Second Phantom 3 Pro Down...

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My first P3 was my own fault...destroyed the camera when it hit the ground because I wasn't paying attention to the surroundings. This one, however, went insane and committed suicide; I think because we film there all the time and it was just bored.

This is the point (~ 1:45) where I had all bars for connection but lost video and gps. Gps came back on (battery stayed in) but the video didn't because part of the camera broke off at some point and I couldn't find it in the swampy area. Note the flight log shows it was in GoHome (RTH) but fought like hell against it. Sent in for repair/replace as I've only had it two months.

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FlightLog.png
 
Oh man that is a nightmare. I hope they give you fair treatment ... looks like the thing went crazy on you. Hope you will keep us posted.
 
Oh man that is a nightmare. I hope they give you fair treatment ... looks like the thing went crazy on you. Hope you will keep us posted.

Thanks. I expect that they will treat me with the same courtesy and patience I show them. Heh. If not, I'll move to another company.

I love your photography, btw. Beautiful work.
 
Did you calibrate the compass prior to flight? How about the r/c or gimbal, when were they last calibrated? Had you paid any attention to the IMU sensor readings?

Are you able to attach your .txt file to this flight here? If so I can tell you what really took place.
 
Did you calibrate the compass prior to flight? How about the r/c or gimbal, when were they last calibrated? Had you paid any attention to the IMU sensor readings?

Are you able to attach your .txt file to this flight here? If so I can tell you what really took place.

Yes. All calibrated within a week and only flown in that area. Was flying fine on two other batteries (yes, all six of my batteries are up to date with firmware) and was just burning this one to 30% (I was at the parking area just off the map you see).

No need for analysis here, they've already examined and given me the RMA but if you tell me how to give you the txt file you ask for, I'd love to know how to read it, too.
 
Sorry for your crash. Looking at the video kinda indicated a hardware failure with either a ESC or motor due to the strange behavior. Would be interesting to find out!
 
flyNfrank told me how to get the logs and such. I'll grab them tomorrow and share what really happened or the raw logs if I can't figure it out. I'm not as versed in it as flyNfrank is, I'm sure.
 
Looks like either a motor failure or a bird attack.
As to compass error, I do not see it causing the phantom to tilt the way it did, but the other way is possible: for example: something hit the phantom, it lost control and tilted quickly, quicker than can be done controllably, which would trigger a compass error - which could cause the issue you had returning home.
 
Is it me or are we getting a heck of a lot of similar cases of P3s going nuts like this?

It seems that something happens, P3 loses compass, goes into ATTI, flies like a drunk, and quickly plummets to the ground at speed...
 
Is it me or are we getting a heck of a lot of similar cases of P3s going nuts like this?

It seems that something happens, P3 loses compass, goes into ATTI, flies like a drunk, and quickly plummets to the ground at speed...
Yep... a TON of them!! like THREE now!!
 
Yep... a TON of them!! like THREE now!!

This isn't the only P3 forum out there. It would be generous to say that this is the 4th most important or active P3 forum. Similar posts are being made on other forums.

Given the traffic this forum gets, 3 is quite lot for what appears to be the exact same scenario.

Think back to P2 days. How many people managed to capture a real 'flyaway'? It was almost a myth, a legend. People mentioned it, some people claimed it, but for a long time no one had anything to substantiate their stories. To this day, there are very few legitimate videos of it. And Gopros are always turned on and recording while flying and they are less prone to memory card corruption. On the flip side, you have 3 cases in a week just on this little forum that show a very similar failure.
 
That looks alot like a bird attack.
Ive had it happen to mine, where I saw (LOS) the bird hitting it.
The movement seen through the camera is the same.
I was lucky enough that my P3 was able to stabilize after the hit, and stay in the air.
 
That looks alot like a bird attack.
Ive had it happen to mine, where I saw (LOS) the bird hitting it.
The movement seen through the camera is the same.
I was lucky enough that my P3 was able to stabilize after the hit, and stay in the air.

Yeah, problem was that I saw the whole thing as it was within visual range of me and there was absolutely no external force (that we could see) exerted upon it. Six other people saw it, too. Went crazy, upside down, upside right, straight to the swampy bits. I had to go through so much brush just to get the main part of the machine.
 
I just recently was the victim of a fly away. The aircraft and procedures required were all up to date and performed as manufacturers specification suggest.

I submitted my claim form to DJI along with flight records and a narrative as they requested. It seems pretty clear that this was total malfunction based on a firmware update that had just been performed. '

I just received an email back from them saying ;

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your patience.

We have reviewed your survey, and based on the incident you experienced, we want to provide further assistance.

First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation.

We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30

This is crap. Horrible customer service without really make any relevant claim to the detail of the situation.

This bird is 2 months new and I have had 278 successful flights until this one after the firmware update.

What a rip off!
 
I just recently was the victim of a fly away. The aircraft and procedures required were all up to date and performed as manufacturers specification suggest.

I submitted my claim form to DJI along with flight records and a narrative as they requested. It seems pretty clear that this was total malfunction based on a firmware update that had just been performed. '

I just received an email back from them saying ;

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your patience.

We have reviewed your survey, and based on the incident you experienced, we want to provide further assistance.

First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation.

We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30

This is crap. Horrible customer service without really make any relevant claim to the detail of the situation.

This bird is 2 months new and I have had 278 successful flights until this one after the firmware update.

What a rip off!

I'm sorry. I didn't get that response when I sent in my photos and information. I had 160 flights, 2 months old and they said it would be covered. However, I read in another thread that someone got billed later.

I'll definitely follow up with my anecdotal data (as I'm only one experience) to add to the pile of information.
 
I just recently was the victim of a fly away. The aircraft and procedures required were all up to date and performed as manufacturers specification suggest.

I submitted my claim form to DJI along with flight records and a narrative as they requested. It seems pretty clear that this was total malfunction based on a firmware update that had just been performed. '

I just received an email back from them saying ;

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your patience.

We have reviewed your survey, and based on the incident you experienced, we want to provide further assistance.

First, we want to remind you that the remote connection our Phantoms use can be interfered with by outside sources as per FCC law. Flying near any large amounts of concrete, steel, powerlines, wifi technology, and other man-made sources can affect the behavior of the aircraft. Also, calibrating the compass over or near any of these objects or material can cause issues in flight. This is a general reminder and may not necessarily apply to your situation.

We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30

This is crap. Horrible customer service without really make any relevant claim to the detail of the situation.

This bird is 2 months new and I have had 278 successful flights until this one after the firmware update.

What a rip off!
That 30% is a joke, this is nearly the price of the P3 pro without remote controller, so they just adviced you to buy a new one more or less
 
$881.30! Wondering how they got that figure. Do they know you have the crashed Phantom with working camera? Thinking vs. the other one being eaten by the swamp monster. You know they have some type of closed door reasoning.
 
We would like to offer you 30% off a new purchase of a Phantom 3 Professional for $881.30

This is crap. Horrible customer service without really make any relevant claim to the detail of the situation.

This bird is 2 months new and I have had 278 successful flights until this one after the firmware update.

What a rip off!

278 flight is a lot of airtime. That's 80 hours of actual flying...

You have to remember that these machines are temporary. There is zero redundancy and zero inspection intervals. Eventually, some little part fails and they fall out of the sky.

I know a lot of people want to get their flying in, but I'm starting to think that it probably makes sense to do flying with cheap quads that are easy to fix, and reserve Phantom 3s for what they are made for; filming/photographing scenes.

As for $881.30, they must be joking. You can get a barely used P3Pro, including the remote, for less.
 

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