On January 21, my Phantom 4 was at 419 feet. I started a descent normally it seemed until at about 200 feet it flipped over and proceeded straight to the ground very fast. I reacted giving full throttle up to halt the fall but not knowing the drone was inverted, it flew faster. It hit the ground hard and bounced. Upon arriving at the crash site, I found the drone laying on its top, propellers all broken but all lights on, the battery showing 3 green LED's with one blinking, ready for the next flight command! I video'd the site for record then took the drone inside, cleaned the mud off the top and attached new propellers. Powered it up and all seemed to work except the gimbal. The drone had hit the ground so hard that the gimbal mount or camera had dented the housing just above it. The camera worked fine, only the gimbal was a little stiff. I carried it outside, grabbed my iPhone to video the event and powered it up at idle. It seemed normal so I flew it up to about 3 feet and tried the yaw commands, all normal, then to about 10 feet and tried the forward, left and right and back stick commands and again normal. SO, to have a Phantom do a power dive from 200 feet and basically survive is awesome! The toughness of this craft is amazing. The top shell was slightly damaged on two of the arms but since the drone hit flat on its propellers, it apparently was not damaged too bad.
SO, I know everyone is wondering why the drone flipped? I am too? I sent the drone to DJI for repair with a request to review the flight logs to determine what happened. No response. I called support, promised an email explaining same, no results. Emailed support, got same promise, same response. Got on DJI Forum and posted for about a week and no one has had a good idea why the drone flipped and DJI rep promised to get the flight logs and advise, but still waiting. Also, no one has been able to tell me how it is possible to make a Phantom fly upside down! I paid for the repairs and had the drone repaired and it is on its way back here, set to arrive Thursday but without knowing why it flipped, I am afraid to fly it again.
Can anyone, help. I need to know how it is possible to flip? No, no prop, no motor, no anything failure noted. No bird strike, no tree strike, no wind gust, etc. No external conditions that could have caused it.
Anyone please! Thanks,
Jim
WA5TEF