How long should I fly with stress cracks?

[iflyhelis]

I and my friend was live in Hong Kong, nearly to DJI China head office, they have express repair service to change shell within 2-3 hours, so my friend go to there and wait their repair, but after took back to home, he found they cheat him, they didn‘t change the shell, just use epoxy to repair the crack line, brushing and bleaching clean like a new shell, so....even though my bird have crack, I also don‘t want send it back to repair, I prefer buy a shell to change by myself

I saw a reply on one of the threads here yesterday about a fix to prevent the cracking from happening. Something called "strong arms" the person had a link to the company also. I'll try to find it & get you the web address.
Look at post # 20 it has the link!

Kurt

 

[willavoy]

I noticed a crack on my P3A after only 2 months, under ten flights. DJI were brilliant sent it off to them and had it back in under 2 weeks. Came back with a whole new shell top and bottom, they actually replaced it with a P3P shell so now have a P3P badge on my P3A but not complaining. I've also put metal arm supports on it now as a preventative measure.

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[SteveN76]

Just noticed some cracks on mine today. Does anyone know if I just put the strong arms on would that prevent it from cracking further? Can I put those on and still fly?

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[jwara]

Regarding the cracks: If the crack isn't too severe could the method used with metal be of use. That is, drilling the end of the crack before adding
the repair material? with metals it would be a braze or weld fill.

 

[Dounin Front]

Regarding the cracks: If the crack isn't too severe could the method used with metal be of use. That is, drilling the end of the crack before adding
the repair material? with metals it would be a braze or weld fill.

You need a new shell - warranty or no warranty. Then follow up with Strong Arm reinforcement plates.
Shell without warranty is $59 and 2+ hrs labor.
You could put the motor reinforcement plates on before you get around to replacing the shell (10 minutes labor) and keep flying.
I wouldn't glue it. But that's me.

 

[SteveN76]

I was also thinking of JB welding the reinforcements to the shell as well. Just sucks that these cracks keep happening to all of us.


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[NimpoCub]

Correction, if I may: These cracks happen to some, but NOT to all of us.
I did take the suggestion to loosen the screws a bit, then snug them up but not overtight. I have NO cracks (Knocking on forehead)

 

[auen1]

Just noticed some cracks on mine today. Does anyone know if I just put the strong arms on would that prevent it from cracking further? Can I put those on and still fly?

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That looks like it's about to fall apart.
I'd fly with a small crack, but never if it looked like that.

 

[dg8882]

Just noticed some cracks on mine today. Does anyone know if I just put the strong arms on would that prevent it from cracking further? Can I put those on and still fly?

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I would NOT fly with those cracks.
I fly with one small crack on the side of the arm, I put plastic weld on it and it still concerns me.
I would NEVER fly with cracks around the 4 motor screws, send it in for repair or replace your shell because there is a high risk of mount motor coming off in air.


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[SteveN76]

Well against the advice I got here I ordered the metal reinforcements and installed them. I also used JB weld on the arm with the existing crack. I spread apart the cracks and used a popsicle stick to spread in some epoxy. I also coated the reinforcement with epoxy as well to bond it to the arm. As I tightened the screws I could see the cracks close up. I'm hoping this does the trick. I'm planning on ordering a Mavic and I don't wanna spend the 209 dollars plus shipping that I was quoted to replace the shell. I'm very happy with the results and I'm confident it's going to hold up. Just to be safe I'm going to fly this over the lake here in Chicago on Sunday so at least if it goes down it's not going to hurt anyone. Wish me luck or call me stupid. It's going airborne either way.

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[Dounin Front]

Well against the advice I got here I ordered the metal reinforcements and installed them. I also used JB weld on the arm with the existing crack. I spread apart the cracks and used a popsicle stick to spread in some epoxy. I also coated the reinforcement with epoxy as well to bond it to the arm. As I tightened the screws I could see the cracks close up. I'm hoping this does the trick. I'm planning on ordering a Mavic and I don't wanna spend the 209 dollars plus shipping that I was quoted to replace the shell. I'm very happy with the results and I'm confident it's going to hold up. Just to be safe I'm going to fly this over the lake here in Chicago on Sunday so at least if it goes down it's not going to hurt anyone. Wish me luck or call me stupid. It's going airborne either way.

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Believe me those plates are all you need to keep anything bad from happening.
Fly all you want with no worries.
Let us know what you think of the Mavic.