smoke coming from one engine and it crashed immediately into the ground. It landed on the side blocking two props to spin, the other ones were still sort of spinning and I had to pull the battery to switch the electronics off. No reaction to the remote control switch off command.
The engine was still smoking for a while.There was no further damage to the craft except the copper winding of the engine was black with the clear varnish burnt off, brown burn marks on the propeller and the screws holding the motor to the frame did melt all the plastic around them !
Total flight time to disaster : 9 minutes.
The shop reluctantly replaced it with a new one. I had to fill out the dji form and sent the flight log to dji.
My engines were the old engine type by the way.
In regards to the cracks in many frames: if it is around the screws holding the engines I do believe they are mainly heat related stress cracks. The old engines and screws get fairly hot for some reason, may be only in some batches which could cloud the overall picture a bit.
There is a reason why new engines were introduced.
The replacement P3A also with old type engines has flown so far without any issues . But now there is always a constant worry that something is going to fail again. This is not my first drone, I have flown all models from the Phantom 1, 2 vision, 2 vision plus and a German Hexacopter carrying compact and SLR cameras. I am flying a lot over water and the first time since I am flying drones I am worried it will fall into the ocean. This is my very personal opinion but there is something unreliable in the electrical system of the P3 and its not loosely fitted batteries like many suggest.
If similar failures would occur in cars, these cars would need to be recalled by the manufacturer. Falling drones are extremely dangerous, fullstop. If this trend continues with falling P3s class action like legal action against DJI might be required. I do hope, it will not be necessary.
I was planning to sell my reliable P2 Vision plus. After this experience and seeing on the forum that quite a few P3s fall out of the sky for still unidentified reasons and airframes cracking I think I am better off keeping it as a backup.