Hey Guys,
Just wanted to say I too can vouch for the crash survivability of the Phantom. After a few months of ownership I've finally crashed the thing a few times.
First crash can be seen at the end of this video linked below. Was flying around and didn't realize my battery was only partially charged. After just a couple min of flying it went rapidly from stage 1 to stage 2 battery warning and lost altitude as I flew over a tree. Was flying FPV and LOS with the FC40 camera (checking height with the laggy video feed) and just went out of LOS over the tree. I thought my video was frozen at first until I realized I was hung up in the tree. I throttled down and it hit every branch on the way down. Broke 3 props, everything else was fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWQ4J0c7pI0
3 crashes since, all also with trees.
2nd crash: Bought a 2.3ghz FPV TX/RX from readymadeRC and was flying over the woods behind my house. Was landing and taking off a lot as I tested different mounting positions for the TX to deal with some interference so I lost track of total flight time on the battery I was using. Flew it out just over the trees behind my house to test for another min or two before I changed to a new battery and I again missed the 1st low battery warning and ended up losing altitude on my return flight. Luckily with the FPV finally working correctly I nearly was able to get it to a clearing in the trees to land it so it wasn't that bad of a crash. Literally didn't break anything at all even though it tumbled through a small tree.
3rd crash: Flying with 2 batteries, the Gopro and the FPV TX so a bit heavier than normal. I was trying to fly 100% FPV and I'm not used to the wide angle lens quite yet so I ended up bringing it down too fast and straight down. I got into a bad wobble when trying to stop the decent in a dangerous 'settling with power' stall and it couldn't recover. Bounced off my roof and then toppled over into a tree getting snagged on the way down and then landing upside down on the lower roof over the covered porch. It didn't want to shut down the motors so it tore up ta couple props.
4th crash: This was a BIG failure. At my dad's place out in the country showing him the new FPV setup I took it out pretty far and high over the woods. Probably was 1/3 to 1/2 of a mile out from where I was and was a good 400-500 feet up and one of the props fell off. I attribute the fact that I was using props that didn't break in the #3 and #2 crash that might have cracked at the nut to the failure. They are cheap 9443 props that fly great but require a lot of sanding and tape to get in balance and I bet they were weakened from both the sanding and the crashes. It fell straight down at full velocity through the trees smashing into the ground. I thought I had lost it but fortunately my dad was videoing the FPV screen with his iPhone and we were able to figure out where it probably was from the recording. Other than the prop that fell off during flight, it only broke one other prop and one of my cheap carbon fiber dual battery trays. It wasn't even as marked up as it was from any of the previous crashes with leaf residue. It must have snagged a nice springy branch just right on the way down.
Anyway, just wanted to share those stories if it helps anyone worried about the durability of their craft!
Just wanted to say I too can vouch for the crash survivability of the Phantom. After a few months of ownership I've finally crashed the thing a few times.
First crash can be seen at the end of this video linked below. Was flying around and didn't realize my battery was only partially charged. After just a couple min of flying it went rapidly from stage 1 to stage 2 battery warning and lost altitude as I flew over a tree. Was flying FPV and LOS with the FC40 camera (checking height with the laggy video feed) and just went out of LOS over the tree. I thought my video was frozen at first until I realized I was hung up in the tree. I throttled down and it hit every branch on the way down. Broke 3 props, everything else was fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWQ4J0c7pI0
3 crashes since, all also with trees.
2nd crash: Bought a 2.3ghz FPV TX/RX from readymadeRC and was flying over the woods behind my house. Was landing and taking off a lot as I tested different mounting positions for the TX to deal with some interference so I lost track of total flight time on the battery I was using. Flew it out just over the trees behind my house to test for another min or two before I changed to a new battery and I again missed the 1st low battery warning and ended up losing altitude on my return flight. Luckily with the FPV finally working correctly I nearly was able to get it to a clearing in the trees to land it so it wasn't that bad of a crash. Literally didn't break anything at all even though it tumbled through a small tree.
3rd crash: Flying with 2 batteries, the Gopro and the FPV TX so a bit heavier than normal. I was trying to fly 100% FPV and I'm not used to the wide angle lens quite yet so I ended up bringing it down too fast and straight down. I got into a bad wobble when trying to stop the decent in a dangerous 'settling with power' stall and it couldn't recover. Bounced off my roof and then toppled over into a tree getting snagged on the way down and then landing upside down on the lower roof over the covered porch. It didn't want to shut down the motors so it tore up ta couple props.
4th crash: This was a BIG failure. At my dad's place out in the country showing him the new FPV setup I took it out pretty far and high over the woods. Probably was 1/3 to 1/2 of a mile out from where I was and was a good 400-500 feet up and one of the props fell off. I attribute the fact that I was using props that didn't break in the #3 and #2 crash that might have cracked at the nut to the failure. They are cheap 9443 props that fly great but require a lot of sanding and tape to get in balance and I bet they were weakened from both the sanding and the crashes. It fell straight down at full velocity through the trees smashing into the ground. I thought I had lost it but fortunately my dad was videoing the FPV screen with his iPhone and we were able to figure out where it probably was from the recording. Other than the prop that fell off during flight, it only broke one other prop and one of my cheap carbon fiber dual battery trays. It wasn't even as marked up as it was from any of the previous crashes with leaf residue. It must have snagged a nice springy branch just right on the way down.
Anyway, just wanted to share those stories if it helps anyone worried about the durability of their craft!
