Phantom is one tough bird

[buzzkill616]

I was at my Grandmothers farm in VA two weeks ago and too the Phantom with me to get some play time in the big field next to her house. On Saturday the winds were steady at about 15 to 20 MPH but I did a little test flying in the open field anyhow. I have to say The Phantom with no camera handled very well in the high wind. It held its position even in the strong wind. The field was about 2 acres and I was able to get good long flights with the wind. I bet the Phantom was topping off over 20 MPH going with the winds. So that was day one.

Day 2 I hooked up the GoPro and wanted to get some footage of the house and property. (I will add a link once I finish editing the video.) After a couple of passes by the side of the house I brought the Phantom back out in the field. It was 40 - 50 feet up and a wind gust took it into a tree branch.

It did a couple flips then seemed for a brief second that it was going to recover, only to hit another branch and drop like a rock. When I got to it I was expecting to find it in pieces. Instead I found it upside down and intact. One of the motors had hit first and was full of mud but otherwise it was fine. I took it apart cleaned out the mud and was flying a two days later.

I know this was a bonehead mistake and please learn from it but also know that these Phantoms can take a beating.

Here is a link to the video. I am still learning how to film so the video is not that great except the crash:

http://youtu.be/KSVoB0hsdA4

 

[OI Photography]

Yes they can be surprisingly resistant to injury...and they can also break without ever having been flown

Back when I first got my P1, I had two HARD crashes (both due to stupid mistakes on my part), one a straight drop from 40ft, the other a fast powerdive from 30ft. To this day it still amazes me that I didn't find it in a pile of pieces afterwards, and I've lost nothing more than 2 prop guards and 3 props. I've stopped using the prop guards since, but they can take a lot of credit for those saves at the time.

 

[Xylx]

So far I've flown mine into a tree with a drop into a blackberry thicket then today I hit a rock. Yes a rock. I giant piece of sandstone. I thought i was well above the rock on the pass I was making. The DJI bounced off the rock and fell down into a crater about 20 feet. My first thought was once of acceptance. Well it will still be good for parts. Incredibly, I was able to fly it after cleaning the mud off the props. One prop is a little dinged up. I will probably just trash it. But I may try sanding it and balancing it with my Dubro. Anyone have any thoughts on whether that's worthwhile?