- Joined
- Jul 18, 2016
- Messages
- 2
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- Age
- 42
Hello everyone, I have a P3P, I was filming a sunset about 40 miles south of Wichita KS on 7/10/16 about 8:45pm local time. The weather was clear with steady winds from the south at about 12 knots. I was filming a sunset with windmills in the background. I was about 300' in front of the windmills at about 300' high when I noticed my drone do some unusual and uncommanded pirouette type of maneuver. I immediately stopped what I was doing and started back towards home. I noticed on the DJI app that I went from P-ATT to A-TT mode and I started drifting towards the windmills. I climbed and flew away from the windmills. A few seconds later I was overhead and started a descent. Upon descending the Pirouette maneuvers continued twice and I knew I was in trouble. The second pirouette continued and the P3 spun wildly out of control and crashed into the dirt road inverted, ejecting the camera (which I didnt find). With my good luck, I was able to hit the hardest surface around for miles. Anywhere else and I would have landed in a cornfield. I found all four props attached to the drone (broken of course).
A little background on myself: I'm a corporate pilot with an ATP license. I've flown and instructed model aircraft of all sorts for 20 years. I treated my P3 just like my Hawker and every other aircraft I fly for a living. A thorough preflight followed by a hover check before flight. I always calibrate the compass and hand tighten the props. The battery was full before flight.
This is the first and only time ive had this behavior happen with my drone. I believe I lost an ESC or possibly a motor went bad.
So, my question is this; Will DJI cover this for a replacement? I bought this drone off a member of RCgroups, and it was new in August of last year. I have contacted this member and he gave me the proof of purchase. This was definitely not pilot error and by my guessing something went wrong with the craft itself.
Here is my Log from the flight
Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
Thanks for the help, I feel these things are too expensive (and awesome) to have something simple like this happen.
-Paul
A little background on myself: I'm a corporate pilot with an ATP license. I've flown and instructed model aircraft of all sorts for 20 years. I treated my P3 just like my Hawker and every other aircraft I fly for a living. A thorough preflight followed by a hover check before flight. I always calibrate the compass and hand tighten the props. The battery was full before flight.
This is the first and only time ive had this behavior happen with my drone. I believe I lost an ESC or possibly a motor went bad.
So, my question is this; Will DJI cover this for a replacement? I bought this drone off a member of RCgroups, and it was new in August of last year. I have contacted this member and he gave me the proof of purchase. This was definitely not pilot error and by my guessing something went wrong with the craft itself.
Here is my Log from the flight
Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
Thanks for the help, I feel these things are too expensive (and awesome) to have something simple like this happen.
-Paul