P3 inverted and fell from the sky...into a lake :-(

[Numone]

Yeah it landed in the football pitch, there were kids playing there. Fortunately enough the motors are loud as hell and they heard it falling and managed to evade it. When I recovered it there was a propeller missing, I use official DJI props so the whole things a mystery to me really. Unfortunately I can't get the flight data because I had the nexus 5X and it just encountered the dreaded bootloop the other day. Technology failing on me left right and centre.

Yeah this is north west England, nope never found out what happened. Found the drone with a propeller missing and the ESC gimbal and everything else completely destroyed. Its really ruined my confidence in these machines, and to think I've been flying over water bodies a lot recently has made me think how worse it could have been.

Well, I'd say what happened, given it only had three of them when you found it, was it lost a prop? Just a guess, mind.....
I presume you're repairing it?

 

[James McLennon]

Well, I'd say what happened, given it only had three of them when you found it, was it lost a prop? Just a guess, mind.....
I presume you're repairing it?

There's no fixing it the ESC is completely kaput, the gimbal is possibly fixable and then I'll sell that on. Ill just have to sell the untouched bits like the GPS, antennas and the 3 motors that look good. The shells also in a horrible state there's no way of selling that on, I'm good at fixing things but the fall was just too high for the drone, maybe if it landed in a tree it'd be different but the football pitch was concrete.

 

[Numone]

There's no fixing it the ESC is completely kaput, the gimbal is possibly fixable and then I'll sell that on. Ill just have to sell the untouched bits like the GPS, antennas and the 3 motors that look good. The shells also in a horrible state there's no way of selling that on, I'm good at fixing things but the fall was just too high for the drone, maybe if it landed in a tree it'd be different but the football pitch was concrete.

Oooowah... that's very bad - commiserations matey...

 

[James McLennon]

Oooowah... that's very bad - commiserations matey...

Its fine man, blessing in disguise really because I managed to pick up a phantom 3 pro for £400 and I reckon I'll be able to recoup £200 + so in the end it wont be all the bad. The range was really starting to annoy me so it forced me into a new unit.

 

[Numone]

Its fine man, blessing in disguise really because I managed to pick up a phantom 3 pro for £400 and I reckon I'll be able to recoup £200 + so in the end it wont be all the bad. The range was really starting to annoy me so it forced me into a new unit.

Nice one.

 

[microchips]

1:8kg falling from 50 meters and hitting a child playing football ?? Good job they were not deaf!! Time and time again we are told not to fly over houses or people and this is a classic case of ignoring the laws and commonse out of the window, hopefully you will give up flying drones because you obviously didn't give a toss about children playing below your 1:8 kg brick!.

 

[James McLennon]

1:8kg falling from 50 meters and hitting a child playing football ?? Good job they were not deaf!! Time and time again we are told not to fly over houses or people and this is a classic case of ignoring the laws and commonse out of the window, hopefully you will give up flying drones because you obviously didn't give a toss about children playing below your 1:8 kg brick!.

I'd just fixed the gimbal and need to test it, the nearest open fields to me are an hours drive away. I was planning a short fly up record some footage and review it, there was no pilot error involved with the incident although I wont be flying in that park again. There's no rules against flying in the park and I'm sure you've flown close to or above people in your time, its impossible not to, things like this can't be predicted and you learn from your mistakes. Also I wasn't actually flying directly over them but because the rear prop fell off it fell backwards away from my direction of travel.

 

[N017RW]

Yes. Having flown r/c aircraft for decades, failure is inevitable but timing is unpredictable. As described the trajectory is also unpredictable. Lesson learned?
I personally have not flown over people (structures- yes). Being responsible for maiming another is more a deterrent than facing potential financial loss for me.
So long as a lesson was learned then you'll likely be more considerate in the future???

 

[James McLennon]

Yes. Having flown r/c aircraft for decades, failure is inevitable but timing is unpredictable. As described the trajectory is also unpredictable. Lesson learned?
I personally have not flown over people (structures- yes). Being responsible for maiming another is more a deterrent than facing potential financial loss for me.
So long as a lesson was learned then you'll likely be more considerate in the future???

I've learnt my lesson yes that these things can't be 100% trusted so I personally won't fly over people if its unavoidable. I just want to put it out there that these things are used by companies to record a number of events where people gather be it sports, festivals, concerts or weddings. Mavics were known to (I'm not sure if they still do) fly away posing a risk to hitting someone so are you just never meant to fly them? Nothing is 100% full proof and I feel like that guy above me didn't need to react the way he did, although his concerns are in the right place.

 

[N017RW]

Put out whatever you want. Do you have liability insurance to help fund the legal and medical costs if involved in an injury resultant accident? Just because you may fly above people does not mean I will.

Other's conduct is not a justification for yours.

 

[James McLennon]

Put out whatever you want. Do you have liability insurance to help fund the legal and medical costs if involved in an injury resultant accident? Just because you may fly above people does not mean I will.

Other's conduct is not a justification for yours.

That last bit was more aimed at the other guy telling me to give up flying.

 

[N017RW]

No prob.
Good discourse!

 

[glyn.hudson]

Hey guys,

Here's an update: long story short, with the help of some scuba divers we found the drone!

All props where attached and no major damage apart from the gimbal mounting. Therefore the carbon props were not the cause of the crash. I'm still none the wiser as to the cause, any ideas....

However after drying them out all the parts (apart from the battery) look like they are in surprisingly good condition after a week in a lake! Maybe after a long drying period then careful re-assembly she will fly again?...

 

[N017RW]

Well prop LOSS may not be the cause but let's be clear... this does not rule out non-OEM props as a contributor.

 

[glyn.hudson]

High qulity video of the crash has been uploaded, recovered from the SD card. Stil cause is unknown:

 

[BigAl07]

.....hopefully you will give up flying drones ....

Come on now. Let's be constructive and supportive to the best of our ability. None of us are without mistakes and bad decisions... NONE!

 

[Numone]

Come on now. Let's be constructive and supportive to the best of our ability. None of us are without mistakes and bad decisions... NONE!

Well said Allen.

 

[Neon Euc]

Well said Allen.

Agree with that. Mistakes happens, drones can just cut out no matter how careful we are.

 

[With The Birds]

Good chance you will get the AC back in the air soon. Would be great to pull the flight log off the AC once you get it powered up and see what clues it might provide.

 

[glyn.hudson]

Would be great to pull the flight log off the AC once you get it powered up and see what clues it might provide.

I posted to log from the DJI app to the first post on this thread. Could there be more data obtainable from the aircraft itself? If so how can I extract this data?