First phantom crash today

Maxxborg · Jan 19, 2014

I have had a phantom for around 8 months flown it over 100 times. Never crashed once. I got me the new phantom 2 and I have 7 or so flights on it and now have a crash. I would like to start of saying I always wait for satellites and make sure the quick green flashes for setting home position has occurred. I have also calibrated the compass. So I was testing out the mini osd by going up. Pretty much right over my head. I went up to about 120 meters then flew around up there a little bit. I decided to come down. I was in GPS mode but tried to come down quick. I know it is rough in gps mode to do it this way. We I slowed down then all the sudden the thing started dropping out of control. The zen muse gimbal was wobbling everywhere. I hurried and turned it to attitude mode and nothing the to fail safe nothing. Even turned off remote nothing. It was acting like it was trying to correct itself but never could. Just dropped and hit pretty hard on a dirt trail. It popped the zen muse off but nothing broke.
I have flown since but I am scared this will happen again. Any ideas?

shortyuk · Jan 19, 2014

yes you decended into your own prop wash, it happens to full size helicopters too, you should always move forward at the same time as decending

CouesWhitetail · Jan 19, 2014

Vortex ring state?

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6200&hilit=vortex

shortyuk · Jan 19, 2014

yes thats the one, thanks

Maxxborg · Jan 19, 2014

This makes since. Naturally I had the throttle at full trying to pull out of it. At least now I know what to try if it ever happens again. I feel much better now. Thanks guys

Ozon8r · Jan 19, 2014

I had this happen a couple of weeks ago (see vid in link below). I now only descend with forward movement and have not experienced he uncontrolled descent/loss of control issue.

Now I have a name for it. Thanks @coueswhitetail for link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCVDFmvu2z4

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shortyuk · Jan 19, 2014

the more throttle you give it , the worse it gets

Maxxborg · Jan 19, 2014

Ozon8r said:
I had this happen a couple of weeks ago (see vid in link below). I now only descend with forward movement and have not experienced he uncontrolled descent/loss of control issue.

Now I have a name for it. Thanks @coueswhitetail for link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCVDFmvu2z4

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That first decent was exactly like mine.

Ozon8r · Jan 19, 2014

Yeah. I don't bank hard anymore nor descend straight down. I have had no problems since.

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Maxxborg · Jan 19, 2014

Do you guys think the larger props on the phantom 2 could make it more prone to this issue?

lyonaerials · Jan 19, 2014

Maxxborg said:
I have had a phantom for around 8 months flown it over 100 times. Never crashed once. I got me the new phantom 2 and I have 7 or so flights on it and now have a crash. I would like to start of saying I always wait for satellites and make sure the quick green flashes for setting home position has occurred. I have also calibrated the compass. So I was testing out the mini osd by going up. Pretty much right over my head. I went up to about 120 meters then flew around up there a little bit. I decided to come down. I was in GPS mode but tried to come down quick. I know it is rough in gps mode to do it this way. We I slowed down then all the sudden the thing started dropping out of control. The zen muse gimbal was wobbling everywhere. I hurried and turned it to attitude mode and nothing the to fail safe nothing. Even turned off remote nothing. It was acting like it was trying to correct itself but never could. Just dropped and hit pretty hard on a dirt trail. It popped the zen muse off but nothing broke.
I have flown since but I am scared this will happen again. Any ideas?

This has happened to me too on occasion. Seems to happen when descending fast, straight down.

shortyuk · Jan 19, 2014

Not sure about props, but the p2 will be heavier because of battery, increasing stall probability

goldfishrock · Jan 20, 2014

I've had this happen a few times too. The first time I was within 10m of the ground and my heart just skipped a beat when I saw it drop. I normally find that just letting go of the sticks corrects the issue within a second or so.... although at the time it feels like longer.

I've experimented with this at altitude (using the output from the IOSD Mini) and found that it takes roughly 2- 3 metres to correct it after falling at a rate of 5m/s. It also seems that as long as you descend at a lesser rate than 5m/s it stays reasonably stable and isn't affected by the prop turbulence.

ladykate · Jan 20, 2014

The videos are of 'stalls' at fairly low altitude (or so I'm guessing). I've cut the throttle back from high altitude and let the Phantom drop a couple hundred feet (almost every time I've flown it). However, I recover it quite high and bring it down the last 100 slower (mostly because I seem to always be threading it through a canopy of trees). I think the recovery margin is probably only a dozen feet or so... maybe. It isn't as if it fails and drops like a rock forever.

Maxxborg · Jan 20, 2014

I went and flew it today and was a lot more careful. Still I made the mistake of coming down too fast again and it did it again. This time I bent the main frame. Very frustrated. I can fly like this in my phantom 1. I guess I got to just get used to it. Does anyone know where I can buy Parts for my Phantom 2?

lope · Jan 20, 2014

It happend to me too, several time, it also crashed, my go pro hero 3+ black edtion, and gimbal also, i think it's from main board soft control, o had phantom 1 , and i never had problems when descending down, now with mai P2, I always have problem , and I'm afraid to fly ..

(

goldfishrock · Jan 20, 2014

Maxxborg said:
Does anyone know where I can buy Parts for my Phantom 2?

The legs on the P2 are the same as the P2V I believe.

Try:
http://quadcopters.co.uk/dji-phantom-2-vision-landing-gear-1130-p.asp
http://www.fast-lad.co.uk/store/product_info.php?products_id=27057

I can recommend the second one, quick delivery. I've bought some stuff of them before.

Hope that helps.

Baystate12 · Jan 20, 2014

I haven't experienced this problem yet and I usually fly like a maniac. I'll have to look out for this in the future

EMCSQUAR · Jan 20, 2014

Maxxborg said:
Do you guys think the larger props on the phantom 2 could make it more prone to this issue?

That's a good question.. my P1 w/stock props and loaded (Zenmuse,FPV,etc...) lands ok, but I did notice w/P2 props on it I have to manuever right/left or fwd when landing to make smooth landings.

havasuphoto · Jan 20, 2014

Yes, the Vision props will cause it to drop faster because it creates more downwash.
Problem and solution already discussed here;
http://phantompilots.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5965