Phantom 3 Professional - Crashed into Lake

[noki49]

I don't think I would rely on the velcro to support the weight of a waterlogged phantom possibly stuck in weeds. It's no good just getting the getterback back if the velcro gives way. I would tie wrap them to the phantom. I think the getterbacks would just slide out of the velcro when wet or the velcro would give under the weight.
The velcro might be ok for a fishing rod weighing a pound or two which will offer little resistance to being pulled through the water.

 

[Tenly]

I don't think I would rely on the velcro to support the weight of a waterlogged phantom possibly stuck in weeds. It's no good just getting the getterback back if the velcro gives way. I would tie wrap them to the phantom. I think the getterbacks would just slide out of the velcro when wet or the velcro would give under the weight.
The velcro might be ok for a fishing rod weighing a pound or two which will offer little resistance to being pulled through the water.

Thanks for the suggestion - and you might be right - but the Velcro does wrap around 1.5 times and I think it could actually hold...more important (to me) than pulling the phantom up is marking the spot where it is... If I know where it is, I can just dive for it...

The tie wrap might be good advice for some - but I don't plan to attach the GetterBacks every time I fly. If I'm not flying over water I'm going to leave them off. So - for those reasons, personally, I'm going to stick with just the Velcro - but I'll be extra careful if I ever do need to pull up a sunken phantom.

 

[noki49]

Thanks for the suggestion - and you might be right - but the Velcro does wrap around 1.5 times and I think it could actually hold...more important (to me) than pulling the phantom up is marking the spot where it is... If I know where it is, I can just dive for it...

The tie wrap might be good advice for some - but I don't plan to attach the GetterBacks every time I fly. If I'm not flying over water I'm going to leave them off. So - for those reasons, personally, I'm going to stick with just the Velcro - but I'll be extra careful if I ever do need to pull up a sunken phantom.

I fly with a gimbal guard that also has a place to attach my rfv-16 tracker (great little device).
The gimbal guard came with velcro but I accidentally cut it too short to be affective, so I now carry a pack of small tie wraps and a small pair of side cutters to remove them, as I need to remove the gimbal guard to fit the drone in my case. It it much more secure than velcro but no more of an inconvenience to remove them. I would definitely use this method to attach the getterbacks. They come with a strong line for retrieval, it seems a shame to not be able to rely on that feature due to the attachment method. Using the getterback to retrieve the drone allows for a speedy recovery and would minimise the potential for irreversible water damage. They also allow for much deeper recovery than the average person could dive down to, especially in cold water.

 

[Tenly]

I don't think the length of time it's submerged increases the damage dramatically. It's what you do when you pull it out of the water that matters. The real damage starts when the oxygen hits and it's actually better to leave it underwater until you are all set up and ready for the rinse and dry.

If I manage to find mine, I plan to transplant it directly from the lake into a tub of distilled water, disassemble much of it while in the tub and rinse each part thoroughly with the distilled water, then pat it dry, spray with WD40 and move into a tub of isopropyl alcohol for another thorough rinse - then pat dry, blow dry with hairdryer and then into a zip-lock bag with rice or a silica desiccant in it where it will stay sealed for a week.

It may be overkill - but if I do it right - the bird will probably fly again when I'm done - even though it's been underwater for more than 3 weeks!

So again - I appreciate your advice - but the problem I'm trying to solve with the GetterBacks is not recovery. It's location. In the areas I fly - recovery is fairly easy if you know where something is. It's locating it which is difficult!

 

[Tenly]

DJI Support Update

I called in today to find out when I would receive my coupon code. I was 16th in the queue and had to wait about 20 minutes to talk to someone. When I explained why I was calling, he put me on hold and called the department responsible for issuing the coupons and came back to tell me that everything had been approved and that I would receive it by email by tomorrow morning at the latest. 2 hours later, the email was in my inbox!

The coupon was for the $709 US package in the DJI store for the Phantom 3 Professional, a battery and a set of propellers - it excluded the remote control and the charger. The coupon code even included free shipping!

I placed my order and I am expecting it to ship in 1-2 days!

Overall, I'm completely satisfied with the way DJI handled this. It would have been nice if there had been a little more communication throughout the process - but the resolution occurred in a timely manner and they are replacing everything I lost. The evidence spoke for itself and DJI was able to see that the incident was not caused by pilot error. They did not try to squirm out of their responsibility to replace it. In the past, my experience with DJI support has not been this positive. I hope this is a sign of a change in the way they deal with their customers!

I give them 4.5 stars out of 5 on this particular case. All it would have taken to bring it up to 5 stars would have been better/more communication. In any case - if anyone from DJI is reading this - thanks very much for exceeding my expectations and handling my problem in a timely manner!

 

[Zuzua]

@Tenly: I have P3P and have not had any major issues at all until today!!
I updated to the latest fw that came out today, both Ac and the batteries were all updated.
I went out about 3000feet at 390' up. All of a sudden I got zero satellites and then shortly after that the signal bars dropped to 0 for both the video and radio signal and the signal lost and rth initiating warning came up. Immediately after I clicked on "rth now choice", the app became unresponsive, latest iOS on iPhone 6+. I waited about 2 minutes and when I couldn't see the p3 I hit rth button on RC, it started its normal beeping and couple minutes later I saw the p3 coming home, I cancelled rth and landed manually. I then shutdown the app and restarted it but still no connection, so I unplugged lightning cable and replugged it back, the app then connected to the p3. This flight was I middle of no where,! I thought well, maybe "whatever" happened, so I put I second battery and went up 10' and out about 5', satellite, radio and video signal greyed out and app became unresponsive again, this time I unplugged and replugged the cable and the app then got video and signals back!! All very odd, never had any of these types of issues before today, after the latest fw update!!
Will try again tomorrow with different cable and then different device, air2,and see if problem disappears.

 

[Tenly]

@Tenly: I have P3P and have not had any major issues at all until today!!
I updated to the latest fw that came out today, both Ac and the batteries were all updated.
I went out about 3000feet at 390' up. All of a sudden I got zero satellites and then shortly after that the signal bars dropped to 0 for both the video and radio signal and the signal lost and rth initiating warning came up. Immediately after I clicked on "rth now choice", the app became unresponsive, latest iOS on iPhone 6+. I waited about 2 minutes and when I couldn't see the p3 I hit rth button on RC, it started its normal beeping and couple minutes later I saw the p3 coming home, I cancelled rth and landed manually. I then shutdown the app and restarted it but still no connection, so I unplugged lightning cable and replugged it back, the app then connected to the p3. This flight was I middle of no where,! I thought well, maybe "whatever" happened, so I put I second battery and went up 10' and out about 5', satellite, radio and video signal greyed out and app became unresponsive again, this time I unplugged and replugged the cable and the app then got video and signals back!! All very odd, never had any of these types of issues before today, after the latest fw update!!
Will try again tomorrow with different cable and then different device, air2,and see if problem disappears.

I've heard of problems like yours being caused by the lightning cable connecting the RC to the iPhone/iPad. Try with an official Apple lightning cable if possible and hopefully you won't have a problem.

If I were you though, I would be very careful about flying until you have the problem corrected. Even a crash from a low height can cause expensive damage to your Phantom - so proceed at your own risk!

If changing the cable doesn't correct your problem - I would probably recommend you send it in for a thorough check-up. Better to pay a small service fee now than to have to pay an expensive repair bill later - or possibly even lose the entire device!

I'd also recommend you enable VideoCaching on your iPhone/iPad in DJI Go so that you have the Lightbridge video stream saved on your iOS device as additional evidence of a malfunction in the event you ever have to get a repair done under warranty. It may not always be useful - but in my case, I think having that video file available was the difference between getting my replacement bird for free vs a 50% discount...

Good luck. I hope the new cable resolves all of your problems!

 

[Tenly]

Okay. My replacement Phantom 3 Professional, battery and props arrived today via DHL. DHL screwed up the delivery. They called me yesterday morning and told me they were arriving yesterday and online tracking confirmed that - but then towards the end of the day, the online tracking was updated by the driver to say he was unable to deliver the package because he was "denied access to the property" which is ridiculous and impossible. I'm in a house, no fence, no dog and I was sitting here waiting for him. Obviously the driver was running behind on his route and rather than work late to finish it - he just decided to lie about the last bunch of deliveries. DHL is the worst (around here). That would have never happened with UPS!

Anyhow - that's not DJI's fault. The package was almost here in 2 days from China but actually took 3 days (which is still awesome).

It arrived in a plain brown box labeled "Parts and Components".

As far as I'm concerned, this thread can now be closed.

Thanks DJI for honouring the warranty and for doing so in a timely fashion!