Hey Fellows. After 16 months operating my 4Pro I finally crashed.
I was on an island on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, launching from a relatively flat lawn surrounded by forest. About 12 or more minutes into the flight the aircraft dropped into ATTI mode. I flew it home visually but had a heck of a time keeping it inside the tree bowl as I descended.
I've read here that any horizontal movement should only be wind drift but in my case the machine seemed determined to fly southwards at about 3 or 4 m/s, more than what the prevailing wind seemed to be.
Anyway- I brought it down hard. It skidded and flipped with the props still spinning in a dusty, sandy, grassy area (see photo). The props continued to spin for about 3 or 4 seconds, enough to coat the entire drone in a layer or dust, fine sand and dry, grassy material. The props, of course, are toast- having hit enough rock to be badly scarred, but that's the least of my concern.
So- I've cleaned the machine by hand and had a moderate amount of debris fall out of the motors. They turn okay by hand but I'm sure there's still gritty dust inside.
So- question- would blowing the motors out with a can of compressed air be sufficient or is there anything else I could consider before powering the drone back up?
Thanks!
I was on an island on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, launching from a relatively flat lawn surrounded by forest. About 12 or more minutes into the flight the aircraft dropped into ATTI mode. I flew it home visually but had a heck of a time keeping it inside the tree bowl as I descended.
I've read here that any horizontal movement should only be wind drift but in my case the machine seemed determined to fly southwards at about 3 or 4 m/s, more than what the prevailing wind seemed to be.
Anyway- I brought it down hard. It skidded and flipped with the props still spinning in a dusty, sandy, grassy area (see photo). The props continued to spin for about 3 or 4 seconds, enough to coat the entire drone in a layer or dust, fine sand and dry, grassy material. The props, of course, are toast- having hit enough rock to be badly scarred, but that's the least of my concern.
So- I've cleaned the machine by hand and had a moderate amount of debris fall out of the motors. They turn okay by hand but I'm sure there's still gritty dust inside.
So- question- would blowing the motors out with a can of compressed air be sufficient or is there anything else I could consider before powering the drone back up?
Thanks!
