- Joined
- Jul 30, 2013
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 2
**UPDATE June 16, 2014: Got back home safely and finally uploaded the video of the fateful moment. Also I'd like to thank the community at large of PhantomPilots.com for their continued support, input, and information. The more we support each other positively makes us a stronger Phantom Pilot community.**
http://youtu.be/FWeUhHaz20o
WHAT THE HECK.......
My brand new Phantom 2 with H3-3D just shut off and plopped right down to the concrete...done...
*Disclaimer: Before anyone starts flaming into "pilot error" comments I wanna remind folks that I have been flying since the Phantom 1's release and have hundreds of pilot hours behind it. You guys always have access to my YouTube videos in my sig.*
History:
Again, I've been flying with my Phantom 1 and F550 builds for quite some time and I knew a Zenmuse H3-3D was in the pipeline and I waited. Then BAM, Dronefly.com had pre-orders and my purchase of a Phantom 2 + H3-3D Production Kit from them came just LAST MONTH, right before my trip to South Africa, perfect timing to capture awesome safari videos and such right????
What happened:
Was in Cape Town city square, fairly large one too. Did my usual flight check; check for full battery, compass cali., set on level ground, wait for "green light", and I even wait to for AT LEAST 8 satellites to catch (i got the iOSD)....all checked out. Sent it only straight up, nothing crazy, just went up to about 300ft last I looked on the iOSD to do a 360 panorama. Suddenly it starts to drift and I lose all stick commands, holy crap there it goes (fly-away). Instantly I went to fail safe and thankfully it hovered and I see the yellow lights blinking and it started coming back...whew.....
WRONG!!! As I see it hovering back towards the home point perfectly as it should, BAM, power cuts off and it falls. Luckily it went top-down first so the GoPro was saved. P2 is in shambles; broken arm, lipo was thrown away (puffy), gimbal frame demolished...
Rant: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
I'm normally not one to finger point or go on rants, I like to think myself a positive guy and have always been happy with my DJI Products; P1, F550, etc. HOWEVER, this plain just pisses me off...what the heck happened!? WHO the heck releases something that just TURNS OFF all of a sudden!!?? If this was a toy car or anything that is based on the ground, no big deal, but this is a Quadcopter capable of thousands of feet height of flying!!?? Fly aways, ok, that sucks worse, I know. I already hear you guys saying "at least you got it back", yes and I agree on that.
But how is this "quality control" guys? After this crash, I'm now learning about the other multitude of issues; the "J-hook", the "Sudden Death", and the "Fly aways" all majority are the "new" Phantom 2's!!!! Why is there no class-action lawsuit by now?? (which I will happily join by the way). My confidence now in DJI is absolutely shot. I strongly feel this incident is all on DJI's hands. This isn't pilot error, this isn't me flying into a building, this is simply CATASTROPHIC FAILURE (Edit: That can also possibly seriously HURT SOMEONE), which is simply unacceptable on all levels.
I'm simply at a loss for words (a rarity) right now. I'm ultra raging and feel helpless at the same time, because we ALL KNOW how (sarcasm) awesome DJI's support treat us. I can't go back to Dronefly.com (or can I?) because they're just the seller, what can they do? So the best thing that makes ME feel better, is to post this and hopefully it'll at least show ONE MORE victim of something that should absolutely NOT HAPPEN.
RANT FINISHED.
Thank you guys for reading/listening to my rant. It's all I can do right now to feel better. I'm open to any suggestions or comments about this to help further understand or help prevent this from happening to my fellow flyers. I hope to post the video of what happened when I get a better wi-fi connection that will let me at least upload SOMETHING. Take care, and may the drone gods be with you.
-Gabe
http://youtu.be/FWeUhHaz20o
WHAT THE HECK.......
My brand new Phantom 2 with H3-3D just shut off and plopped right down to the concrete...done...
*Disclaimer: Before anyone starts flaming into "pilot error" comments I wanna remind folks that I have been flying since the Phantom 1's release and have hundreds of pilot hours behind it. You guys always have access to my YouTube videos in my sig.*
History:
Again, I've been flying with my Phantom 1 and F550 builds for quite some time and I knew a Zenmuse H3-3D was in the pipeline and I waited. Then BAM, Dronefly.com had pre-orders and my purchase of a Phantom 2 + H3-3D Production Kit from them came just LAST MONTH, right before my trip to South Africa, perfect timing to capture awesome safari videos and such right????
What happened:
Was in Cape Town city square, fairly large one too. Did my usual flight check; check for full battery, compass cali., set on level ground, wait for "green light", and I even wait to for AT LEAST 8 satellites to catch (i got the iOSD)....all checked out. Sent it only straight up, nothing crazy, just went up to about 300ft last I looked on the iOSD to do a 360 panorama. Suddenly it starts to drift and I lose all stick commands, holy crap there it goes (fly-away). Instantly I went to fail safe and thankfully it hovered and I see the yellow lights blinking and it started coming back...whew.....
WRONG!!! As I see it hovering back towards the home point perfectly as it should, BAM, power cuts off and it falls. Luckily it went top-down first so the GoPro was saved. P2 is in shambles; broken arm, lipo was thrown away (puffy), gimbal frame demolished...
Rant: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
I'm normally not one to finger point or go on rants, I like to think myself a positive guy and have always been happy with my DJI Products; P1, F550, etc. HOWEVER, this plain just pisses me off...what the heck happened!? WHO the heck releases something that just TURNS OFF all of a sudden!!?? If this was a toy car or anything that is based on the ground, no big deal, but this is a Quadcopter capable of thousands of feet height of flying!!?? Fly aways, ok, that sucks worse, I know. I already hear you guys saying "at least you got it back", yes and I agree on that.
But how is this "quality control" guys? After this crash, I'm now learning about the other multitude of issues; the "J-hook", the "Sudden Death", and the "Fly aways" all majority are the "new" Phantom 2's!!!! Why is there no class-action lawsuit by now?? (which I will happily join by the way). My confidence now in DJI is absolutely shot. I strongly feel this incident is all on DJI's hands. This isn't pilot error, this isn't me flying into a building, this is simply CATASTROPHIC FAILURE (Edit: That can also possibly seriously HURT SOMEONE), which is simply unacceptable on all levels.
I'm simply at a loss for words (a rarity) right now. I'm ultra raging and feel helpless at the same time, because we ALL KNOW how (sarcasm) awesome DJI's support treat us. I can't go back to Dronefly.com (or can I?) because they're just the seller, what can they do? So the best thing that makes ME feel better, is to post this and hopefully it'll at least show ONE MORE victim of something that should absolutely NOT HAPPEN.
RANT FINISHED.
Thank you guys for reading/listening to my rant. It's all I can do right now to feel better. I'm open to any suggestions or comments about this to help further understand or help prevent this from happening to my fellow flyers. I hope to post the video of what happened when I get a better wi-fi connection that will let me at least upload SOMETHING. Take care, and may the drone gods be with you.
-Gabe