Phantom 3pro lost motor mid flight.....total loss

[CCDD]

File a claim through PayPal if you have an issue with seller, you have 6 months.

 

[m0j0]

One week old, No crashes, no rough handling and clearly Not a Mark on it except for the stress fractures!
I got this a Week ago today and have flown for about 2 hours. I Only found this today thanks to this thread.
To me it simply looks like the screws have been over tightened from factory but I can not say whether these fractures where there or not the night I opened the box.
Sucks.




View attachment 54929

Get it fixed. Takes about 5 days total


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Flight Raptor]

Sorry for the loss and the pucker factor it must have induced. DJI HAS to cover this type of catastrophic failure!

I would like to send you a set of the Arm Reinforcements that I make. Once you get the bird warrantied please let me know and I will send you a set to keep you, your family, other people and property safe.

That's how I roll.

Here is a picture in white on my bird. I also can print in a variety of other colors if you desire.

With these mounted your motors aren't going anywhere!

Where can I buy a set of these?

 

[GenesisX]

Where can I buy a set of these?

www.uavbits.net

 

[drm]

After seeing this I plan to do a thorough inspection of my bird.

 

[cdronefly]

After seeing this I plan to do a thorough inspection of my bird.

I was out flying today and checked mine for the first time in a while - I have a very early P3P (last April)......looks perfect!

I'm happy! But if there were cracks.....I'd probably just get out the epoxy.

 

[Dounin Front]

I was out flying today and checked mine for the first time in a while - I have a very early P3P (last April)......looks perfect!

I'm happy! But if there were cracks.....I'd probably just get out the epoxy.

Or the strong arm reinforcement plates (or similar). Why take things apart and go to the extra work?
If the cracks become catastrophic, get a new shell. But, I doubt they will.

 

[Gliding Drone Pilot]

DJI are replacing my Professional and recently replaced the 5.8 board in the remote and drone of my P3 Standard.

As of right now I am super glad that I decided to pay the big dollars and go with DJI instead of a much cheaper brand. DJI have organised a pick up and drop off direct from my house using TNT couriers and have not given me any problems what so ever. I have found their after sales support to be fantastic and I'm happy with the help thus far.

Any updates from the Thread Author on how he is going with his claim or what is happening now etc?

 

[Ishmail]

I been flying my phantom 3 pro since November of last year, 35 hours total tiime, 210 flights and over 400 km total distance, with not one issue..ever ..no crashes no close calls, nothing.
This morning I went out to the beach with my wife and kids. Went up, out to the ocean to do a video of a sailboat just cruising, on the way back got really close to the water, right on top of the kids with the camera looking down, went straight up and at about 150 feet, I stopped recording and gained more altitude, to about 300 feet i started to decend, i was looking at the screen since the drone was over my head, all of the sudden the view was rotating very fast and going from sky to ocean, immediately I went to att to regain control, got a couple of error messages and shortly after the drone came down in to the beach really hard, one of the engines was missing, we looked for it and founded about 60 yards from were the phantom 3pro hit the sand, total lose. It was definitly a separation of one of the motors from the phantom, thank god nobody was hurt but this is very very scary to have something like this happen, This morning I did a very meticulous check of the phantom, look for craks, loose bolts, etc all seem to be ok and this happens. I'm contacting DJI service to file a warranty claim for a catastrophic structure faliure.

I need advice on how to contact DJI about this, thanks

First I want to say sorry for your loss. I found one cracked motor mount on my P3P after 100 flights with no falls from air crashes. However I did once break a propeller when my P3P tipped over during a landing from a gust of wind after about 50th flight and there appeared to be no exterior damage to the aircraft then. I was lucky that I found the internal hair line cracked motor mount when I opened the aircraft months later and found that the motor that incurred the broken propeller previously had caused cracks invisible to exterior. So word of caution to anyone who has ever broken a propeller while motor spinning. This can cause internal cracked motor mount not necessarily visible from exterior.

 

[Dounin Front]

First I want to say sorry for your loss. I found one cracked motor mount on my P3P after 100 flights with no falls from air crashes. However I did once break a propeller when my P3P tipped over during a landing from a gust of wind after about 50th flight and there appeared to be no exterior damage to the aircraft then. I was lucky that I found the internal hair line cracked motor mount when I opened the aircraft months later and found that the motor that incurred the broken propeller previously had caused cracks invisible to exterior. So word of caution to anyone who has ever broken a propeller while motor spinning. This can cause internal cracked motor mount not necessarily visible from exterior.

Are you referring to the internal view of a plastic motor mount or the threaded metal flange of a motor?
Did you try UAV Bits reinforcement plates to [hopefully] stop further cracking and eliminate the possibility of a subsequent motor detachment?

 

[Ishmail]

Are you referring to the internal view of a plastic motor mount or the threaded metal flange of a motor?
Did you try UAV Bits reinforcement plates to [hopefully] stop further cracking and eliminate the possibility of a subsequent motor detachment?

I am referring to the the plastic motor mount and surrounding areas only. And yes I have since reinforced all 4 motor mounts with Plast-aid and UAV Bits reinforcement plates.

 

[AIRNUTS]

DJI are replacing my Professional and recently replaced the 5.8 board in the remote and drone of my P3 Standard.

As of right now I am super glad that I decided to pay the big dollars and go with DJI instead of a much cheaper brand. DJI have organised a pick up and drop off direct from my house using TNT couriers and have not given me any problems what so ever. I have found their after sales support to be fantastic and I'm happy with the help thus far.

Any updates from the Thread Author on how he is going with his claim or what is happening now etc?

just a quick update, after many weeks I finally received a brand new Phantom 3 Pro and battery form DJI, they never excepted that one of the motors separated during flight, instead this is what I was told ....
We have re-evaluated your case and have decided to cover this issue under the warranty, as a courtesy. We will begin the repairs shortly.
Thank you for your patience.

I will post some pictures of the new bird as soon as I get home, is there waiting for me

And for the ones that keep saying that it was my fault and that I did something to the bolts that hold the motors in place, and that DJI was not going to cover this under warranty, YOU WERE WRONG they did send me a new one free of charge.

 

[AIRNUTS]

looking at the top back screw looks a tad worn but what makes me look at this image is, look at the end of the prop are, the small screw at the end that just nips the tips together, on a mk1 p3p that should be a smaller philipsi screw and not that one i see? also spiral scuffing in the bottom left screw
so looks to me as if the shell has been opened.. dont get me wrong dji should still replace but this is 50/50 but a Pre Flight check would have seen the crash coming

On a last note if DJI do their home work they would not even think about replacing the Phantom as Airnuts clearly is one of the pilots they could do without.. He does lots of night flights in dangerous areas, day flights in fog and light rain, likes to turn a screw as ive seen his mods, clearly dont do pre flight checks or would have seen this coming but the main reason is he flys over florida at a height of 250 meters, over main highways at 190 meters in height, has no respect for safety when flying directly over cruise ships or people ect ect. Sorry if this offends but its people like you that are making it hard for the rest of us. if you get it replaced please buck your ideas up and fly safe and withing the law.
Flame me all you want but its the height that I just cant ignore nor do I think the FAA would.

Guess what, they DID replaced my Drone and battery. Sorry to disappoint you, but I got a brand new bird.

 

[chris digata]

Guess what, they DID replaced my Drone and battery. Sorry to disappoint you, but I got a brand new bird.

Happy for you... just keep it safe

 

[Susruth]

I'm not worried about being injured. Not since I quit wasting my money on carbon fiber props, lol.

My only worry is wrecking somebody else's day, along with my life.

I fully agree. Onus is entirely on us to fly safe and that means never over people.

 

[Gliding Drone Pilot]

I hate to be ' THAT GUY ' who is doing the One up manship comment but listen to this ****!!

When I saw this thread it made check the bottom of my Week old P3Pro only to find that there were cracks underneath one of the motors. I contacted DJI immediately and sent them pictures and invoices etc etc etc.
They were really good in that they said they would replace the Drone completely and it would be on the way shortly.
About two weeks later I received my new drone via courier, only to open it up and find that the Engines had severely damaged threads, one of them being that bad that I could not screw on the Prop without stripping the guts of it out. So I took a bunch a pictures again and emailed my friendly contact and went through the same process.
3 or so weeks pass and I get another Brand new Drone delivered to me ( My 3rd One ) Via Courier Less the Battery and Less the remote as I kept them from last return, Only to find that this MoFkng Drone has got a great big Crack underneath the motor Just like the First one, Only much bigger.
The moment I found it, I wanted to attack it with a sledge hammer and then send back the remains to DJI Technology Australia but my 1500 dollars was hard earned and I bleed for it so I will be pleading for help yet again and Hope fully my 4th Drone will be suitable for use.

I really enjoy my p3Standard but frankly am getting sick of losing signal at 600 metres so its becoming a little boring.

Words can not describe how Frustrated I am with this situation.
Anyway I have no doubts what so ever that the author of this thread is 100% Genuine and did nothing Wrong with the drone to Harm the body itself or damage it in any way. All the best.

 

[mikesmiley]

It's very disheartening, hearing how many people are having these same problems with DJI.

 

[Vertigo]

We can all speculate on worst case scenarios , but in actuality if one looks at the statistical evidence regarding drone injuries they are statistically so low as to be non relevant. If you are of the school of thought that thinks this is because there are not that many drones that have been purchased. Think again. There were over 1 million new drones sold in 2015 alone.

Whats the number one you ask? Crutches , canes , and walkers

Average Annual Injuries: 416,052
Percent of Injuries to Males: 73.8%
Percent of Injuries to Females: 26.1%
Most Common Body Part Injured: Head

So if we need to worry about being injured efforts should be focused on the area that poses the most threat and greatest danger.

Lies, **** lies and statistics. One key reason why injuries by drone is still low, is that most pilots fly responsibly, be it by accident (nice place to fly that happens to be safe) or because they use their brain. That doesnt mean flying irresponsibly is somehow not dangerous.

Lets do another statistic, what percentage of phantoms (and similar drones) would you say suffers a loss of control / fly away / fall out of the sky incident over its lifetime? If we put that at just 1%, I think we're being incredibly optimistic. So thats at the very least 10's of thousands of drones falling out of the sky and probably closer to 100 thousand. Just imagine all of those where being flown over crowds, busy beaches, cities, rock festivals, overhead the owner's kids (!!!) .. What do you think that would do to your injury stats?

 

[Gliding Drone Pilot]

It's very disheartening, hearing how many people are having these same problems with DJI.

To be honest I have not seen this type of thing happen so frequently to anyone except for myself!
I'm the sort of person who gets the Lemon Car out of 10000 units or has the Dodgy builder do their home for them or gets THREE damaged Professional drones in a Row! The type of unheard **** that urban myths and legends are made up of is the the rubbish that I deal with every single time I purchase a new and expensive tool or Toy!
Sucks bad! I must have knocked down a factory full of mirrors or something.

 

[L.Chaney]

Happy for you... just keep it safe

I love it.
'You're an *** and the reason for problems we all face yadda yadda I'm perfect'
Oh! You got a new one! Fly safe!
I would have expected an apology but asses like Chris piss me off.
Enjoy your crow, Chris.