Phantom 3 Advanced dropped from sky

TuT · Mar 20, 2017

Hi All,
I am looking for some comments on my recent Phantom 3 crash. I had been flying it fine for 8 months until I decided to upgrade the firmware. In the first flight after the upgrade the quad just dropped from the sky with 96% battery remaining.
I have video of the crash. I was flying the quad in a straight line back to me. The video shows this, then the quad just tumbles and smashes on the ground.

You can watch the video here:
CRASH VIDEO.mpg

DJI's response to my warranty claim states:
"
1. The aircraft was piloted under P-GPS mode, and responded to the pilot’s control well;
2. T=366.2s, h=19.9m, aircraft crashed after pilot pulled throttle and elevator down, and pushed aileron rightward; "
AND a $705 bill for repairs.

What I am asking is, does the video and DJI's explanation bear any resemblence to each other.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

With The Birds · Mar 20, 2017

I suggest you replay the flight in DJI Go. Watch the depiction of stick movements. If it shows both sticks in and down or out and down you performed a CSC.

TuT · Mar 20, 2017

I just replayed the flight in DJI Go as you suggested. There is NO CSC. When the drone dropped I had the right stick straight down and the left stick down about 1/8th. This is NOT a CSC!
Grrrrrr.... I'm so angry at DJI right now. They are straight out telling lies.

With The Birds · Mar 20, 2017

I just looked at the video.... you didn't lose power (battery cell collapse is usually lights out camera and all) and other CSC I have seen posted video that's pretty much how it looked. Didnitbhave all four props on when you retrieved it?

With The Birds · Mar 20, 2017

Upload your log to phantomhelp log viewer and or healthy drones if you haven't already. Might give you some clues.

TuT · Mar 20, 2017

With The Birds said:
I just looked at the video.... you didn't lose power (battery cell collapse is usually lights out camera and all) and other CSC I have seen posted video that's pretty much how it looked. Didnitbhave all four props on when you retrieved it?

All four props but one had snapped in half, I'm guessing when it hit the ground.

With The Birds · Mar 20, 2017

Do the flight logs give you any clues?

TuT · Mar 20, 2017

I've checked the flight logs. Just disconnection and failure. No CSC. No battery problems. Nothing I can see at all.

With The Birds · Mar 20, 2017

TuT said:
I've checked the flight logs. Just disconnection and failure. No CSC. No battery problems. Nothing I can see at all.

What failure? You should post the log link, maybe someone can shed some light on it for you.

TuT · Mar 21, 2017

Log links are here:

Phantom Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters

TuT · Mar 21, 2017

Also please note the position of my controls when the quad dropped from the sky. I was flying straight back towards myself.
Why is DJI talking about "pushed aileron rightward"? The logs do NOT show this.
I have raised this with my supplier. He is going to escalate with DJI. He is also confused that the DJI GO logs differ from DJI's description and agrees it looks like a system failure.

Oso · Mar 21, 2017

Was there a different flight log that they may have seen? The one you posted ends at 71 seconds with a battery error at 45 seconds. DJI seems to be commenting on a 366 second flight.

TuT · Mar 21, 2017

Oso said:
Was there a different flight log that they may have seen? The one you posted ends at 71 seconds with a battery error at 45 seconds. DJI seems to be commenting on a 366 second flight.

Strange I know. The replay in DJI GO app shows 1min12secs. They did ask me to upload ALL my DJI GO logs so they may have become confused. I will bring this up with my supplier. Thanks

Also, how could I possibly have 96% battery remaining after a 6 minute flight???

Digdat0 · Mar 21, 2017

that seems like BS man, i'd fight it. If you used your credit card, you may be able to get warranty covered under them. Thats really crappy, wasnt CSC from what you shared.

SteveAikens · Mar 22, 2017

If you post the correct flight logs - maybe we can help you understand what really happened. The flight you describe and the screen shot/logs you posted are not supporting each other.

TuT · Mar 23, 2017

They are all from the same flight. I only had 1 flight while on holidays in Lismore.

Noodle · Mar 23, 2017

Could a bird strike possibly cause this type of crash?

With The Birds · Mar 23, 2017

Noodle said:
Could a bird strike possibly cause this type of crash?

More likely to be a bat, not many birds flying at night (owls maybe but not at any significant height).

BudWalker · Mar 23, 2017

TuT said:
Hi All,
I am looking for some comments on my recent Phantom 3 crash. I had been flying it fine for 8 months until I decided to upgrade the firmware. In the first flight after the upgrade the quad just dropped from the sky with 96% battery remaining.
I have video of the crash. I was flying the quad in a straight line back to me. The video shows this, then the quad just tumbles and smashes on the ground.

You can watch the video here:
CRASH VIDEO.mpg

DJI's response to my warranty claim states:
"
1. The aircraft was piloted under P-GPS mode, and responded to the pilot’s control well;
2. T=366.2s, h=19.9m, aircraft crashed after pilot pulled throttle and elevator down, and pushed aileron rightward; "
AND a $705 bill for repairs.

What I am asking is, does the video and DJI's explanation bear any resemblence to each other.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

It seems that the DJI response must have been based on their evaluation of the .DAT file. If you sent them the P3 this is what they would have looked at. Do you have that .DAT file? If so, then could you Dropbox it and post a link?

The .txt you uploaded to PhantomHelp shows there was a battery comm error at 45 secs

and then nothing after 71 secs. Seems likely there was an RC disconnect. The .DAT would tell us what happened after the disconnect.

Are you sure there isn't another .txt file that comes right after the one you submitted to PhantomHelp?

CORBY4 · Mar 26, 2017

Digdat0 said:
that seems like BS man, i'd fight it. If you used your credit card, you may be able to get warranty covered under them. Thats really crappy, wasnt CSC from what you shared.

This is why it' very hard to trust these things. I've been building / flying for many years . they can work flawlessly 99% of the time but there is always a chance of something can go wrong. It's very scary when it does. My p3p decided to land itself while I was 400ft over the bay with 48% battery and would not let me cancel. Luckily I made it back to shore with 10ft to spare. ??? I fell into the fw upgrade trap and now video feed is s%#t. Trusting it again will take some time.