Unknown mid-flight failure video what now?

Mark Y · Aug 22, 2015

Flight #64, I am at 400' flying straight and level, then suddenly it falls out of the sky. Result? Cracked body, ESC error. Camera still works (had a gimbal guard). Questions for the group:

1. Why did this happen?
2. After shell replacement, what can be done to clear the ESC error? Motors? Mainboard?

Thanks fellas.

-Mark

SimonH78 · Aug 22, 2015

Oh dear! - Did it loose a prop in flight?

Meta4 · Aug 22, 2015

No clues there ... you'll need to extract the flight data file and send it to DJI to find out what happened.
Click on the blue online tech support link in the top right of this web page ...
http://www.dji.com/support

RoyVa · Aug 22, 2015

Mark, may sound funny but use your nose. If you remove the shell cover smell the corners of the main board and see if you smell any burnt smell. Look and see if you can see the Moffits and if any look blown by having a smoked area on sides. A drop like you had is normally either battery failure or an ESC. Clearly you battery was still functioning. I haven't heard of to many P3 ESC's failures like the P2's had. Would be interesting to find the culprit. Check the motor wires too at the ESC.

bobmyers · Aug 22, 2015

Have to call in the Phantom Transportation Safety Board for sure on that one

SCF (sudden catastrophic failure) of the electrical system for sure.. Sorry about your loss

Mark Y · Aug 22, 2015

Emailed my dealer and DJI for support. In my opinion, my crash is what everyone fears: an uncontrollable drop from the sky for unknown reason.

If anyone want's a peek at the log file, here it is.

http://ohiovr.com/xfer/mjy/FLY066.DAT

JKDSensei · Aug 22, 2015

Sorry to hear about your crash. Speedy recovery.

The only thing that could have made that short video better was a mushroom cloud at moment of impact

samivu · Aug 23, 2015

Prop failure maybe?

JKDSensei · Aug 23, 2015

Two have speculated a prop failure. Post #2 and Post #8

The OP has not cleared it up by stating whether or not all 4 props were on the bird after the crash.

Elkbowhunter · Aug 23, 2015

Great video!! hope it gets fixed soon!!!

Mark Y · Aug 23, 2015

The bird was returned with 2.5 props. Rear right missing (black). Rear left broke in half (silver)

Bigfoot_Hunter · Aug 23, 2015

I caught this short video with my P3A. The owner of the crashed bird was able to put new props on it and fly it 10 minutes after the crash. The gimbal and camera were toast. It had all the props on it when I walked up to the crash site.