Well that was a BUST - What happened???

[Lasvegascfp]

So I bring my P2V+ to Brian Head Utah to fly around the slopes and Cedar Breaks. I'm so pumped I go out at 6AM this morning.

Power on, have GPS mode, calibrate compass and all looks GREAT!

Take off, fly about 100 feet high about a 100 yards downslope.

This is only my third flight. No issues on the first two, but I decide I need to test failsafe and the HL before really letting it get a distance away.

I turn off the remote, it flashes red and turns around, heads home.

The thing is right over head and it starts defending, I'm thinking this is awesome!

It get's about 40 feet high and something's not right. It starts doing like speed wobbles on the way down - like it can't moderate the right power to the right side of the copter. Then it starts descending - FAST.

CRASH!

I had prop guards on it, but broke a propeller, battery flew out, the camera mount came off and the camera broke off at the motor.

Now I don't know if I'm more depressed or highly pissed. Anyone know what happened????


Seriously bummed!

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Oh - the worst part is I was videoing the journey back and for some reason - THERE's NO VIDEO on the SD card!!! How does that happen? I was hoping I could load the video because I don't think I would believe this without seeing it. POS P2V+ grrrr

 

[sar104]

A number of people have discovered the hard way that, while Phantoms will fly at 10,000 ft MSL, performance with prop guards is very marginal, and they are very prone to uncontrolled descent - probably due to VRS. I suspect that you encountered the same problem. Try again without the prop guards.

 

[chuddly]

Sounds like you got into your own propwash and those prop guards NEVER help. (i forget the real name what others call it...im sure someone will be along shortly to add that in). Also I suspect the reason there is no video is because when you stop it actually finalizes the video. So because you didnt give it its time to do so you are not seeing it. It MAY still be on there hidden away ...but may not also.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Sorry to hear of your crash. First you were in vortex ring state, the wobbling and falling is what happen when a copter descends straight down. You should always try moving in a direction while coming down, prop guards add to the affect. Basically you push away all the good air from under your blades and create a void of bad air underneath that the rotors cant get lift from and then she falls. The latest firmware update slows the descent considerably to prevent this but again the prop guards dont help. The only way to get out of it is to move in any direction but dont try give throttle as this will also make it worse.
Your video didnt finalise, this happens when the battery comes out or turned off before you stop the recording in the app. You may be able to get the footage back by putting the sd card bqck into the camera and turning it on for 30 seconds so it can finalise the video but thats only if you can in your case with the broken camera. If you do get it back you will lose the last 30 seconds of footage which will contain your crash. The only thing you can do is get in touch with your dealer or dji, whichever you bought it from and get an RMA number off them and send it in for repair. This will take around 2 months and probably wont be cheap im afraid.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Great... The guys who sold it to me said I should really use the prop guards

Bad decision it sounds like.

Can that camera be fixed without sending it in? I'm guessing not. Two months what a freaking joke!

I just got this thing! Ugh!!!

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Oh... And just extra info I updated all firmware two days ago. So while I'm sure it should have slowed it down apparently it wasn't enough. My guess is you're right the prop guards really screwed me. I didn't think I needed them but I thought it prudent to listen to the guys from the shop. Oh well.

 

[kitari]

You said it was flashing red in RTH? Not sure about the p2v+, but on mine I get a yellow flash. Could it have been a battery issue?

 

[chuddly]

You said it was flashing red in RTH? Not sure about the p2v+, but on mine I get a yellow flash. Could it have been a battery issue?

Could have been a combo of the 2...low battery causing faster than intended decent along with the prop guards causing a larger problem with VRS

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Battery was fully charged, it had only need in the air for a minute literally.

Also I think it just flashes red twice to show it was doing the rth mode.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Let me ask this question

If it's gonna take dji two months to fix it is it worth me looking at going to GoPro hero 3? Either by converting this one (is that possible?) or just buy a new one then I can sell the p2v+ on eBay when I get it back. The guys at the shop said some people are waiting 3-6 months to get their unit back from dji. I don't wanna wait that long - I really enjoy this and I just wanna go fly

Thank goodness I brought my hubsan x4 with me LOL!

 

[Lasvegascfp]

What's really funny is I read the manual front to back (and usually I'm too impatient) because I really didn't want to mess this up! Didn't see anything about VRS in there. One would think a small mention in the RTH section could have been beneficial, maybe a mention that prop guards make it worse.

 

[sar104]

Great... The guys who sold it to me said I should really use the prop guards

Bad decision it sounds like.

Can that camera be fixed without sending it in? I'm guessing not. Two months what a freaking joke!

I just got this thing! Ugh!!!

If they are not used to flying at such high elevations then they likely would not know any better about the prop guards. It's the combination that causes the problems. Similarly with the latest descent rate limitations - at lower elevations that is good enough, even with prop guards. At 10,000 ft, it's still fast enough to lead to VRS with prop guards.

 

[BigTulsa]

Battery was fully charged, it had only need in the air for a minute literally.

Also I think it just flashes red twice to show it was doing the rth mode.

I'm pretty sure that in RTH it's constant yellow flashing, because it thinks it's lost connection to the controller and that's the same led sequence for that. That led sequence is true in both Phantom and Naza-M mode.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Battery was fully charged, it had only need in the air for a minute literally.

Also I think it just flashes red twice to show it was doing the rth mode.

I'm pretty sure that in RTH it's constant yellow flashing, because it thinks it's lost connection to the controller and that's the same led sequence for that. That led sequence is true in both Phantom and Naza-M mode.

it may have been yellow, it was a bit far to judge the color when I was paying attention to the lights. After it started coming back I wasn't paying attention to the color.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

Ya it's yellow you're right

 

[DDMSteve]

While I think that RTH is nice and all it really should be just viewed as a failsafe and not the way that you pack things up and bring it home. What likely occurred is simply that with higher elevation the air will be thinner. As you were flying early in the morning the air temps were probably cooler which aided a little bit in your favor. I don't have anything against prop guards but like RTH I fail to see them as much of a benefit unless you are flying in close proximity to a wall or indoors or something. I care more to have longer battery life with less of a payload.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

True, I am at 9,000 feet.

 

[Lasvegascfp]

While I think that RTH is nice and all it really should be just viewed as a failsafe and not the way that you pack things up and bring it home. .

Agreed, but being new with it I wanted to test that and the HL function out to get a feel before sending it over Cedar Breaks. So much for that now

I'm just wondering what it's gonna cost me to get it fixed and how long. Bums me out.

 

[sar104]

True, I am at 9,000 feet.

9600 ft.