Stupid mistake and I crashed my P3-A

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Ok, I admit I must have panicked and made a stupid mistake that caused my drone to fall from about 40 feet on to the parking lot. Here is the scenerio:

This is my first drone experience and mostly I have been practicing flying and getting the controls figured out. I've been slowly getting more daring and going a bit higher and farther out. I got the P3-A as a gift in late July so I probably only have 10 hours or so of flying. Yesterday was the first cooler day in a week so I wanted to go and fly so I went to a local soccer field, there was no one there which was perfect but pretty bright out and that made it hard to see my phone on the controller.

I flew the field area and practiced using the controls and trying to get smoother movements, landing on a target, etc. Even had a big buzzard come fly by to check it out in the air. I got the low battery warning, the sun was very bright so it was no possible to see the battery level on my phone but I could see 1 solid green light and 1 flashing on the battery when it was close. I decided to fly it back to the car which was about 100 feet away, I had another battery there and planned to change it out and fly for another 20 minutes or so. I flew it at about 6 feet off the ground and walked behind it and as I got to the car I attempted to land on a spot I had picked out next to the car.

Suddenly the drone took off straight up. In hindsight I guess it was attempting to get back to the Home Point where I started out on the field before the batter failed. I panicked thinking it was out of control and tried to bring it back down with the left joystick. Somehow in my haste I think I turned off the drone, yes I know that was the stupid part. The blades stopped and it dropped and I tried to run catch it but it hit the asphalt pretty hard.

When I picked it up I could see the immediate damage; the gimbal snapped of at the base where it pivots left to right and is hanging by the ribbon cable. Also the landing leg supports are a bit bent but not broken. There are a few places where the upper shell has a gap from the bottom but no cracks or breaks. I think it can be aligned to fit tight again. I think the camera was in the tilt-down position because the filter is dented and the glass shattered but I can unscrew it. There are a few scuffs on the bottom of the camera. The tilt mechanism on the gimbal seems ok bu the leveling one just behind the camera is bent so I may need a new part there.

Sadly, I did not get the DJI insurance plan so the repairs are on me. I did some searching on line and see that there are several tutorials for replacing the gimbal and the ribbon cable, the legs can also be replaced. Not sure if I should attempt the repairs or send it off or just bite the bullet and order a new camera gimbal assembly.
crash-1.jpg
crash 2.jpg
 
You can't turn off the motors with just left stick down as you explained unless it was already on the ground. CSC will turn them off. Something else happened that made the motors stop. Your battery level was low but you should have received a low battery warning before the ac took off to RTH. Did you get that notification? If not, check your settings. People in this forum will want you to upload your flight log so we can see what made the ac take off. Sorry about the damage. I hope you get it fixed soon.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
 
Thanks for the reply. I might have pushed both sticks down, like I said I was in a panic as it was going up fast and I was 5 feet away from my wife's fairly new company lease car, and that would have been hard to explain to her and her boss.

I will need to read up on uploading the flight log later today. I have not done that yet. All I know is the blades just quit and down it came.
 
Also make sure the sound is turned up so you can hear the low batt warning or RTH, etc. Sounds like you probably DID do a CSC. Sorry to hear about your crash. It'll be interesting to see the logs.
 
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Personally I would just buy a new camera and try to get $20 out the old one. The new cameras are cheap enough, not like the Vision + cameras which are still $650.
I've read a bunch about how people can't get them to work right after repair. Just easier to get a new one.
 

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