Worst horror stories of Phantom injuries

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Everyone says how dangerous the quads are and calls them flying lawnmowers. After months of props hitting me and bad landings I have yet to incur any injury. I might be lucky, but can anyone tell me what is the worst damage their Phantom has ever caused. If it was yours and you are embarrassed please start the story with "My friends drone....". No rumors however, please just real info so I can do some risk assessment.
 
Excellent question! But it occurs to me that all "quads" are not equal. The damage is always going to be proportional to the weight, speed, and power behind the blades.....and after that the area of human anatomy struck. Exactly how dangerous our generic Phantoms are is my interest.

Edit: OK, I see you specified that in the title....sorry.

There is one case within 12 months apparently of someone killed when their drone struck their head....but my understanding was that was a really large and powerful drone, not something Phantom size.
 
Peter Patricelli said:
There is one case within 12 months apparently of someone killed when their drone struck their head....but my understanding was that was a really large and powerful drone, not something Phantom size.

Unless there's been another RC fatality this year that I'm not aware of, I believe that one was due to a large-sized RC heli with much larger potential for injury/damage. But I'm definitely interested in hearing any reports of this with the Phantom, since I'm honestly surprised there haven't been more yet.
 
Tried some vision props on my original Phantom. Had to drill out the threads and remove the nuts on two of them, since my bird has only right hand threads. Got the props mounted on the wrong motors and the Phantom would not lift off. Managed to nick my finger on one of the spinning props and it unscrewed. That's when I knew why it would not lift. Hitting an obstruction should have tightened the prop. It barely drew blood but might have been worse if the prop had not come loose.
 
Idahomojo said:
I think it is a 1.5 meter carbon fiber blade that cut him up, not quite a phantom.

If that thing is a samurai sword, the phantom is like a blunt letter opener.

Or a nail clipper.
 
I once lost sight of my phantom when flying....in front of all my family. I eventually regained visibility after about a minute....but my brother had a good laugh at me later.

really injured my confidence...and ego =(
 
If you fly your Phantom you really should know how the home lock function works. Give it 65% power, engage home lock pull back on right stick. It will save you many times.
 
Idahomojo,
I know YOU know this, but for the less experienced.....if you have lost sight of your bird because it flew behind something, like a building or tree....panic....give it 65% power, initiate home lock, pull down on the right stick.....you will plant your bird IN that building or tree. It does NOT follow it's trail in or out of anywhere...but takes a straight....and blind.... GPS course to it's takeoff point.
 
Peter Patricelli said:
Idahomojo,
I know YOU know this, but for the less experienced.....if you have lost sight of your bird because it flew behind something, like a building or tree....panic....give it 65% power, initiate home lock, pull down on the right stick.....you will plant your bird IN that building or tree. It does NOT follow it's trail in or out of anywhere...but takes a straight....and blind.... GPS course to it's takeoff point.

Thanks for this....I am new and was wondering how return home worked...
 
Idahomojo said:
After months of props hitting me and bad landings I have yet to incur any injury.

Not sure how you keep getting hit by props mine have only hit a few trees and some grass in a few hundred flights. Though I know they aren't going to do heaps of damage I try keep away from them as much as possible. I can understand the odd prop scrape but by the sound of it you must be doing it quite a bit so maybe you may need to change your flying a little. Its possible a freak accident even with a small plastic prop you could losea eye or something so avoiding cobtact with yourself or ang other person or aninal should be a high priority.

My biggest horror story so far is a prop fail at 70m up which bent over some tall grass, worst phantom crash I have seen is the wedding crasher. Apparently no major injuries which was lucky but that was just quite a silly manouver the guy was trying and hes lucky he didnt get killed by the bride after the crash lol.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocqB6_y71xE[/youtube]
 
When I was referring to props hitting me I meant like when it was idling on the ground or carrying it with props slightly spinning. When they are at idle I don't mind them hitting me. Please don't think that I regularly crash it into myself. That is one funny wedding video. I think it is more a good video that shows you can walk away from an impact with a phantom at full throttle.
 
I put some 9" carbon fiber props on mine and I had 2 of them mixed up. I launched it off the top of the plastic tote I carry it in and it took a chunk out of the lid of the tote. I was surprised, but I attribute it to the carbon fiber. I'm sure the OE props would not be capable of the same damage.
 
On day two with my P3 advanced, the phantom went into ATTI mode, and crashed into my leg. Luckily, I had prop gaurds on, and avoided injuring my knee. However, the large size of the prop gaurds, coupled with the instability caused by there wieght, caused the phantom to flip over and hit my fingers. The phantom immediatly attempted a fly away. At this point, my fingers were still on the body of the phantom. My hand kept the phantom from flying away, but kept the motors on maximum accending power. I tried to move my right hand away, but ending up with a huge cut on my right index finger. A second attempt only worsened the wound, and knicked my pinkie. At this point, I was frightened and not thinking straight. I attempted to use my left hand in order to turn off the phantom battery. This was a stupid move I should not have attempted. I got a huge gash on my left pointer finger. At this point, my friend had managed to take control of the phantoms. I yelled out instructions at him, and he turned off the motors.

I ended up with 7 proppeller marks on my right index, a huge gash on my left pointer, and a series of small cuts on my other fingers.

I broke one of the props on my phantom, but other then that the device recieved no harm. I had spares, and was quickly back to flying, albiet staying a safe distance away, and with bandaged hands.

3 months has passed since the incident, I now have scars on all of my affected fingers.

Moral of story: do not fly near phantom, or in Atti mode if you are not experienced. Also remember that prop gaurds may cost the phantom its ability to hover in place, and cause the phantom to sway during flight.
 
When I had my p3S I was showing my neighbor and the drone was facing me and some wind picked up and it started to drift kinda close to a tree and I tried to correct this and I corrected the wrong way and corrected it into the tree and it fell about 8 ft to the ground upside down. I ran over quickly and grabbed it before performing a csc and the motors started up again and it tried to return to where it was flying at while I was still holding it.

Needless to say I still have a few scars on my forearm. I would compare the injury to a bicycle crash and skinning up your knees or elbows.. I was not to worried about my arm but more worried about getting the blades to stop..

I now own a P3A and I am more careful.. moral of the story is don't show boat for people you will mess up and either you or someone else or your drone will pay for it
 

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