4 propellers came off mid flight

[craig4855]

I bought the dji phantom V2+ about 8 weeks ago. Flew it about 10 times with no issues. Yesterday I was taking photos of a friends house. Altitude varied from 30 - 120 feet. Had flown for about 10 minutes and photos were excellent. I was hovering at about 60 feet deciding whether we were finished when suddenly all 4 propellers blew off the copter and it plummeted to the ground. Totally destroyed.

Dealer says he has never heard of this, and it is not really possible. (Well it happened to me.)

Anybody got any ideas ?

I have lost confidence, and am afraid to fly again.

Sounds stupid, but are you sure that the props were on the correct motors? Black on black, silver on silver

 

[N017RW]

Props cannot be put on wrong motors.

Try it!

 

[RichWest]

I appreciate you testing, hopefully it didn't damage either the props or motors. Kind of answer the question about self tightening props, didn't it....

I would not recommend the method either. It is an impact type action, very similar to having the props hit the ground while spinning. I imagine the action would definitely stress the plastic around the hub.

 

[dirtybum]

Yep.
The question is, Do the motors restart sometimes and save the bird, or not?

If the props are gone, it really doesn't matter, but if you have used the wrench... maybe the bird will recover.

Very interesting arguement . I had a cw motor start spinning the opposite direction after a esc replacement . The wores in correct order.Thing is i couldve swore it

 

[dirtybum]

Very interesting arguement . I had a cw motor start spinning the opposite direction after a esc replacement . The wores in correct order.Thing is i couldve swore it

That it was spinning the correct way at first. They can stop but not change directions correct!

 

[dirtybum]

How tight do u tighten w/ wrench? Those of you that practice this

 

[IflyinWY]

How tight do u tighten w/ wrench? Those of you that practice this

http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/4-propellers-came-off-mid-flight.41197/page-3#post-377707

 

[yorlik]

How tight do u tighten w/ wrench? Those of you that practice this

EXCELLENT question!

I tightened with wrech pretty good - twisting close to hub with free hand "pretty hard."

Not very good description....... I do know that doing this a dozen times took 13#-in to untighten..... but untighten torque is not always the same as tighten torque due to stiction etc.

Know that torque is force at a distance, so assuming tightening torque equals untightening torque (fair to say until someone proves otherwise), if you push against side of the prop 3" out from the hub with 4# push, that is 12#-in. That should save your prop from flying off.

 

[Canyon Mike]

I bought the dji phantom V2+ about 8 weeks ago. Flew it about 10 times with no issues. Yesterday I was taking photos of a friends house. Altitude varied from 30 - 120 feet. Had flown for about 10 minutes and photos were excellent. I was hovering at about 60 feet deciding whether we were finished when suddenly all 4 propellers blew off the copter and it plummeted to the ground. Totally destroyed.

Dealer says he has never heard of this, and it is not really possible. (Well it happened to me.)

Anybody got any ideas ?

I have lost confidence, and am afraid to fly again.

Did this happen with the newer "self tightening" props?

 

[Dirty Bird]

motors don't have to stop; just fact of slowing down fast produces MORE unwind torque than you can put into prop hand tightening. proven. sorry.

you have never gone from full left throttle to less than full? THAT can unwind hand tightened props. no question.

Sorry but I can't agree with your statement. I have hundreds of flights and I've gone from max power to min many, many times. Never had a prop just fly off and they are so tight upon landing that I always need the wrench to remove them.

 

[macsoft]

Very interesting arguement . I had a cw motor start spinning the opposite direction after a esc replacement . The wores in correct order.Thing is i couldve swore it

The wires on the ESCs are reversed (yellow/red or red yellow) for the CW and CCW motors. You probably copied the wire connection from the ESC on the side of the one you were changing, and you should of copy the wiring of the ESC on the opposite to the one changing

 

[Massimo Gajo]

I bought the dji phantom V2+ about 8 weeks ago. Flew it about 10 times with no issues. Yesterday I was taking photos of a friends house. Altitude varied from 30 - 120 feet. Had flown for about 10 minutes and photos were excellent. I was hovering at about 60 feet deciding whether we were finished when suddenly all 4 propellers blew off the copter and it plummeted to the ground. Totally destroyed.

Dealer says he has never heard of this, and it is not really possible. (Well it happened to me.)

Anybody got any ideas ?

I have lost confidence, and am afraid to fly again.

FINALLY... You know guys, before reading this post I felt like a stupid, really DJI made feel like a stupid! This is my story: I was taking some pictures and movie of an old building destroyed by fire two months before, no obstacles around, no high voltage wires around, nice weather, good calibration, full battery! I decided to check how much time left before going home and I saw on the screen 7 minutes, let's say plenty time to take one more pic and then go home, while I was thinking this, suddenly I saw on my iPhone screen CONNECTION BROKEN I looked at my drone and saw it falling down from about 50 meters like a stone... Nothing left! Gimbal and camera destroyed, battery broken, shield broken, landing gear broken. Ok after watching the movie I was recording during the flight, I decided to send a mail to DJI customer service telling the story and asking to analyze what was left of my drone, including the video to find out the reason why it felt down. Their nice answer was a list of thinghs to do before taking off, a lot of suggestion to fly safe and that's it. Not mentioned any problem the battery may have or the 4 motor. This made me so upset that I decide to change brand and forget FOREVER DJI Technologies!!!

 

[Vere]

Did this happen with the newer "self tightening" props?

Yes !

 

[Vere]

Sounds stupid, but are you sure that the props were on the correct motors? Black on black, silver on silver

Yes props on correct motors. They cannot go onto incorrect motors.

 

[Vere]

Thank you everyone for your input. Just went and bought a DJI Phantom 3. The destroyed drone is on its way to DJI USA for analysis. I will let you all know if there is any joy there. Sure will "wrench tighten" the new DJI's props before takeoff. My country (South Africa) is about to pass laws that will almost make drone flying illegal. What a joke !
We'll see .............

 

[ianwood]

So is the conclusion that this is only happening the V3 birds? Could there be some braking in the V3 ESCs that we weren't told about?

 

[dirtybum]

The wires on the ESCs are reversed (yellow/red or red yellow) for the CW and CCW motors. You probably copied the wire connection from the ESC on the side of the one you were changing, and you should of copy the wiring of the ESC on the opposite to the one changing

I was certain it was once during initial test ( props off ) it WAS spinning the right direction, but any of you boys that build or tinker with this hobby know we can be sleep deprived.thanks macsoft, i've never paid attention to the order CW versus CCW makes me wanna open one up now and take a looksee

 

[macsoft]

sleep deprived squad to the rescue!

 

[phantom13flyer]

Have you put up the video of all 4 props coming off?

 

[thomas thatcher]

Impossible couldn't happen unless Jesus unscrewed them