4 propellers came off mid flight

Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
5
Reaction score
1
Age
62
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Massimo Gajo
Ouch....sorry about your loss. There have been threads on the forum about one prop exiting the vehicle, but this is the first I have heard of all four becoming detached.
 
frank, your link does not work here.

vere, if you buy another one, do yourself a favor and USE YOUR WRENCH to tighten the props - or have them fly off again!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vere
frank, your link does not work here.

vere, if you buy another one, do yourself a favor and USE YOUR WRENCH to tighten the props - or have them fly off again!

My link doesn't work? Where are you? And frankly, I'm not Frank.

Mine is the only link in the thread and it works for me.
 
Last edited:
nope, your link brings up nothing here in Ohio. sorry calling you by wrong name.
 
Tightening with a wrench only insures your props will still be on when you crash. It's a symptom, not the problem. 4 at a time is a new one.

I'd rather have them come off than be broken in the crash.
 
nope, your link brings up nothing here in Ohio. sorry calling you by wrong name.

I'll fix it. Thanks & no problem
 
Should have said new one on me. Still, just a symptom.

Sorry, not a symptom but the actual problem. Hand tighten and you WILL have good chance to have 1, 2,3, or 4 fly off in flight.

There needs to be NO drone fault to have this happen.

Sorry, definitive tests have been done to prove it.
 
Sorry, not a symptom but the actual problem. Hand tighten and you WILL have good chance to have 1, 2,3, or 4 fly off in flight.

There needs to be NO drone fault to have this happen.

Sorry, definitive tests have been done to prove it.

Props fly off because motors stop. Doesn't matter how many stop, you will crash if they do. Whether the prop is still attached at impact doesn't really matter.

No drone fault? Please explain.
 
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.
 
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.

OK. Whatever you say.
 
The link below will send you to a page which includes my thoughts, 3 interesting links, and yorlik's conclusions on the subject of props flying off the phantom and the importance of using a wrench.

I believe yorlik's findings important enough to create a page dedicated to the subject.

Thanks again yorlik, for your many hours of hard work, and for sharing with us.

http://www.wynotweb.com/Use_the_wrench.html
 
V2+ props cab be tightened with a wrench? I have one and done see how you'd do that.
No. They are self-tightening. For props to come off the motors need to stop spinning rapidly or something obstructs them.
 
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.
Many of us here have flown their Phantoms hard and not experienced prop. loss. Last weekend I had my camera off and was throwing the bird around in Atta mode with full forward flight turning 180' with the momentum still going and then full back flight (just for the fun of it and giving it a good test after it's tree collision from a failed battery where it auto-landed without visibility - video in this post - http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/battery-failure-again.40456/). It handled the 'acrobatics' well and with the camera off flew faster than ever.
 
I guess with the new P3 we'll see more props coming off in flight...active braking...the sky is falling....:cool:

@Vere, Sorry that you experienced a failure during flight. Does sound strange that all 4 props came off...
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MrTommy
I guess with the new P3 we'll see more props coming off in flight...active braking...the sky is falling....:cool:

They shouldn't come off. They put locks on them.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,354
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic