- Joined
- May 4, 2014
- Messages
- 137
- Reaction score
- 19
On 15 July, I unfortunately experienced an unresponsive Phantom 3 Pro shortly after take off. It was not responding to my commands and I could not pull it back, so I decided that I would shut off the motors before it flew over cars and property and became potentially unsafe.
I’m visiting Dubai for a few days on my way back to Australia and would rather shut off my Phantom’s motors mid-flight and recover the aircraft rather than risk injury or property damage. The aircraft was in GPS-ATTI mode the whole time, it was not in IOC. It was apparent that after take off, it was not being responsive to my controls.
I could of tried switching to ATTI or initiate Fly Back Home, but I only had a couple of seconds and made a split decision to shut off motors (the safest option).
My Phantom 3 has logged over 10 hours and 68 flights. Before this I flown the Phantom 2 with over 200 flights, so I’m not new to this.
I wanted to make this public to see if anyone could offer some suggestions on a root cause.
My iPad’s log file has been extracted (links below). However I’m tempted to open up the Phantom 3 to get access to the SD card to extract the onboard aircraft data. I have tried plugging in a USB cable into the aircraft and I do not see the aircraft showing up on my Mac. I’m aware that if I open up the Phantom, it will void DJI’s warranty.
I have contacted DJI and trying to get a letter with some basic details to send to my insurance company. I got my first response a few minutes ago and it is clear that this may be a struggle to get an official letter. DJI have not issued a RMA yet, I’ve requested it.
I’m happy to answer any questions. Here are the fine details describing what I did and observed:
My pre-flight check included (among other things):
1. Checked to see that the gyroscope sensor’s mod was at zero. Acceleration sensor mod was at 1.00. Compass sensor mod values were between 1500 and 1600. IMU and Compass values were normal.
2. VPS was turned off.
3. 18 satellites were picked up, and the green Safe to Fly Status was on.
Once the pre-fight check list was done, I then proceeded to launch.
1. Take off was by Auto-lift off
2. Within a few seconds of launch I noticed that the aircraft was not behaving normally based on my commands. Specifically my yaw, pitch and roll commands did not seem to have much effect. Aircraft was now at around 12 metres in height.
3. I let go of the sticks, and see that the aircraft was still moving. This was in Position GPS mode, not normal behaviour, but I’m well versed in ATTI mode so no problem.
4. I then proceeded to manually correct as you would normally do in ATTI mode.
5. Correction had no effect.
6. The aircraft was now moving away from me at increasing speed and was heading to the cars and houses nearby.
7. At this point I decided to do a CSC (Combination Stick Command) to shut off motors, effectively telling the Phantom to commit suicide.
8. As the aircraft fell I did a second CSC to re-engage the motors to soften the landing. A seperate log file was created but it’s only a few seconds long, as the aircraft had impacted the ground.
My log file extracted from my iPad:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuade4e3r4dzlz/DJIFlightRecord_2015-07-15_[18-31-19].txt?dl=1
For convienience here is the CSV comprehensive file (using http://www.djilogs.com)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/my85987xl...5-07-15_[18-31-19].txt.Comprehensive.csv?dl=1
I’m visiting Dubai for a few days on my way back to Australia and would rather shut off my Phantom’s motors mid-flight and recover the aircraft rather than risk injury or property damage. The aircraft was in GPS-ATTI mode the whole time, it was not in IOC. It was apparent that after take off, it was not being responsive to my controls.
I could of tried switching to ATTI or initiate Fly Back Home, but I only had a couple of seconds and made a split decision to shut off motors (the safest option).
My Phantom 3 has logged over 10 hours and 68 flights. Before this I flown the Phantom 2 with over 200 flights, so I’m not new to this.
I wanted to make this public to see if anyone could offer some suggestions on a root cause.
My iPad’s log file has been extracted (links below). However I’m tempted to open up the Phantom 3 to get access to the SD card to extract the onboard aircraft data. I have tried plugging in a USB cable into the aircraft and I do not see the aircraft showing up on my Mac. I’m aware that if I open up the Phantom, it will void DJI’s warranty.
I have contacted DJI and trying to get a letter with some basic details to send to my insurance company. I got my first response a few minutes ago and it is clear that this may be a struggle to get an official letter. DJI have not issued a RMA yet, I’ve requested it.
I’m happy to answer any questions. Here are the fine details describing what I did and observed:
My pre-flight check included (among other things):
1. Checked to see that the gyroscope sensor’s mod was at zero. Acceleration sensor mod was at 1.00. Compass sensor mod values were between 1500 and 1600. IMU and Compass values were normal.
2. VPS was turned off.
3. 18 satellites were picked up, and the green Safe to Fly Status was on.
Once the pre-fight check list was done, I then proceeded to launch.
1. Take off was by Auto-lift off
2. Within a few seconds of launch I noticed that the aircraft was not behaving normally based on my commands. Specifically my yaw, pitch and roll commands did not seem to have much effect. Aircraft was now at around 12 metres in height.
3. I let go of the sticks, and see that the aircraft was still moving. This was in Position GPS mode, not normal behaviour, but I’m well versed in ATTI mode so no problem.
4. I then proceeded to manually correct as you would normally do in ATTI mode.
5. Correction had no effect.
6. The aircraft was now moving away from me at increasing speed and was heading to the cars and houses nearby.
7. At this point I decided to do a CSC (Combination Stick Command) to shut off motors, effectively telling the Phantom to commit suicide.
8. As the aircraft fell I did a second CSC to re-engage the motors to soften the landing. A seperate log file was created but it’s only a few seconds long, as the aircraft had impacted the ground.
My log file extracted from my iPad:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuade4e3r4dzlz/DJIFlightRecord_2015-07-15_[18-31-19].txt?dl=1
For convienience here is the CSV comprehensive file (using http://www.djilogs.com)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/my85987xl...5-07-15_[18-31-19].txt.Comprehensive.csv?dl=1
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