Silly question, does every bird fail quickly?

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I purchased a P2V+... Charged the batteries, read the manual numerous times, watched youtube videos about how newbies should start flying, and then I found this forum..

It seems like every post is about a fly away, motors failing, needing to purchase taller landing gears and protection for the cameras, failed software updates, and the like.

Is the failure rate as high as it appears? Are there people who have logged tons of hours without losing their bird? I've had an ar drone for 5 or so years, and of course it is not anything like a Phantom, but I've had 5 years of problem free flying with only a couple landing issues, never had a "fatal crash".


I'm hoping that this forum has a ton of successful phantom owners sitting on the side, not posting, but here for info.... I'm hoping that is the case.


*I know user error causes some crashes, but I'm a pretty cautious person.. but the uncontrollable failures are really scaring me here.
 
Mine has been going great
 
This is typical of Internet forums and reviews. People tend to post more when they have problems. I haven't had any major problems (knock on wood), but I'm not going to start a new thread announcing that I haven't.
 
50+ flights on my V3, no issues, I did open her up and lifted wires off ESC circuit boards to prevent melting.
 
When comparing the small number of posts here (which seems to be the largest Phantom forum on the Internet) to the number of sales DJI made, it seems the majority of Phantom owners are not running into major issues.
 
The fact that I like the most is.....I can't think of one vPlus owner that has followed the advise of this forum who has then experienced a problem.
 
Thanks guys. I was hoping this was the case. Can't wait to fire it up for the first time tonight :)
 
eurostylin said:
It seems like every post is about a fly away, motors failing, needing to purchase taller landing gears and protection for the cameras, failed software updates, and the like.

Gotta remember that normally people only post about problems. When was the last time somebody went on a forum to post "I had a completely unremarkable flight today and everything went perfectly"? Maybe we should start doing that just to balance things out...
 
mines always flown perfectly
 
AndysAdventures said:
I crashed my first V+ by hitting a tree branch after a few months of almost daily flights.

Now my current V+ has been going strong for almost a year with many flights completed with no problems.

They only came out in April last year :lol:
Which is when I got mine, and not had any real problem yet apart from one of three batteries returned for replacement under warranty. Having said that there have been plenty of head scratching minor things to solve to do with firmware and apps mainly.
If there is a common theme to problems it is that - updates not well documented and poorly implemented with various pitfalls for the unwary and early adopters.
 
4WD he said he HAD it for almost a year not that he had it a year
 
eurostylin said:
It seems like every post is about a fly away, motors failing, needing to purchase taller landing gears and protection for the cameras, failed software updates, and the like.
Is the failure rate as high as it appears?

From: http://fortune.com/2014/10/08/drone-nation-air-droid/
"Hong Kong–based DJI claims to own a full 50% of the recreational market, selling 30,000 or more of its now ubiquitous Phantom quadrotor drones every month."

That's 360,000 Phantoms in a year. And there are, what, three or four dozen reports of fly-aways on this forum? You do the math, but that sounds like a really small number.
 
SteveMann said:
eurostylin said:
It seems like every post is about a fly away, motors failing, needing to purchase taller landing gears and protection for the cameras, failed software updates, and the like.
Is the failure rate as high as it appears?

From: http://fortune.com/2014/10/08/drone-nation-air-droid/
"Hong Kong–based DJI claims to own a full 50% of the recreational market, selling 30,000 or more of its now ubiquitous Phantom quadrotor drones every month."

That's 360,000 Phantoms in a year. And there are, what, three or four dozen reports of fly-aways on this forum? You do the math, but that sounds like a really small number.

Presuming that all 360.000 sold phantoms have unique owners, speak English and are members here on this forum.
The latest example is that update 3.10 was pulled away from the servers.
We had some reports here but certainly no 360.000.
The only sure thing is that this forum provides experience with fellow enthusiasts and is a Q and A thing when then mind gets deluded.
 
4wd said:
AndysAdventures said:
I crashed my first V+ by hitting a tree branch after a few months of almost daily flights.

Now my current V+ has been going strong for almost a year with many flights completed with no problems.

They only came out in April last year :lol:
general01 said:
4WD he said he HAD it for almost a year not that he had it a year
Arithmetic time ...
P2V+ released April 2014 - hit a tree branch after a few months - so he bought a new one June or later.
He's had it for 8 months or less.
I'm with 4WD - It's probably stretching things a bit to call that almost a year.
 
Meta4 said:
4wd said:
AndysAdventures said:
I crashed my first V+ by hitting a tree branch after a few months of almost daily flights.

Now my current V+ has been going strong for almost a year with many flights completed with no problems.

They only came out in April last year :lol:
general01 said:
4WD he said he HAD it for almost a year not that he had it a year
Arithmetic time ...
P2V+ released April 2014 - hit a tree branch after a few months - so he bought a new one June or later.
He's had it for 8 months or less.
I'm with 4WD - It's probably stretching things a bit to call that almost a year.


Likely
I had my non plus vision for four months before springing for the plus(July to October)
Heres to hopeing I don't crash the v+ :mrgreen:
 

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