Any Thoughts?

[radioandy]

I wanted to quickly share my experience's in hopes someone has ran across this before. I had purchased the Phantom 2 Vision + directly from DJI. Long story short, there was a problem with its GPS apparently. It would never find more than 5 satellites. Turns out if you buy directly through DJI, you the customer are responsible for shipping costs and so forth... Needless to say I was not happy. I paid the shipping and received a refund. I purchased my next Phantom 2 Vision + through B&H Photo. This one worked text book right out of the box. I flew it 5-6 times with no problems! However, this past Saturday, I flew it in the most ideal weather conditions, full battery, 9 satellites and so on...About 9 min into the flight, I took my hands off the controls to adjust the tilt on the camera in the app. The aircraft hovered as it should. About 15 seconds later, the aircraft began to wobble out of control so quickly I couldn't even respond, crashing into a metal covered walkway, breaking the gimbal and bending the right leg. We had 56% battery life at the time this happened and were about 25-30 feet off the ground. Any suggestions? I hope B&H will replace this since I've only had this second one about a week. My only thought is that one of the motors failed? There was little if no wind. The Phantom just started wobbling

 

[kgarrison]

Could be a motor or ESC. It could also be some kind of electrical interference. Kind of hard to say without a bunch of troubleshooting. DJI's response will basically be that if you were flying anywhere near buildings or power lines or you could be susceptible to problems. I don't know B&H's return policy on these, you will have to ask them.

 

[CmB]

Prop wash would be one thought but there was also a very high solar weather warning for Saturday (affects GPS).
A motor failing, or indeed any of the above, is hard to prove especially if there has been damage in the crash.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Very hard to tell but my instant reaction when someone mentions wobbling is propwash, you dont need to be descending fast for it to happen, in rare circumstances it can happen just hovering. Did it just drop? Or fly off in a direction?

 

[radioandy]

I was simply hovering about 25-30 feet off the ground. As I said minimal winds 5mph tops. It just started wobbling on its own and fell straight down. The good thing about this whole mess is that B&H is covering an exchange, due to the fact we have no idea if it was a motor or what.

 

[shrill mute]

It could also be some kind of electrical interference.

No.

DJI's response will basically be that if you were flying anywhere near buildings or power lines or you could be susceptible to problems.

That might be DJI's response but it would be just as erroneous as your response.

 

[povlhp]

Maybe a downdraft, and then vortex ring state ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_ring_state

Read that multiple Phantoms were lost because of this. Most during descend though. But I have seen the same hovering with my U818A as well. Full forward or full power against the wind is only way to recover.

I live in a place where no wind is rare, so I should have less risk of encounting that problem.

 

[kgarrison]

You don't think electrical interference can cause issues? If not, I have a great place for you to fly, it plays total havoc with our copters, have had three go down and two more barely recovered. It is an absolute death trap for copters and such a shame because its such a cool place otherwise. The problem is you are flying over this small valley and at the bottom are some very old high power lines. From the launch position, they are a good 40' below you, but once you go over the lines your compass goes crazy, GPS fails, FPV fails, and IF you happen to be VERY lucky, it will do a return to home and get close enough to take control, if you let it auto-land, it won't be anywhere close to take off position. So yes, absolutely, electrical interference can cause crazy stuff to happen.

 

[jalpert]

Did you have prop guards on? I was with my buddy and his Phantom entered VRS just by hovering. He took the prop guards off and it hasn't happened again.

Also, if you are hovering or coming straight down, wind is your friend. It pushes the bad air away from underneath the Phantom.

You just have to be careful, you don't want to be descend 10mph with a 10mph wind.

I was simply hovering about 25-30 feet off the ground. As I said minimal winds 5mph tops. It just started wobbling on its own and fell straight down. The good thing about this whole mess is that B&H is covering an exchange, due to the fact we have no idea if it was a motor or what.