Had to happen eventually..... P4P fell out of the sky, analysis might be helpful

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Well, after 230+ hours of flight time and over 10 million feet travelled, I just had a "permanent disconnect event". Flight going fine until a very brief 'high wind' warning (on a rather calm day) then it disconnected, never came home, never reconnected. Found the carcass and it's likely a total write-off. I don't have a lot of time as I'm off to work in a few minutes but I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some insight on the failure. Flight records attached. Here's some gory pictures. Figure it has to be either the propeller snapped in half and caused the crash (three were found still attached, the fourth broken in half and loose) or the battery popped out (I'm always fastidious about ensuring the battery is firmly installed). Leaning towards the latter in this case though, based on the condition of the battery it looks to have fallen without the protection of being inside the bird. See pictures. Let me know what you think, I'll be back soon to answer any questions. Post Script: the crunched battery is currently outside in a salt water bath to discharge it.
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  • DJIFlightRecord_2021-01-12_[13-15-19].txt
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Can battery swelling cause the battery to push itself out of the drone???

I always thought with the encasing of the battery pack inside the drone that you wouldn't have an "ejecting battery pack" issue if they swelled excessively during flight. I always though that if you had excessive battery swelling while in flight it would lock itself inside the drone and potentially damage drone internals, but not "eject" itself.

Since I don't fly my P4P very often I am quite interested to hear about this. My batteries are from 2017 with about 10-11 cycles on each.
 
Can battery swelling cause the battery to push itself out of the drone???

I always thought with the encasing of the battery pack inside the drone that you wouldn't have an "ejecting battery pack" issue if they swelled excessively during flight. I always though that if you had excessive battery swelling while in flight it would lock itself inside the drone and potentially damage drone internals, but not "eject" itself.

Since I don't fly my P4P very often I am quite interested to hear about this. My batteries are from 2017 with about 10-11 cycles on each.
True but batterys dont swell every flight,thankfully,,not sure if battery in picture has swelled due to the impact it has been in,sure is nasty
 
Well, after 230+ hours of flight time and over 10 million feet travelled, I just had a "permanent disconnect event". Flight going fine until a very brief 'high wind' warning (on a rather calm day) then it disconnected, never came home, never reconnected. Found the carcass and it's likely a total write-off. I don't have a lot of time as I'm off to work in a few minutes but I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some insight on the failure. Flight records attached. Here's some gory pictures. Figure it has to be either the propeller snapped in half and caused the crash (three were found still attached, the fourth broken in half and loose) or the battery popped out (I'm always fastidious about ensuring the battery is firmly installed). Leaning towards the latter in this case though, based on the condition of the battery it looks to have fallen without the protection of being inside the bird. See pictures. Let me know what you think, I'll be back soon to answer any questions. Post Script: the crunched battery is currently outside in a salt water bath to discharge it.View attachment 121182View attachment 121183View attachment 121184View attachment 121185
Wow that just sux,,been there,,good thing you at least got it back,you still got remote so hunt a cheap p4p down,,,hard to say what's gone on without log file,,,,I think you post wrong one,,,was the battery far from drone or look like it pop out on impact ?,,disconnect or power loss might occur if battery comes out in flight,,something happen before the disconnect happen if you got false wind warning ????yip I'm curious
 
Wow that just sux,,been there,,good thing you at least got it back,you still got remote so hunt a cheap p4p down,,,hard to say what's gone on without log file,,,,I think you post wrong one,,,was the battery far from drone or look like it pop out on impact ?,,disconnect or power loss might occur if battery comes out in flight,,something happen before the disconnect happen if you got false wind warning ????yip I'm curious
Hmmm, not sure why the log file would be screwy, only did one flight today and that log bears the correct date stamp. Just pulled the .DAT file from the tablet, I'll attach it here, perhaps it'll have some usable data. I haven't tried powering up the craft with another battery yet to see if I can salvage a .DAT file from the bird. As far as the orientation of the parts, unfortunately by the time I reached the drone some construction workers were already gathering the parts up so I didn't see the complete aftermath.
 

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  • 21-01-12-01-14-51_FLY152.DAT
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Flight going fine until a very brief 'high wind' warning (on a rather calm day) then it disconnected, never came home, never reconnected.
Here's a summary of your flight data:
It doesn't show what the cause of the incident was but it helps eliminate the battery's state of charge as a suspect.
It also shows you flying fast but without any sudden changes of speed or direction that might have dislodged the battery.
It looks like a sudden loss of power, but whether the cause was in the battery or the Phantom isn't shown.
 
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Here's a summary of your flight data:
It doesn't show what the cause of the incident was but it helps eliminate the battery's state of charge as a suspect.
It also shows you flying fast but without any sudden changes of speed or direction that might have dislodged the battery.
It looks like a sudden loss of power, but whether the cause was in the battery or the Phantom isn't shown.
Thanks for looking into it for me. Managed to download the aircraft .DAT file, in case it recorded anything faster than the tablet, or anything after the aircraft disconnected from the controller. Here's a link in Dropbox: FLY153.DAT

Is there anything else I'm missing in determining what might have gone wrong?

Thanks again!
 
I had a similar with my P4P after it clipped a branch, battery dislodged and fell to the ground, bird stuck in the tree
I had some tree surgeons nearby who got the bird down, not before dropping it onto tarmac from 19M height, my P4P looked a total right off,(much the same condition as yours, but camera still attached) but I got it repaired at what I thought was a reasonable cost from NorthWest Drone repairs - Worth a shout, but I would not write it off just yet
 
I had a similar with my P4P after it clipped a branch, battery dislodged and fell to the ground, bird stuck in the tree
I had some tree surgeons nearby who got the bird down, not before dropping it onto tarmac from 19M height, my P4P looked a total right off,(much the same condition as yours, but camera still attached) but I got it repaired at what I thought was a reasonable cost from NorthWest Drone repairs - Worth a shout, but I would not write it off just yet
What was the approximate cost to repair?
 
What was the approximate cost to repair?
My brother crashed his P4P a few months ago and he boxed it all up and sent it back to DJI. The day after they received it he got an email saying it was gonna be 300 to fix it and wanted to know if he could pay it which he did immediately lol. He got it back just shy of a week later opened the box and it looked brand new, turned out to be a refurb but for 300 bucks who cares. He was ecstatic. I'm pretty sure he's still smiling. So that would be my advice, box that bad boy up (just drone and broken battery, no controller) and send it back to the Peoples Republic. FYI to start the process go to the DJI website and create a repair ticket and print the shipping label. Good luck to you sir....
 
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My brother crashed his P4P a few months ago and he boxed it all up and sent it back to DJI. The day after they received it he got an email saying it was gonna be 300 to fix it and wanted to know if he could pay it which he did immediately lol. He got it back just shy of a week later opened the box and it looked brand new, turned out to be a refurb but for 300 bucks who cares. He was ecstatic. I'm pretty sure he's still smiling. So that would be my advice, box that bad boy up (just drone and broken battery, no controller) and send it back to the Peoples Republic. FYI to start the process go to the DJI website and create a repair ticket and print the shipping label. Good luck to you sir....
I'm wondering if there's any point in sending in the dead battery. It'll be fully neutralized by then, but I'd be surprised if they'd toss in a battery with either a repair or a refurb. Anyone know?
 
good, golly, gosh!
Quite a plunge...
I would say that the Battery accidentally clicked out of its little hidey, hole, I have seen that happen to someone before....
 
Having lost one for a couple of days, I get it. Finding that wreck HURTS!
My sincere condolences for your loss!
 

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