Friend crashed my drone, can he fix?

JetFalcon · Feb 6, 2017

So went to visit some old college friends and we always meet in San Diego in PB and I always bring the drone. I let one of my friends fly it, this one guy who always loves to fly it and usually have no problem with him flying. He likes to race it around and make it fly fast. I'm fine with that as long as it's high enough and there's nothing it could hit, and still can be seen.

But then later in the flight, he lowered the altitude of the drone. I told him to put the drone back at the higher altitude where I set it and he was like, "no its fine". Then he books the drone full speed and hits a tree. He just wanted to see the drone buzz low. All he said was, "I tried to avoid the tree, or I tried to pull up." But I didn't really want him to try avoiding obstacles, I only wanted to permit him to fly the drone as he pleases as long as it was in airspace that is above all houses palm trees & light poles. He just likes racing the drone around like an RC car, so I guess he wanted to get it close to us to see it buzz over our heads. It would be fine if we were in a large field, but this was a beach neighborhood with trees and light poles.

Amazingly the drone still flies, but the plastic has small cracks in some spots and the landing gear is bent. But the bad part is the camera detached on impact.

I don't want to make a huge deal about it and he's been a friend for a 9-10 years. I'm just going to give him the chance to fix the camera & get it back on the drone. All I want from my friend is that he will take responsibility to try fix it since he disobeyed my requests and crashed it on his error. Thankfully he has an engineering friend who is willing to help out and try to fix the problem. He seemed he already had a plan on what he would do.

I don't want to make him spend money to get another one if we don't have to, but I'm leaving that as our last resort if fixing it isn't an option. And I guess he can have the drone since he doesn't care to use the camera anyways. But at the same time I want him to learn his lesson that he can't just fly the drone full speed through a street. Besides breaking the drone, he could have caused other problems like the blades hitting a random person in the street or a moving car causing an accident.

tobby · Feb 6, 2017

I do not let my friends play with my chainsaw, golf clubs, my girl or my drone. If he is a friend he will do the right thing. If not, It cost you around $500 to learn that lesson.

Tobby

JetFalcon · Feb 6, 2017

I'll give him a chance to fix it first since it still flies.

I found a new one for $300 on Craigslist. I mean I'll accept he just give me $300 or a new drone since I am considering upgrading to a DJI Phantom 4.

But if I get the P4, I probably won't let him drive that thing knowing that thing is faster than the P3. If he's already reluctant to replace $300-400, I don't want to try that with a $800-1200 item.

I bring my drone to parties so I try let everyone have a chance if they want to try it out. It's generally fine if I supervise them and show them how to use it. But my friend brought down, I told him to not do that and put it back where I left it.

I'm mad that it could have been avoided. Yeah I know he was having fun, but he needs more discipline to avoid accidents rather than thinking how cool it be if he buzzed over people's heads at a fast speed.

Budman · Feb 6, 2017

You need more discipline in not letting friends use your stuff.
I've already learned the hard way so I know what you're going through.
If he wants to fly, get his own.
$300? New P3S? Have him buy yours for full market value and you go buy the P4
Hopefully it all works out and you remain friends.

JetFalcon said:
Yeah I know he was having fun, but he needs more discipline .

HarleyKen · Feb 6, 2017

Budman said:
You need more discipline in not letting friends use your stuff.
I've already learned the hard way so I know what you're going through.
If he wants to fly, get his own.
$300? New P3S? Have him buy yours for full market value and you go buy the P4
Hopefully it all works out and you remain friends.

I'll never ask to touch yours and I'll never let you play with mine. [emoji23][emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

Erised · Feb 6, 2017

It looks easy to fly and many want to try, I tell them that it's a lot of fun and you need to learn to fly before it get's easy, tell you what, give me a $1500.00 cash retainer and if you crash it you can keep it, OK. The reaction is usually that "man that's not a toy, or it's not cheap, I don't want to try it anymore". Hope your buddy comes true for you.

dwallersv · Feb 7, 2017

Suggestion: Because you are a drone enthusiast and like to share with your friends (nothing bad in that at all), get a cheaper, smaller, performing drone that can provide essentially the same opportunity without as big a risk.

I'd recommend a Hubsan 502S (I have one)... has FPV, GPS and RTH, baro altimeter, fast and fun quad. $149 at Hubsan's site right now.

P3SG3 · Feb 7, 2017

dwallersv said:
Suggestion: Because you are a drone enthusiast and like to share with your friends (nothing bad in that at all), get a cheaper, smaller, performing drone that can provide essentially the same opportunity without as big a risk.

I'd recommend a Hubsan 502S (I have one)... has FPV, GPS and RTH, baro altimeter, fast and fun quad. $149 at Hubsan's site right now.

Wh

JetFalcon said:
So went to visit some old college friends and we always meet in San Diego in PB and I always bring the drone. I let one of my friends fly it, this one guy who always loves to fly it and usually have no problem with him flying. He likes to race it around and make it fly fast. I'm fine with that as long as it's high enough and there's nothing it could hit, and still can be seen.

But then later in the flight, he lowered the altitude of the drone. I told him to put the drone back at the higher altitude where I set it and he was like, "no its fine". Then he books the drone full speed and hits a tree. He just wanted to see the drone buzz low. All he said was, "I tried to avoid the tree, or I tried to pull up." But I didn't really want him to try avoiding obstacles, I only wanted to permit him to fly the drone as he pleases as long as it was in airspace that is above all houses palm trees & light poles. He just likes racing the drone around like an RC car, so I guess he wanted to get it close to us to see it buzz over our heads. It would be fine if we were in a large field, but this was a beach neighborhood with trees and light poles.

Amazingly the drone still flies, but the plastic has small cracks in some spots and the landing gear is bent. But the bad part is the camera detached on impact.

I don't want to make a huge deal about it and he's been a friend for a 9-10 years. I'm just going to give him the chance to fix the camera & get it back on the drone. All I want from my friend is that he will take responsibility to try fix it since he disobeyed my requests and crashed it on his error. Thankfully he has an engineering friend who is willing to help out and try to fix the problem. He seemed he already had a plan on what he would do.

I don't want to make him spend money to get another one if we don't have to, but I'm leaving that as our last resort if fixing it isn't an option. And I guess he can have the drone since he doesn't care to use the camera anyways. But at the same time I want him to learn his lesson that he can't just fly the drone full speed through a street. Besides breaking the drone, he could have caused other problems like the blades hitting a random person in the street or a moving car causing an accident.

What exactly broke when he crashed . My wife crashed mine a few days ago and broke yaw arm and ribbon cable to camera. Both were easy to replace and all for about $30.

JetFalcon · Feb 7, 2017

Erised said:
It looks easy to fly and many want to try, I tell them that it's a lot of fun and you need to learn to fly before it get's easy, tell you what, give me a $1500.00 cash retainer and if you crash it you can keep it, OK. The reaction is usually that "man that's not a toy, or it's not cheap, I don't want to try it anymore". Hope your buddy comes true for you.

I think when he saw me put fireworks on it, he probably thought I treat it as a toy.

I still want to keep this drone so I can still use it as my toy drone where I put fireworks on. Because Im not putting fireworks on the P4 if I get it.

Budman · Feb 7, 2017

You put fireworks on your phantom?

I think you BOTH need some discipline

Yeah I know he was having fun, but he needs more discipline

whoisthis_95 · Feb 7, 2017

Plast-aid does wonders in the cracks and is cheap. If you open up the drone and patch it up from the inside it will also look pretty good. If you have some chunks missing or need to rebuild an area it also does wonders. I used it on mine to fill the hairline cracks that these things get on the counter clockwise motor arms and it did the trick and prevented it from spreading too. It's super strong it's better than glue.

JetFalcon said:
So went to visit some old college friends and we always meet in San Diego in PB and I always bring the drone. I let one of my friends fly it, this one guy who always loves to fly it and usually have no problem with him flying. He likes to race it around and make it fly fast. I'm fine with that as long as it's high enough and there's nothing it could hit, and still can be seen.

But then later in the flight, he lowered the altitude of the drone. I told him to put the drone back at the higher altitude where I set it and he was like, "no its fine". Then he books the drone full speed and hits a tree. He just wanted to see the drone buzz low. All he said was, "I tried to avoid the tree, or I tried to pull up." But I didn't really want him to try avoiding obstacles, I only wanted to permit him to fly the drone as he pleases as long as it was in airspace that is above all houses palm trees & light poles. He just likes racing the drone around like an RC car, so I guess he wanted to get it close to us to see it buzz over our heads. It would be fine if we were in a large field, but this was a beach neighborhood with trees and light poles.

Amazingly the drone still flies, but the plastic has small cracks in some spots and the landing gear is bent. But the bad part is the camera detached on impact.

I don't want to make a huge deal about it and he's been a friend for a 9-10 years. I'm just going to give him the chance to fix the camera & get it back on the drone. All I want from my friend is that he will take responsibility to try fix it since he disobeyed my requests and crashed it on his error. Thankfully he has an engineering friend who is willing to help out and try to fix the problem. He seemed he already had a plan on what he would do.

I don't want to make him spend money to get another one if we don't have to, but I'm leaving that as our last resort if fixing it isn't an option. And I guess he can have the drone since he doesn't care to use the camera anyways. But at the same time I want him to learn his lesson that he can't just fly the drone full speed through a street. Besides breaking the drone, he could have caused other problems like the blades hitting a random person in the street or a moving car causing an accident.

abrown · Feb 10, 2017

JetFalcon said:
I think when he saw me put fireworks on it, he probably thought I treat it as a toy.

I still want to keep this drone so I can still use it as my toy drone where I put fireworks on. Because Im not putting fireworks on the P4 if I get it.

I may be alone in this....but I want to see the video