P3 blade failure? Common ?

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Flying a P3 using the best blades ( others were chipped, gouged - you know how people add spares into a sale)

Hovering about 30' ..............then looked like an impact, and it 45 degree angled into the ground

Do blades fail?

Normal start up, and straight up climb to hover for 20 seconds then...........splat
 
My thoughts are that it is very unusual for OEM P3 props to fail, but not as unusual for them to come off due to not being mounted correctly.
Were all four props still mounted after the crash?
 
I didn't crank them down super tight.
I was under the impression the 2 quick motor speed ups, at start, are to tighten the blades.

Doubt they were loose, as the 2 broken ones are still on the rotor motors
Picts coming
 
Last edited:
I didn't crank them down super tight.
I was under the impression the 2 quick motor speed ups, at start, are to tighten the blades.
Here’s a related bullet from my 2016 list of tips:

> Do not assume that the P3 will tighten your props automatically. Just loosely spinning on the props is not enough. The ESCs are designed with “active braking” to rapidly decelerate the motors. The resulting inertia may be enough to spin OFF a prop if you have not adequately tightened the props before flight. Check your props prior to every flight. Props can and have flown off during flight, so don't be the next crash victim who says, "I thought they were self tightening!"

Were all four props still mounted after the crash?
Doubt they were loose, as the 2 broken ones are still on the rotor motors
Looking forward to the pix and perhaps a flight log.
 
Trying to get photos uploaded
Picts soon

i was able to recover the last fight video, but only 8 secs, so crash not on it

How do I find the logs?
On the micro sd card?



Here’s a related bullet from my 2016 list of tips:

> Do not assume that the P3 will tighten your props automatically. Just loosely spinning on the props is not enough. The ESCs are designed with “active braking” to rapidly decelerate the motors. The resulting inertia may be enough to spin OFF a prop if you have not adequately tightened the props before flight. Check your props prior to every flight. Props can and have flown off during flight, so don't be the next crash victim who says, "I thought they were self tightening!"



Looking forward to the pix and perhaps a flight log.
 
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Photos hosted at Flickr; Blade break broken

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I need to host photos on-line to view?

Can’t “upload” ?
This post from iPhone app
Others from PC
Photos hosted at Flickr; Blade break broken

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Very strange that your photos would not upload directly. We all do it routinely, so perhaps some sort of setting issue?

Anyway, that first photo looks to me as if you may have had significant cracking under that motor. I say that because we've seen photos of motors coming loose when the cracking under the motors has become too bad without intervention of some sort. Prior to the crash, did you have the dreaded cracks under your motors?
 
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Photos hosted at Flickr; Blade break broken

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I dont suppose you have the ends by any chance, bit confused because you mention a impact before it went down mayby, its possible too that motor broke its frame on ground impact cause these a mark on the motor,,unsure till you find end to check if any mark or dent to show that it did snap,,one prop mayby but 2 props at once break similar area is ,,I not sure if silver top prop break from touching the broken black top prop but finding a end might solve that,,
 
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Both of those fractures look like just that, a complete snapping off of the blade, not initiated by a stress crack, the beginning of which would have had a much smoother appearance.
One silver, one black so they were next to each other. It is distinctly possible that the one motor came loose, tilted, causing the two props to impact each other.
The distance between the blade tips when mounted is just 10mm so it would only take a very small movement of the motor to bring about contact.

IMG_7979.jpg

A look at the broken off blades would confirm this.

To answer the OP's original question "Do blades fail". Very rarely. I have never had one fail since I got the P3 back in 2016. However, drones regularly fail if you don't check everything before every flight, especially the integrity of the motors and their mounting. In flight they vibrate, however little, and this can and does lead to the mounting screws becoming loose.
ALWAY tighten the props onto the spindles firmly, the motor start up torque will not do it for you.
 
Last edited:
Good intel guys.
Sorry for the delay in replying.


I do not see an “upload” in the iPhone app for pictures when signed into my account. < EDIT solved: see below post >

Not sure on the Motor body arm “crack” but should be able to point out / take photo at home.

This was a $200 first drone for me P3A.

i suspect it was put together from parts as RC is like newer 300B.

There WAS previous blade contact with the main bodybefore I bought it. I can see scuff on top.

Guy flew it and the shell had some kinks in it before.

I have 8 sec video before crash, (recovered with info from another thread) but that just shows environment and height.

I’ll post more and look into getting logs info posted up.





Very strange that your photos would not upload directly. We all do it routinely, so perhaps some sort of setting issue?

Anyway, that first photo looks to me as if you may have had significant cracking under that motor. I say that because we've seen photos of motors coming loose when the cracking under the motors has become too bad without intervention of some sort. Prior to the crash, did you have the dreaded cracks under your motors?
 
Last edited:
Hi SuffolkD.
Did you manage to collect the broken blade pieces, would like to see them. I suspect the tips will show impact damage which would confirm that the motor moves and the blades impacted.
 
My bet is still that the shell had existing and significant cracks under the motors (which is not unusual) and that during flight a motor broke off of the shell. The photo shows what looks like to me are broken shell parts still attached to the motor. I guessing that the motor still had its screws in place. After the motor detached, likely the props hit each other or the prop on the detached motor hit the shell and the other prop broke on impact with the ground.

I hope we eventually get an answer to my question from Friday afternoon (US time):
Anyway, that first photo looks to me as if you may have had significant cracking under that motor. I say that because we've seen photos of motors coming loose when the cracking under the motors has become too bad without intervention of some sort. Prior to the crash, did you have the dreaded cracks under your motors?
 
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I was near the drone today so I took some more photos to eliminate arm flex and contact with body as a reason as in the second photo, its happened before I owned it.
C96AFA2A-9D1A-487A-AE18-744270CFDA13.jpeg

Hi SuffolkD.
Did you manage to collect the broken blade pieces, would like to see them. I suspect the tips will show impact damage which would confirm that the motor moves and the blades impacted.


Good intel guys.
Sorry for the delay in replying.
I do not see an “upload” in the iPhone app for pictures when signed into my account. < EDIT solved: see below post >

Not sure on the Motor body arm “crack” but should be able to point out / take photo at home.

This was a $200 first drone for me P3A.

i suspect it was put together from parts as RC is like newer 300B.

There WAS previous blade contact with the main bodybefore I bought it. I can see scuff on top. EDIT: ( See photo below in post )

Guy flew it and the shell had some kinks in it before.

I have 8 sec video before crash, (recovered with info from another thread) but that just shows environment and height.

I’ll post more and look into getting logs info posted up.
Both of those fractures look like just that, a complete snapping off of the blade, not initiated by a stress crack, the beginning of which would have had a much smoother appearance.
One silver, one black so they were next to each other. It is distinctly possible that the one motor came loose, tilted, causing the two props to impact each other.
The distance between the blade tips when mounted is just 10mm so it would only take a very small movement of the motor to bring about contact.

View attachment 119938
A look at the broken off blades would confirm this.

To answer the OP's original question "Do blades fail". Very rarely. I have never had one fail since I got the P3 back in 2016. However, drones regularly fail if you don't check everything before every flight, especially the integrity of the motors and their mounting. In flight they vibrate, however little, and this can and does lead to the mounting screws becoming loose.
ALWAY tighten the props onto the spindles firmly, the motor start up torque will not do it for you.
C96AFA2A-9D1A-487A-AE18-744270CFDA13.jpeg
9030B304-7920-4FD4-A8B6-EC4D941B52E3.jpeg
9030B304-7920-4FD4-A8B6-EC4D941B52E3.jpeg
C96AFA2A-9D1A-487A-AE18-744270CFDA13.jpeg
C96AFA2A-9D1A-487A-AE18-744270CFDA13.jpeg
9030B304-7920-4FD4-A8B6-EC4D941B52E3.jpeg
 
I may have picked one up, the other is in the ocean, I’ll look for it.

Hi SuffolkD.
Did you manage to collect the broken blade pieces, would like to see them. I suspect the tips will show impact damage which would confirm that the motor moves and the blades impacted.
 

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