Bird Strike Incident

[zander lane]

...just a reminder to pilots flying near the coast - BIRDS ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED!

...was flying next to a jetty in dana point harbor in california yesterday and was hovering to get a nice silhouette of a fisherman against a gorgeous sunset (about twenty minutes after sundown with two 3-mile blinkers on) when, BAM! - out of nowhere, a UFB (unidentified flying bird) slammed into the rear left of my phantom and cracked a leg and bent the internal metal strut inward about 10 degrees - the craft miraculously kept flying with no apparent problems (...these guys are tough little SOBs fer sure!), but yeah, those pesky birds can GETCHA! - will now be seeing how well my second experience with the care refresh program goes, ugh...

 

[UFOCOWBOY]

On the upside............Great Pic!

 

[Erised]

Fishing for the moon! Nice pic for sure!

 

[BigAl07]

Great story and AWESOME picture. I'd water mark it YESTERDAY!

 

[mark191]

really nice picture.

 

[jbrown630]

I had a hawk let me know in no uncertain terms I was not welcome near its nest ( which i was unaware I had chosen to fly in proximity to ) I did a power climb for all she was good for and ran for the hills. They WILL mess your bird up!

 

[macoman]

I had a hawk let me know in no uncertain terms I was not welcome near its nest ( which i was unaware I had chosen to fly in proximity to ) I did a power climb for all she was good for and ran for the hills. They WILL mess your bird up!

Hawks are dangerous... When I see one near me I stay away as far as I can.

 

[jbrown630]

Hawks are dangerous... When I see one near me I stay away as far as I can.

Oh i definitely do. I was caught unawares, and the hawk was definitely angling for a good attack vector. Power climbs straight up are the best defense against a bird of prey.

 

[zander lane]

...well, I couldn't possibly be more shocked or awed with the "infamous" customer service experience from DJI's Care Refresh program!

...LAST TIME: around six months ago it was a complete and utter nightmare involving around 45-50 emails, chat sessions and many voice calls with 40-minute average hold times and took about six weeks total (...and only after finally breaking through to the vaunted and mostly unreachable "Supervisor" level!)

...THIS TIME: I had my incident sunday evening, boxed it up and did the online paperwork sunday night, dropped it at UPS monday morning and now, tuesday afternoon, I just received notice I will be getting it back tomorrow on wednesday! - WOW! - unless I get back a total "refurb clunker", color me EXTREMELY impressed DJI!

...will let you all know how the replacement works out as soon as I can test her out!

 

[zander lane]

...ok; talk about a wedding turned into a funeral! - how silly of me to get my hopes up for a smooth transaction with DJI...got the shiny new-looking bird out of the box, removed all the new-looking protection stickers, even registered and placed the FAA number on the hull and...no connection to the remote.

...I tried all the different combinations of what to turn on in what order (...though in a hundred hours of DJI flying experience, that doesn't really matter, I've done them all and it always gets going) - also tried a direct connection with their dongle to go from iPad to bird, no dice - so I made a quick video showing my process and was wondering if anyone can see if I am doing something super-stupid before I start raising a big ruckus with DJI? - thanks and UGH!!!

 

[BigAl07]

I don't have a P4 but just guessing... did you BIND the aircraft and the transmitter yet?

 

[zander lane]

...D'OH!!! - stupid alert, stupid alert!!! - knew I could count on this forum to steer me out of my own idiocy!!! - duh! - new bird + old controller = BIND TIME!!! - A GREAT BIG HUGE THANKSGIVING THANKS TO BIG AL07!!! (ok, DJI Customer Service, you're totally back in the "color me impressed" column!!!)

 

[iflyp3s]

Beautiful picture! I hope it was worth the grief of your damaged Phantom

 

[zander lane]

...well, $99 is a bit steep for a sunset pic, but it coulda been a lot worse if that dastardly sea bird took my dji bird to davey jone's locker! ...heh-heh!

 

[Mark J Colbert]

A female Red-Tailed hawk making passes at my drone. I decided to have a little fun with it.

 

[zander lane]

...was flying in texas and had a "wake up" incident - was hovering for a minute to get some set-up on the screen done and when I looked up there were several large birdies showing severe interest - high-tailed it outa there and waited for the skies to clear - yet another reminder to ALWAYS keep your eyes on the prize! - UPDATE TO REPLACEMENT P4P: got a chance to fly four batteries on "P4P The Third" and she performed flawlessly! - all modes seemed to work well and took her out to sea over a mile with little to no screen glitches - VERY HAPPY with DJI's Care Refresh new customer service: crashed sunday, new bird in hand wednesday, couldn't really be any faster!!!

 

[Rudder Bug]

As the 'ol bird told his buddies when the drone got close to them: "Get the flock out of here!"

 

[jimlips]

I'll join in, here is my bird attack, from back in June:

 

[macoman]

I'll join in, here is my bird attack, from back in June:

The hawk smashed your aircraft from the back. That's why is important always to inspect the sky for any proximity big bird.

 

[Daniel777]

A female Red-Tailed hawk making passes at my drone. I decided to have a little fun with it.

a pity about the fake bird sounds and silly words on the video.....