SALT WATER CRASH LANDING!!!

[NYNJphantom]

Hello everyone, this is officially my first post on this forum, although i've been a member for a few months now. I bought myself the P2V for my 30th birthday back in December and its been amazing as most of you may already know with owning your own.

I've been flying in New Jersey and New York without a hiccup! I'm currently on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys and decided to bring my machine with me. I flew around the marina, no problems whatsoever. SO, i decide to bring it out with me on the boat (biggest mistake of my life!!) and thats where the disaster happened. I flew for about 75% of the batteries life, taking stills and videos, (all of which i was able to salvage), when i decide to land, disaster struck. The copter began to descend without it being above the boat. I was literally bringing it in for a landing when all of a sudden it got 2-3 feet away from the side of the boat and began descending on its own. Almost as if it was loosing power in mid air. I tried gunning it back up but had no response. I threw the controller at my buddies chest and jumped over board before it reached the water and tried to catch it in mid air as the blades cut through my right hand (meaty part of palm) like a knife through butter. The copter touched the water for a maximum of 3 seconds before tossing it back at my other buddy onboard anticipating the reception of my needless investment he knew i cared so much about.

The after math; the battery does NOT light up when the button is pressed, i could definitely tell some salt water intruded the body of the aircraft, cut my knee (on the boat) on my leap of faith attempt of grabbing it mid air, and sliced my hand with the props as previously stated.

NOW, i'm not sure what to do. All i've done thus far is air dried it and let it sit on the hotel kitchen counter while i contemplate my next move. I fly back home sunday as depressed as can be. If any of my p2v fellow owners could give me some pointers I'd highly appreciate it. Maybe i can rebuild it?? What a disaster!!

 

[Bojo]

Open it and rinse with fresh water stick it in a bag of rice for a few days maybe a week then throw a batt in and see what happens


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[gbshovel]

and post videos of these shenanigans! Sorry to hear.

 

[iDrone]

The good news is that everything is replaceable. Bad news is salt water attacks metals rapidly. Things you want to attempt to salvage are the GPS module, NAZA module, the Central Board it's mounted to, the Receiver Board (underneath), the motors & their ESC driver boards.

Here's the tricky part, you want to wash away the salt ASAP to stop its chemical reaction with metal. You can "hose" it down with warm water which puts it into solution, and you only want to do this if you've got pressurized air to blow it out followed by a solvent bath or isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush followed by pressurized air again. Pressure gets into places water can & you can't with just a towell & and toothbrush. You literally want to wash any exposed printed circuit boards and connectors in alcohol, scrubbed with a toothbrush, and dried by pressurized air. Once complete either set aside next to a heater register or use a hairdryer on low heat to evaporate any remaining moisture.

Forget about the wiring harnesses & battery connector. DJI offers a wire harness kit, battery connector kit, even the compass premounted to a landing gear, each under $10-$20 USD ea. The Central Board is $59 USD. The Receiver Board w/antennas is $29. The ESC's are about $29ea. Even the motors are about $29ea.

The most expensive parts are the GPS module & NAZA module, salvage them first.

Edit: I completely forgot about the camera... Hopefully you wrre really lucky and the lens & sensor didn't get soaked, but if it did you don't have much choice... the salt must be removed. After cleaning the ribbon cable, connectors, and PC boards, if the lens is fogged you can try placing the camera on a folded paper towel in the middle rack of an oven on the lowest setting for 5-10 mins to cook the moisture out of the lens. Try not to let the ribbon touch anything ceramic or metal, keep it on paper or cloth.

Good a Luck,
iDrone :|

 

[El Rey]

Join the flotation thread on here and start experimenting with things that might help a watery landing.

Obviously there's a large number of us who want to fly over water, and nobody seems to be working
on a commercial solution - so maybe we can crowd-source our own setup and sell it at cost.

 

[BenDronePilot]

The flight behavior you describe is normal for when you drop to 15℅ battery. The Phantom auto descends and you will have to apply power to keep it aloft. My Phantom on a couple of occasions has even does this at the first battery warning stage at 30% which it is not supposed to do. You can reduce the percentage for the first level warning if you wish but not the second warning at 15. My reccomendation is always plan on having your bird in close proximity at 30% battery just in case malfunction but always well before the 20% mark as you don't want it to be more difficult to land the Phantom than it needs to be. Even in auto landing low battery state it is still manageable but takes much more skill to fly.

 

[skyhighdiver]

NOW, i'm not sure what to do. All i've done thus far is air dried it and let it sit on the hotel kitchen counter while i contemplate my next move. I fly back home sunday as depressed as can be. If any of my p2v fellow owners could give me some pointers I'd highly appreciate it. Maybe i can rebuild it?? What a disaster!!

Ok let me first say my phantom has not yet been in water ( knock on wood )
I do radio controlled rc boats and I have a gopro all of which have been under salt water ( go pro no case)
I removed the batteries flushed and dunked well in distilled water, placed in a bag of rice all parts
(took go pro back off) my rc boats esc and motors everything went in rice for 3 days
I then sprayed motor parts ,esc , and camera guts with CorrosionX Aviation
link ( http://www.corrosionx.com/corrosionx-aviation.html )
put all back together, put new battery in and tada everything worked like a charm.
As a general rule the batteries are shot but they usually short out before taking any electronics out.
I even got lucky with this process after my daughter sent her iphone 5 through the wash machine

My only concern is you waited till you flew home, so the salt water has stated its damage.
Anyone reading this know the faster you rinse out the salt water the better your chances

Still remember even if you have to replace 1/3 of the parts its it still cheaper than a total lose try to salvage

Good luck I wish you well

 

[rfernandez]

If you were able to save the video and pic please post..!

 

[NYNJphantom]

Thank you everyone! Unfortunately I'm 1000 miles away from home without tools. I will try and do what I can when I get back home tomorrow. Thanks again!

 

[stevefromsd]

My Blade 350 QX went down into salt water. I rinsed it with fresh water and waited a couple of days but could not save it. I have also heard of using rice for a week to try and dry it.

 

[NYNJphantom]

20 days after my salt water disaster, 18 days since my return from vacation and 17 days since I sent my phantom back to the manufacture. I feel blessed I must say, I called a few repair shops around the country hoping I could simply send in for a repair (unsuccessful) and ruled out the fact that just because my machine lost its power and plummeted on the ocean surface (had floaties) that the manufacture would deny me. 17 days is all it took and I received a brand new one in the mail today. I'm definitely a happy camper (as they say).

I wanna thank everyone that responded to this post!! I really appreciate the camaraderie we have on this forum. I'll bless you all with a pic I took while in the keys (before disaster struck).

Thanks again!

 

[Don the builder]

Great story of customer service way beyond the norm! A big shout-out to DJI is indeed in order.

Have fun and fly nice with your new quad!

 

[DJ Skee]

Hello everyone, this is officially my first post on this forum, although i've been a member for a few months now. I bought myself the P2V for my 30th birthday back in December and its been amazing as most of you may already know with owning your own.

I've been flying in New Jersey and New York without a hiccup! I'm currently on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys and decided to bring my machine with me. I flew around the marina, no problems whatsoever. SO, i decide to bring it out with me on the boat (biggest mistake of my life!!) and thats where the disaster happened. I flew for about 75% of the batteries life, taking stills and videos, (all of which i was able to salvage), when i decide to land, disaster struck. The copter began to descend without it being above the boat. I was literally bringing it in for a landing when all of a sudden it got 2-3 feet away from the side of the boat and began descending on its own. Almost as if it was loosing power in mid air. I tried gunning it back up but had no response. I threw the controller at my buddies chest and jumped over board before it reached the water and tried to catch it in mid air as the blades cut through my right hand (meaty part of palm) like a knife through butter. The copter touched the water for a maximum of 3 seconds before tossing it back at my other buddy onboard anticipating the reception of my needless investment he knew i cared so much about.

The after math; the battery does NOT light up when the button is pressed, i could definitely tell some salt water intruded the body of the aircraft, cut my knee (on the boat) on my leap of faith attempt of grabbing it mid air, and sliced my hand with the props as previously stated.

NOW, i'm not sure what to do. All i've done thus far is air dried it and let it sit on the hotel kitchen counter while i contemplate my next move. I fly back home sunday as depressed as can be. If any of my p2v fellow owners could give me some pointers I'd highly appreciate it. Maybe i can rebuild it?? What a disaster!!

I have one I would sale to you for $250 plus case and shipping. All that is wrong with it is the camera broke off of the mount. The camera still works and the drone still flies.