Crashed my Phantom 3 in Nepal mountains flying at altitudes up to 4000m, video

[QaaUz]

I guess I took it to it limits..

Quality not so great as I never recovered the drone, Nepalise army got to it first and confiscated it, I also got in a lot of trouble.
It look like it was a serious compass error, not like the ones i experienced before..

yeah I got another one now and every time I fly I get very anxious, dont know if I am having fun anymore..
Pretty expensive hobby it can be, already had close call with my new one, lost signal and later realized through video that it almost hit the roof of 6 story house, even though I was flying way above it before signal was lost.
My question, say your return altitude is set 60m, and when you lost signal you were 90m, how will the drone fly back? at 90m or go down to 60m?

Are you ready to compensate, fix and all this without disturbing the environment, the roof or whatever your apparatus bashes into?
Whatever you see others do, is just that. You, knowing this, fly where your elektroteknik and skills or lack of such, cause no damage, fear or unrealistic concern from or to others and property.
Seeing and experiencing your courtesy, others may be encouraged to an understanding of this teknik which means you can perform tasks for their/our mutual benefit.
Landing on a baby? On a bike - ends in the ravine?

 

[fender37]

hi stani123
here is the link to the video you tell me if this woman is one bit interested (Not)
I mainly fly turbine jets with a lot more complex parts than the phantom and yet (may be tempting fate here) never have a problem. I buy a dji quad for a relaxing flight, and it seems they are flawed with problems
and flying to where ever takes It's fancy at the time, this to me is not relaxing flying fun if every time you take it out with fingers crossed and your heart beating 10 to the dozen wondering is it going to work or am I going to be taking it back home again
I read time and time again about fly aways this puts me right of using the one I have
ian
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLs0QjJCCC8

 

[dwcola]

How did you exceed the 500 meter altitude restriction?

 

[Meta4]

How did you exceed the 500 meter altitude restriction?

The Phantom 3 can fly at altitudes up to 6000 metres - beyond that the air isn't dense enough to support it.
It is limited to 500m above home point.

 

[Meta4]

why did his last one not do that ?? don't give uses much confidence in the dji stuff

I buy a dji quad for a relaxing flight, and it seems they are flawed with problems and flying to where ever takes It's fancy at the time, this to me is not relaxing flying fun if every time you take it out with fingers crossed and your heart beating 10 to the dozen wondering is it going to work or am I going to be taking it back home again
I read time and time again about fly aways this puts me right of using the one I have

Your secondhand FC40 is a 1st generation Phantom.
It's about as far away from a P3 as a plane from the 1920s is from the jets you fly.

 

[stani123]

You're getting a lot of compass errors.
What can you tell us about your compass calibration?

I usually calibrate every few flights, there is no point calibrating next to large mountains though as it will only make it worse

 

[Meta4]

I usually calibrate every few flights, there is no point calibrating next to large mountains though as it will only make it worse

Every few flights is probably too often - repetetive unnecessary calibration increases the risk of giving your Phantom a bad calibration.
Unless the mountains are haematite they'd probably not have any impact on calibration.

 

[stani123]

fly where your elektroteknik and skills or lack of such, cause no damage, fear or unrealistic concern from or to others and property.

That would be boring!:=) lol man you woul dnot know where I have flown my drone, but I do consider my self a pretty experienced pilot, I am even getting my local civil aviation licence next year
but yeah we always balance between safety and exiting footage we can get, unfortunately sometimes the lure of the former gives way.

 

[fender37]

hi meta4
I not trying to be clever here whether it's an early model or the latest all singing all dancing model
it should work without the need for any prays

 

[Meta4]

hi meta4
I not trying to be clever here whether it's an early model or the latest all singing all dancing model
it should work without the need for any prays

And you'd understand why your comments based on a secondhand 1st generation Phantom that doesn't work are irrelevant if you'd ever used a P3.

 

[bnsr]

I do know that our military here in the US are working on drone jammers that will force a drone down - I'm sure it's not rocket science, so wouldn't be surprised if they're already available in different shapes.

The “Grassy Knoller” in me kinda suspects a military weapon or jammer of some type? But you said you had the compass error before? In the same area? EDIT - "sorry misunderstood, you mention it was "unlike" any compass error you'd experienced before."

btw, I did not like your OP because you lost your bird but because I “liked” and appreciated the post and video.

Sorry you lost your Phantom and got the run around by military goons!

 

[nonflyingbrick]

Hey stani, sorry to hear about your experience. Being bounced around for 2 days in a third world country gives me the shivers.

Sorry to hear that you're not enjoying flying your new phantom. My experience with drones started with the Parrot Bebop drone. After 4 hours total flying time over many days, one time it just dropped dead for no reason while flying 22 meters high over tarmac, in front of my unbelieving eyes (a few flights before that, I had gotten an error that wouldn't let me fly, about a motor assembly not working, but the error cleared itself just by turning the drone off and on a few times, so I didn't take it at face value... yes, I know, my fault).
After that, I bought the P3A and absolutely loved it, but I was scared that something similar could happen any time. Now, having flown about 150 batteries over 4 months, having lost connection dozens and dozens of times and have it do what it's supposed to do, I'm pretty confident in the Phantom. I've also realized that I have to be willing to tolerate the risk to lose the phantom either by my own error or not. When I was attached to never having an accident I wasn't enjoying my flights even half as much.

 

[nonflyingbrick]

Pretty expensive hobby it can be, already had close call with my new one, lost signal and later realized through video that it almost hit the roof of 6 story house, even though I was flying way above it before signal was lost.
My question, say your return altitude is set 60m, and when you lost signal you were 90m, how will the drone fly back? at 90m or go down to 60m?

As meta4 said, it should have flown back home at 90m. What I'd like to add is that there is a caveat: If the drone is within a 20m horizontal radius of the home point, it won't go up to the RTH height and then back to the exact home point, but rather, it will just land where it is. The manual says it. It's a feature that in my opinion is more likely to do harm than good, but like it or hate, it's there. I was a second away from losing my phantom because of it, and I regained control of it just before it crashed into something.

 

[phantomized]

Sorry about your loss, that really does suck! In the video at 2:17 right by the end I thought I seen you as the phantom was crashing, was that you there? Hopefully they give your bird back. Are you a local there?

 

[erkme73]

The crash in Nepal one was definitely not user error, DJI has analyzed the the flight log and confirmed it
I dont think Phantom 3 is designed to fly in the mountains, not to mentioned Nepalese ones, I actually had another compass error just yesterday flying near headland hill on the beach not higher maybe 150m height but long in lengths, it didnt last long though and went back to GPS mode in few seconds
over all I am pretty happy with Phantom 3, do push it to the limit thought, it will the a matter of time before I will crash another one

Will dji cover the replacement if they acknowledge it was not your fault?

 

[Jesse Torres]

Should be using a itelite dbs antenna, range is incredible.

 

[richardtomcat]

Oh my god, the view is breath taking. I know you must be devastated to lose your drone. I know how that feel. So you think the high attitude caused the error for the compass? Can you fly in Atti mode to get it back? What kind of trouble they gave you? I want to know more.

Robert


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My opinion is your compass was effected by the geological composition of the mountains. DJI recommends you don't fly in the mountains. I live in the Rockies .. I fly. We're taking chances every time. Not to mention raptors!

 

[Silverwingflinx]

Hi p3 yes compass error I don't see that with mine now I have replaced landing gear for taller ones then flew it compass error again so I have seen Dji uses some kind of soft glue so I thought well this could b the cause of the problem compass is moving inside so I used a drop of hot glue top and bottom of compass this seems to work fly safe

 

[dwcola]

The Phantom 3 can fly at altitudes up to 6000 metres - beyond that the air isn't dense enough to support it.
It is limited to 500m above home point.

Got it

 

[dhsprogis]

Sorry for your loss - I've had a few close calls - terrible feeling.