Battery Ejection

[Squeamish]

" on the left edge of the driveway is my P4 (upside down) and in the bottom-right corner are the pieces of my battery. " (from the OP).
Do you really believe this is acceptable?

That what is acceptable? Pieces of a crashed drone were in different places? I'm not crazy about it (since I miss a couple weeks of flying and I have to pay for it) but why would that not be "acceptable?" It's acceptable to me, and it's my aircraft, so isn't my opinion the one that counts?

 

[Solar Deity]

That what is acceptable? Pieces of a crashed drone were in different places? I'm not crazy about it (since I miss a couple weeks of flying and I have to pay for it) but why would that not be "acceptable?" It's acceptable to me, and it's my aircraft, so isn't my opinion the one that counts?

Agree Squeamish. It was an accident. They happen and lessons are learned. No one was hurt.

Apparently you're giving the hobby a bad name. : )

Unbelievable.

SD

 

[Tony Cowan]

Remember. Trees are living beings. They can feel that drone approaching and they are very hungry. They reached out to touch it for a second. Lol. I learned the hard way too. Very hungry trees. Don't underestimate them. Especially at night.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Jussaguy]

Yeah, **** happens. People get in accidents with cars, bicycles, 4 wheelers, tricycles, Power Wheels, roller skates, jogging, etc. I don't tell them to do their thing out in the desert, or stop giving us a bad name because there was an accident? It was at night. A smaller chance of affecting a human being (really that's all I care about, other stuff is material). I pass way more automobiles than drones, but I don't feel the need to rubberneck and tell them to take their driving elsewhere because they made a mistake?????

I was teaching my daughter how to ride her bicycle the other day. She wiped out in the neighbors lawn. I'd tell you to 1st mind your own business, and then go f*** yourself if you said to me what you typed.

Like I said, typical FOG mentality.

SD

What is FOG?

 

[Jussaguy]

I wasn't running the DJI Go app during the flight, so there wouldn't be any logs there. I posted the logs I had a couple pages back.

Yes, but try the same thing AO was telling you to do.

Go to settings (assuming you're using iOS) and then go to iTunes and then to Litchi and see if that's an option.

FYI, at a glance "Litchi" has "auto sync to Healthy Drones" as a button on the app in settings.

 

[Solar Deity]

What is FOG?

Sorry. It's a term from RC clubs that goes way back. It basically labels the differences between generations and how the elder members at a club are so set in their ways, no change or any evolving technology/flying style has a place in their club. I won't repeat it here, but you can google it and may have to go deep.

SD

 

[Jussaguy]

Sorry. It's a term from RC clubs that goes way back. It basically labels the differences between generations and how the elder members at a club are so set in their ways, no change or any evolving technology/flying style has a place in their club. I won't repeat it here, but you can google it and may have to go deep.

SD

I did Google it first (always do). I would have figured it to be that one had I seen it but I searched "FOG acronym" and found a million others, other than that very usable one.

I'm 40 and you can be "FOG" at 40 or 60 depending on the person with that description. Thanks brah.

Please notice the use of the word "brah" to indicate my youth. seriously, up until I edited this I thought I was in PM.

Sort of the digital forum version of thinking you're in another room. ****. FOG

 

[Solar Deity]

I did Google it first (always do). I would have figured it to be that one had I seen it but I searched "FOG acronym" and found a million others, other than that very usable one.

I'm 40 and you can be "FOG" at 40 or 60 depending on the person with that description. Thanks brah.

Please notice the use of the word "brah" to indicate my youth. seriously, up until I edited this I thought I was in PM.

Sort of the digital forum version of thinking you're in another room. ****. FOG

The use of "brah" is duly noted............

 

[Air Ontario]

I wasn't running the DJI Go app during the flight, so there wouldn't be any logs there. I posted the logs I had a couple pages back.

Same thing with Litchi. They would just be under the Litchi app icon rather than DJI.

 

[Steve Maller]

The explanations here are getting really over-elaborate. That's a tall tree - taller than 50 ft judging by GE Street View. Is there any reason to reject the simple hypothesis that it simply flew into the tree, crashed to the ground, and ejected the battery on impact?

Any quadcopter will yaw very fast if it loses one prop (like if it hits a tree branch or anything hard). That kind of spinning could easily cause the battery to fly out, as the clips that hold the battery in are just part of the plastic body, and can lose their grip if the body deforms in any substantial way.

 

[TheLightSpeedz]

Looks like it hit that first tallest tree just before the driveway slab the one to the right of the driveway, behind and to the left of the short telephone pole on E. King.

Of course if the battery lost connection(slid back and broke connection)I suppose all video/photo recording would stop. Also I suppose there could be some buffering but ever crash I've seen showed the impact.

The txt files might show the cause and would likely be a better blow by blow analysis.

This reminds me of when my P3A just fell from the sky. Did exactly that, just shut off, no impact, and ejected the battery a ways from the crash.

I wonder if it is possible a similar issue to 1.5 FW update?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[barees63]

This FliteTest Phantom 4 video shows how the battery ejects on impact (at about 16:30)

 

[Dounin Front]

After the kids went to bed last night I finally had some free time to play with the P4 I've had since release day. Got my Beta copy of Litchi all set up and a few test journeys plotted in.

1. Why did I crash? I was flying at 70-something feet, the trees there are maybe 50' tops. The video doesn't show anything, it was too dark to see if any branches were close and it just all of a sudden ends while the drone is in the air. If I had hit a tree wouldn't there have been a few seconds of tumbling/falling?

2. How the hell did that battery get so far away? I bet it was 20 feet from the drone, and all of the pieces were together (although I did move them a little closer together for the closeup photo). That seems like the battery ejected mid-air rather than on the ground. An impact hard enough to throw the battery that far would have done more damage to the drone than what it was.

Any ideas?

Sorry for your loss.
Why you crashed is obviously related to that enormous tree in the picture.
All the broken props say it contacted something in flight. So the battery must have fallen out after the first impact.
There can be considerable variation in perceived altitude in flight and altitude is always calculated from the take off point.
I hope you bought a warranty with full coverage.
Did you find any green marks on any of the pieces?

Call me paranoid, but I find my comfort altitude at about 300 ft or more when I don't have good LOS.

 

[johnbowen]

Agree Squeamish. It was an accident. They happen and lessons are learned. No one was hurt.

Apparently you're giving the hobby a bad name. : )

Unbelievable.

SD

All that being said, 'just an accident" is a poor rationale or justification for what really amounts to bad judgement, lack of experience or plain stupidity for ones actions. Not saying the OP displayed any of these traits, but flying at night, just above tree top level is questionable in my mind. He clearly recognizes he is responsible for the damage to his AC. Would he be as quick to accept fault if someone were injured or killed due to his actions?

What if his ejected battery struck a roof, burst into flames when damaged and caused a house fire? Entirely plausible.

Any incident that becomes public knowledge is damaging to our hobby. Any. The media, especially local news, preys on hype and public fear, all in an effort to increase viewer market share.

I work as a firefighter/EMT in Seattle. We recently had a drone related incident that was clearly preventable, the media quickly jumped on the incident. It made the national news.

A new phantom "pilot" decided he wanted to video a parade in downtown Seatlle. It crashed into the side of a high rise building, fell from the sky and struck a bystander on the sidewalk from a height of about 150 feet.

The pilot got too close to the building, a wind gust blew it into the building and idown came the drone. Witnesses reported to the police that the pilot had been flying erratically, probably lacking experience, ability IMO. He fled the scene.

Drone flying over Seattle parade crashes, strikes woman

The media did not know the entire story, only that the victim was injured. Actually "injured" was an understatement, suffering a skull fracture, inner cranial swelling that lead to multiple seizures, brain damage.

Another negative drone story became hyped by the media.

The operator later came forward, was charged by the City attorney and could face 364 days in jail if found guilty.

Drone operator charged with knocking out woman at Pride Parade

I hope he goes to jail if he's convicted, despite my knowing the media will have a field day.

My community recently banned RC aircraft in a large park that has a huge field that has been used by RC AC for many years. Despite no known incidents ever of anyone being hurt, the City council's actions to ban RC AC were motivated by "many concerned citizens contacting their elected officials, worried over their safety". This happened within weeks of this incident. Old men that have been flying RC AC in this park no longer are able to do so. It's truly sad and disheartening.

I frequently see people hurt by others, sometimes critically. Very rarely was it done intentionally. "accidental" does not make the patient or the family of the patient pain/injuries less severe, less life altering. We went on a call where a 16 y/o girl.talking on her cell phone made a right turn on red at an intersection that is clearly marked "no right turn on red". She didn't comply with the sign, most likely due to being distracted by her illegal cell phone call use while driving. She didn't see the mother and three year old in the crosswalk, struck both and dragged the 3 y/o 100 feet under her car. We had to lift the car up to get the child out. Thankfully the child died, having suffering multiple disfiguring injuries/burns from the catalytic converter. The FFs that responded to this call were also victims of this events, traumatized deeply by the stupidity of thie driver and the screams of agony from both the mother and the dying child. Dumb. Preventable. Accident.

Accidents can have long term effects on many. Unfortunately many don't think before they act and others suffer a lifetime afterwards.

Sorry for the rant, but many dumb events by drone pilots have lead to our recent FAA regulations and multiple communities banning drone flights.

 

[NormanNormal]

Sorry this happened to you. I had a near incident with Litchi as well because I did not realize how inaccurate the barometer is when doing automated flights. I have personally seen it vary up to 30ft. I had always assumed it was accurate. This is in the official documenation of Litchi, I printed it out and keep it with me as a reminder:

Litchi Important Notes:

• Aircraft height (altimeter) may easily vary 15-20m (50-66ft) off the actual height after aircraft flying and heating up several minutes. You are recommended to let IMU warn up properly on the ground especially in cold weather, and set waypoint height minimum 25m (82ft) above any obstacles. Cold IMU calibration trick is NOT recommended which might incur more discrepancy in altimeter reading.

For example, if there is a tree 30m height and you set the first waypoint to 40m above that tree to maintain a 10m gap and the last waypoint is also set to 40m above the same tree after 10 minutes mission flight. The aircraft might reach the first waypoint well above the tree, but when it reaches the last waypoint 10 minutes later, it might hit the tree due to discrepancy of barometer though the altimeter is still reporting 40m height.

• It's recommended to set Finish to "RTH" in case of lost control signal during the mission, while aircraft will RTH and auto-land upon completion of mission.

• For safety reason, you might consider to fly a pre-mission flight with Heading set to RC/Forward (and turn off "Auto-Tilt" in Target-WP mission) as a preview to ensure clearing any obstacles. You may control aircraft yaw and gimbal tilting with RC to preview the upcoming mission flight path, and make necessary adjustments. After pre-mission flight, you can switch Heading back to "WP" (and turn "Auto-Tilt" back on in Target-WP mission) for shooting footage.

 

[johnbowen]

Other local incidents that the media jumps on.

Helicopter crew spots drone flying feet above KOMO chopper

Drone hits Seattle’s huge Ferris wheel; SPD investigating

 

[Squeamish]

Sorry for your loss.
Why you crashed is obviously related to that enormous tree in the picture.

I would assume so, but the video I do have shows tree a good bit below the aircraft, with no impact or spinning. Also, the really tall tree is far enough back from the street that it doesn't look like I would have been anywhere near it.

 

[Dounin Front]

I would assume so, but the video I do have shows tree a good bit below the aircraft, with no impact or spinning. Also, the really tall tree is far enough back from the street that it doesn't look like I would have been anywhere near it.

I was really just kidding you about the tree - anything is possible, but we work our way down from the most obvious and probable. I figured you must have hit something pretty hard while it was running (and battery operational) to break all those props.
Fortunately DJI has great deals right now in their spare parts section. (at least for the P3) You might ask them to help you out.

 

[Squeamish]

Fortunately DJI has great deals right now in their spare parts section. (at least for the P3) You might ask them to help you out.

Oh, I've already ordered/received/flown a P3P since.

 

[Sim597]

The battery is a relatively heavy item held in place by a couple of plastic clips, which work just fine as long as there are no sudden changes in speed or direction of the aircraft. In a collision, however, depending on impact direction, the momentum of the battery can easily overcome the restraint provided by the clips - Newton's 2nd Law at work again.

It would not be too difficult to design a battery holder that resisted such forces, but maybe the weight penalty is too high, perhaps allowing the battery to eject is actually a design feature to lessen damage to the aircraft, or possibly there is some other reason that I don't know about.

When I crashed my P3 into branches, which was low, 8' or so (playing with the dogs) my battery came out easily.

After reading what u said, It makes sense, with battery ejected, my bird undoubtedly weighed less and suffered less damage, makes total sense. In fact, I'll bet this incident also lessened damage with the battery not adding the weight to the craft as it tumbled.