Can the P3P/A land with just 3 motors spinning?

nickyb · Oct 5, 2015

Just curious if the P3 can land with just 3 motors working, the other say not working at all or maybe the prop broken?

I know Octo copters have this facility, but just wanted to find out if pilots have experienced a motor failure mid flight.

Cheers

msinger · Oct 5, 2015

Nope. It'll drop like a rock.

bbfpv · Oct 5, 2015

Well, technically it will land. Just not the way it was designed, or the way you want it to.

nickyb · Oct 5, 2015

bbfpv said:
Well, technically it will land. Just not the way it was designed, or the way you want it to.

Thanks....just curious

wali · Oct 5, 2015

the system dynamics control theory , laplace transforms and the kinetics have been there since the 1800's and tested..

would "dji" put those simple differential equations on the brain of the bird..? sorry thats just stupid at this early level of the company/product

Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters | TED Talk | TED.com

Nstrong48 · Oct 5, 2015

I had a prop fly off before on a P3S and the Phantom immediately flipped and flew into the ground

PilotHarry · Oct 5, 2015

wali said:
the system dynamics control theory , laplace transforms and the kinetics have been there since the 1800's and tested..

would "dji" put those simple differential equations on the brain of the bird..? sorry thats just stupid at this early level of the company/product

Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters | TED Talk | TED.com

I LOVE that video.. watched it 3 times already

Mako79 · Oct 5, 2015

wali said:
the system dynamics control theory , laplace transforms and the kinetics have been there since the 1800's and tested..

would "dji" put those simple differential equations on the brain of the bird..? sorry thats just stupid at this early level of the company/product

Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters | TED Talk | TED.com

They should really consider implementing that algorithm for prop loss recovery.
But as many say, DJI probably prefers phantoms to crash to make more money...

Chris Vedeler · Oct 5, 2015

I had a motor completely separate from my P3 mid hover. It not only crashed, the spinning accelerated as it came down. I think it was trying to compensate for the rotation, but without the 4th rotor the other motors just keep making it worse.

N017RW · Oct 5, 2015

With two motors spinning in one direction and only one spinning in the other direction, the quad began to spin in the opposite direction of the two motors' direction.

It's a simple unequal torque issue and the quad had no way to correct for this imbalance and maintain altitude.

THG Aviation · Oct 5, 2015

Could it decend on just two opposite motors or can it only fly or descend on all 4?

johnp44 · Oct 5, 2015

THG Aviation said:
Could it decend on just two opposite motors or can it only fly or descend on all 4?

I suspect it would tumble in the direction of the two dead motors, just not as fast as it would with three motors. Would someone please give it a try and get back to us?

N017RW · Oct 5, 2015

It's comes down to balance and thrust.

Is there enough thrust from two motors to reduce the descent speed to a survivable level?
Not expecting that to be true with the current P3 design/components.

Is it sufficiently balanced to maintain stability? No.
Then you have air currents and other factors beyond just the hardware.