Landing skids and screws fyi

[Fordzuki]

Having crashed my phantom more times than I can count, (I'm getting better... :lol: ) I managed to pull threads on two of my landing skid screws. While looking at them, I noticed the stock screws only engage 2-3 threads, so I set out to the lowe's up the street and after a tiresome search, and a few items I didn't really need, I found almost what I was looking for. It appears that the stock screws are a m3-.50x6, and so I was looking for a x8, but only found x10, so I grabbed 8 and a couple more for spares, along with some nylon washers to take up part of the extra. Without the washers, I was able to snug the x10 down with stock landing gear and didn't "feel" it bottom out on anything, so I'm pretty confident that the longer screws aren't hitting anything on the inside with the washers in. They're about a mm thick. The only thing I don't like is they are slotted screws instead of phillips, but I'll live with it.


Left side has new screws and nylon washers between the skid and body.

 

[Fordzuki]

Fwiw, I used these same screws to fasten the camera mount back on with a bracket for vtx sandwiched underneath. I did have to file a bit off the ends to not have them rubbing on the battery.

 

[Fordzuki]

You can buy screw/bolt packs for the Phantoms. They have the correct ones in them.
You might also want to practice landing as an alternative to crashing.... You said you've crashed it "more times than I can count", I'm assuming more than 10 times then.... Any particular reason you crash it so frequently?

I could buy more phantom screws, but I'd be perpetuating the problem, as the stock screws are too short to begin with. 2-3 threads is not my idea of full engagement on the landing gear. After pulling those 2 threads with stock screws, I replaced them with longer screws that have full engagement and it is solid again. As a preventative measure, some folks may want to change screws for full engagement.
I have gotten better at flying it, and the "more than I can count" was a bit of a stretch. A couple of the crashes were from testing horribly unbalanced aftermarket vision props, one crash was because I let the battery get too low and it tried auto landing in a tree, another was poor judgement and going left when I wanted right smacking a prop on my shed.

I'm not trying to say the phantoms are hard to fly or crash easily, I'm merely pointing out something I found as a "weak point" and the way I addressed it. This also may be helpful to someone using spacers under their landing gear to gain more clearance for camera and gimbal. Or just adding longer screws when bolting different camera mounts, txs, or other accessories to their phantom.