Hey guys!
So, I'm creating this post both to share a mildly entertaining story, and to glean some information that I need from the community. My questions are highlighted near the bottom. So let's get started...
So I just got back from Mexico this week. I did a lot of flying, and captured a lot of great video. Everything was going great until the day before I left.
My dad, my uncle, and I went to go film about an hour before sunset. Upon arriving at the site, I had trouble getting my Samsung Galaxy s6 to connect to the aircraft via the go app (the screen did not show that the aircraft was connected or the video feed). However, after fiddling around with the micro-USB cable (I had to hold the cable up against the bottom of my s6 because it was loose), I was eventually able to take off.
The flight was going great until about 13 or 14 minutes in. All of a sudden, when the battery level hit 30%, the aircraft started landing, and I could not cancel it. Why, I have no idea, since I would have easily made it back with that much battery remaining.
So I decided to just hit RTH and wait for the aircraft to arrive. However, even while executing the RTH, the aircraft kept descending! If I would have done nothing, the aircraft would have hit the side of the mountain before it ever got back to me. Therefore, I cancelled RTH and tried to navigate back manually.
Unfortunately, I had to keep fighting the AC's auto-landing while trying to come back home. By this time, I had lost a lot of battery power and I was still more than a half-mile out. With about 4% battery remaining, I lost all contact with the AC.
After waiting a few minutes to see if by some miracle the AC would magically come home, I realized that the AC had probably crashed, since I did not believe it had the sufficient battery power reach the ground below it (it descends really slowly). So, I raced to a small town near where I was to upload the flight log on my s6 to healthydrones.com
By this time, it was getting dark, and finding the drone in the dark would be close to impossible. Upon uploading the flight log, I retrieved the last known coordinates, got back in the car, and raced to the scene ( the AC's last known location was only 9 mins away from town). I felt pretty confident that's where the AC would be, since it was auto-descending. After arriving at the road next to the exact location, my uncle and I hopped out of the car and jumped the rock fence to the location. Sure enough, there it was, upside down and covered in weeds. Here's a picture:
https://i.imgsafe.org/874d9b63f4.jpg
I was so happy to find it. It was all there, and the props were not cracked. I thought I had gotten off scott-free.
I was almost right. After cleaning the AC, it looked almost the same as when I took off. Everything works as before. However, parts of the top shell are now cracked. Now the left-back arm seems to be bent because when I attach the prop to it and spin it, the prop hits the top shell of the AC. Here are some pictures:
https://i.imgsafe.org/875e6178e7.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875e861fdf.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875ed6745f.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875eae37c1.jpg
And this one shows where the prop hits the top shell:
https://i.imgsafe.org/875ed8f46e.jpg
So my questions are:
1) Should I try to have DJI repair my AC at no cost since I don't believe it should have started auto-descending at 30 percent? Or was this pilot error?
2) How can I repair the AC myself? Will replacing the top shell allow the left back arm prop to spin freely again? If so, is replacing it easy or difficult?
3) Are there any good places you would recommend to fix my AC?
And finally...
4) How would I find out exactly how far my AC fell? I'm just curious. According to Healthydrones, the last known altitude of my AC was 204 feet, but my AC seems to be in too good condition to have fallen from that height.
THANKS!
So, I'm creating this post both to share a mildly entertaining story, and to glean some information that I need from the community. My questions are highlighted near the bottom. So let's get started...
So I just got back from Mexico this week. I did a lot of flying, and captured a lot of great video. Everything was going great until the day before I left.
My dad, my uncle, and I went to go film about an hour before sunset. Upon arriving at the site, I had trouble getting my Samsung Galaxy s6 to connect to the aircraft via the go app (the screen did not show that the aircraft was connected or the video feed). However, after fiddling around with the micro-USB cable (I had to hold the cable up against the bottom of my s6 because it was loose), I was eventually able to take off.
The flight was going great until about 13 or 14 minutes in. All of a sudden, when the battery level hit 30%, the aircraft started landing, and I could not cancel it. Why, I have no idea, since I would have easily made it back with that much battery remaining.
So I decided to just hit RTH and wait for the aircraft to arrive. However, even while executing the RTH, the aircraft kept descending! If I would have done nothing, the aircraft would have hit the side of the mountain before it ever got back to me. Therefore, I cancelled RTH and tried to navigate back manually.
Unfortunately, I had to keep fighting the AC's auto-landing while trying to come back home. By this time, I had lost a lot of battery power and I was still more than a half-mile out. With about 4% battery remaining, I lost all contact with the AC.
After waiting a few minutes to see if by some miracle the AC would magically come home, I realized that the AC had probably crashed, since I did not believe it had the sufficient battery power reach the ground below it (it descends really slowly). So, I raced to a small town near where I was to upload the flight log on my s6 to healthydrones.com
By this time, it was getting dark, and finding the drone in the dark would be close to impossible. Upon uploading the flight log, I retrieved the last known coordinates, got back in the car, and raced to the scene ( the AC's last known location was only 9 mins away from town). I felt pretty confident that's where the AC would be, since it was auto-descending. After arriving at the road next to the exact location, my uncle and I hopped out of the car and jumped the rock fence to the location. Sure enough, there it was, upside down and covered in weeds. Here's a picture:
https://i.imgsafe.org/874d9b63f4.jpg
I was so happy to find it. It was all there, and the props were not cracked. I thought I had gotten off scott-free.
I was almost right. After cleaning the AC, it looked almost the same as when I took off. Everything works as before. However, parts of the top shell are now cracked. Now the left-back arm seems to be bent because when I attach the prop to it and spin it, the prop hits the top shell of the AC. Here are some pictures:
https://i.imgsafe.org/875e6178e7.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875e861fdf.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875ed6745f.jpg
https://i.imgsafe.org/875eae37c1.jpg
And this one shows where the prop hits the top shell:
https://i.imgsafe.org/875ed8f46e.jpg
So my questions are:
1) Should I try to have DJI repair my AC at no cost since I don't believe it should have started auto-descending at 30 percent? Or was this pilot error?
2) How can I repair the AC myself? Will replacing the top shell allow the left back arm prop to spin freely again? If so, is replacing it easy or difficult?
3) Are there any good places you would recommend to fix my AC?
And finally...
4) How would I find out exactly how far my AC fell? I'm just curious. According to Healthydrones, the last known altitude of my AC was 204 feet, but my AC seems to be in too good condition to have fallen from that height.
THANKS!