Oops

[cshaw]

Don't push the battery limits when flying in trees. I wondered why my Phantom was dropping fast before I realized the battery was flat. Unfortunately a tree stepped in the way and there was a nasty collision. Pulled 3 grey plugs out of the gimbal and bent the gimbals mount. Everything seemed to go back together and work after a bit of camera leveling.

I think the little alloy guard thing I fitted a while ago kept the gimbal in 1 piece. That was money well spent. Think I will buy a camera guard now.

Motors were still running when i got to it but don't seem to have damaged them or cooked any ESCs. Very impressed by the Phantoms resilience.

 

[IflyinWY]

It's nice to hear a "survival" story every now and then. Which Phantom are you flying?

Ya gonna share the video so we can snicker too?

 

[mad in nc]

Looks to be a V2+ with Flytrex.... should have good data to review

 

[cshaw]

Thanks for the comments guys.
And feel free to snigger. I did. Doh!

The video looks fine. I assume the camera is turned off when the battery gets critically low so I missed the falling down bit. Also the flytrex had no sim card at the time.

This was entirely my fault anyway. The Ipad mini had the volume muted so I didn't get the warning tone and I wasn't paying enough attention to the battery level.
Two crashes with the PV2+ in a year and both my fault. Every other flight has been perfect. I am really impressed with the DJI technology and how robust it is.

I have a gimbal guard and will now fit a camera protector, to protect my Phantom from my own carelessness in the future

Good on you DJI for producing such a great flying camera. I do get a bit sick of all the negative stuff on this forum. Anyone who buys a small remote controlled flying anything and expects it to be completely foolproof is kidding themselves and should stick to flying control line aircraft or kites. There is, and will always be a risk of breaking or losing a small thing like the Phantom that is flying hundreds of metres away from the operator. I always stick within the parameters specified by DJI. I have never been beyond about 500m and strictly line of sight.

Good on you DJI for producing such a great flying camera. If you can't afford to lose it, don't buy one. If it falls from the sky for some reason, (probably the pilot) then just be amazed it was up there in the first place. The technology packed into these things is astonishing. I wish people wouldn't whine on about how the manufacturer should have considered every possible eventually you could be exposed to, anywhere in the world. They need to harden up or get another less risky hobby

Rant ended. I feel better already. Think I will go fly my Quad.

 

[kirk2579]

Don't push the battery limits when flying in trees. I wondered why my Phantom was dropping fast before I realized the battery was flat. Unfortunately a tree stepped in the way and there was a nasty collision. Pulled 3 grey plugs out of the gimbal and bent the gimbals mount. Everything seemed to go back together and work after a bit of camera leveling.

I think the little alloy guard thing I fitted a while ago kept the gimbal in 1 piece. That was money well spent. Think I will buy a camera guard now.

Motors were still running when i got to it but don't seem to have damaged them or cooked any ESCs. Very impressed by the Phantoms resilience.

This too much! + 1 on limits

I was with wife in park today walking dog and phantom 2v1 with cgo-1 camera. Normally 15 minutes and I am done. I broke that rule today and went 18:36.
I saw the red lights as I looked at bridge replacement and I pulled it back to me in the parking area to land. I almost landed where blue cavalier was but pulled it more to center of road as it has less gravel.--turned out a great move..tree branches are higher in middle
I landed second too late...Unfortunately the 20% RTH hit just as I landed. I am set for 45m and RTH .

THANKS to EVERYONE that keeps repeating S1, S1, S1 in post after post to recover from auto pilot.
I hit it just in time to keep it from becoming an upside down tree wacker.

jump to 2:25 you can see when I regain control as it rocks and then clips tree branch

BTW no phantom or props were hurt or damaged in this f'up

 

[cshaw]

I think the technology is cleverer than us. A couple of times mine has started RTH and I have thought "What the hell?" thinking it was flying away, hit the S1 switch and taken over and then thought, "Oh yeah" that's what it is supposed to do when battery gets low.