Well, it happened to me :(

[richiewrt]

I was flying up at wilson creek again today and the entire flight went uneventful until I was bringing the phantom in for a landing. I have to hand catch there as most of the ground is too sloped to land without issues. I had the phantom in a hover about 10 feet in front of me and had started to walk up to it to catch and shut down the motors. About 5 feet away, the phantom suddenly rolled 90 to the right and slammed into the rocks and slid down into the water. I immediately jumped into the freezing cold mountain water after my phantom and it was under water for maybe a total of 15 seconds, but believe me, 15 seconds feels like an eternity under those circumstances. After getting the phantom out I realized that the battery had ejected, so I went back in after the battery. Total submersion time for the battery was probably < 45 seconds. I have no idea what went wrong. I was up in the mountains where there isn't any cell, wifi, or any kind of interference that I can think of. Transmitter was verified to be in GPS mode, and since I was walking up to hand catch, my right hand was not even on the transmitter to accidentally provide any input. I did do a successful compass calibration immediately prior to the flight, and the bird flew fine for about 15 minutes prior to the crash. The only thing I can think of as a possibility is that the large granite rocks possibly interfered with the compass? Of course the video that I was recording appears to be corrupted, and I am trying everything I can think of to recover it. Also, the last second of flight data from the flytrex still shows it as having 6-7 sats for gps but a sudden increase in speed for the last second. Thanks for reading as I am doing a bit of venting.

**Oh, and in climbing out of the water, I slipped and busted up my knee and my elbow just to add a bit of insult to injury.

 

[Skynet1]

I was flying up at wilson creek again today and the entire flight went uneventful until I was bringing the phantom in for a landing. I have to hand catch there as most of the ground is too sloped to land without issues. I had the phantom in a hover about 10 feet in front of me and had started to walk up to it to catch and shut down the motors. About 5 feet away, the phantom suddenly rolled 90 to the right and slammed into the rocks and slid down into the water. I immediately jumped into the freezing cold mountain water after my phantom and it was under water for maybe a total of 15 seconds, but believe me, 15 seconds feels like an eternity under those circumstances. After getting the phantom out I realized that the battery had ejected, so I went back in after the battery. Total submersion time for the battery was probably < 45 seconds. I have no idea what went wrong. I was up in the mountains where there isn't any cell, wifi, or any kind of interference that I can think of. Transmitter was verified to be in GPS mode, and since I was walking up to hand catch, my right hand was not even on the transmitter to accidentally provide any input. I did do a successful compass calibration immediately prior to the flight, and the bird flew fine for about 15 minutes prior to the crash. The only thing I can think of as a possibility is that the large granite rocks possibly interfered with the compass? Of course the video that I was recording appears to be corrupted, and I am trying everything I can think of to recover it. Also, the last second of flight data from the flytrex still shows it as having 6-7 sats for gps but a sudden increase in speed for the last second. Thanks for reading as I am doing a bit of venting.

**Oh, and in climbing out of the water, I slipped and busted up my knee and my elbow just to add a bit of insult to injury.

A real kicker, for sure, and I feel badly as it sounds as though you had not in any way contributed to the unfortunate outcome of this otherwise successful flight. 5 seconds, 15 seconds, I don't know. Was the model completely submerged? Hopefully, the water quality was such ( unsalted ) that you may follow some steps mentioned in related postings of this nature to get it dried out properly, all moisture removed, and go from there. Take your time would be the best approach, prior to attempting to power her back up for further evaluation of damage.
All the best in this recovery period to both you and your Phantom.

 

[sergekouper]

Bad day! Rolled 90 could be an engine failure or ESC... Sunk mine in fresh water too, I did a very serious dry up, opening it immediately and removing all parts, dried it with an air compressor, including gimbal and go pro, everything was in parts. Wait and double checked everything was absolutely dry to reassemble. At the end, only the battery was fried, everything recovered, even the gopro that was literally filled with water.
Don't rush to restart it, you could do more damage. Apparently many drowned phantoms recover as long as it is not salted water... Good luck.

 

[richiewrt]

Yes, thankfully it was fresh water, and I am hoping that the battery being ejected prior could have prevented some damage. I did forget the funniest part though. The drive home in my boxers since my jacket, shirt and pants were soaked.

 

[Green_Phantom]

The battery coming out was the best thing that would have happened to you. Take everything apart and submerge it in a bath of 90% alcohol. If you don't have 90, 70 will do. Even open up the Naza and get that into the bath.

Once everything's out, dry everything for a couple of days either in front of a fan, a heat register in your house, or something where you've got air flow.

After that make sure you lube up both bearings in your motors with some good quality oil, put everything back together and hope for the best.

That crappy part is that even after everything works again, you're never going to fully trust it again because you know what happened to it. At least that's how I feel about mine that took a dip in a swimming pool.

 

[richiewrt]

I am within my 30 day return window for Amazon, so I think I am going to dry it out and return it. While the drone was fun, I think it is time to cut my losses. If I had crashed it I would probably keep it, but since it had a mind of it's own I don't think I will ever trust it.

 

[flyNfrank]

So sorry for the bad luck! Return it and order a V3.

Do you have the .CSV file from flytrex? If so would you mind sharing a copy of it and email it to me?

 

[richiewrt]

It was a version 3. The .csv can be found in my public dropbox. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nnw0fxll4u7s ... 6qXxa?dl=0

Let me know if you see anything in the flytrex data that I might have misses. BTW, the altitude is in the negative because I walked down into the gorge a bit after turning the phantom on and doing my calibration.

 

[richiewrt]

And here is a link to the flytrex mission so you can see on a map.
http://www.flytrex.com/mission/quadcopt ... -vB4zgujv/

 

[flyNfrank]

Ok I downloaded the .CSV file and I'm going to look it over now. Thanks

Btw, if you have any inkling of keep this quad you really should open it up and get serious with it. I have seen several pilots who have dried the quads after it went in fresh water source, and never have any problems after the fact. The salt water is a completely different situation.

 

[flyNfrank]

Is your data from the Core2? Reason I ask is the battery info is mis

Edit: Did you launch from a higher location and the fly below that point the entire flight? Btw, sorry for so many questions.

 

[richiewrt]

Yes, core2 so no battery info. I have it on my workbench drying now. The battery seems to be fine and still shows 2 bars when you press the button and I was landing it with about 30-35% left.

 

[flyNfrank]

I posted this above by edit the same time you where responding.

Did you launch from a higher location and the fly below that point the entire flight? Btw, sorry for so many questions.

 

[richiewrt]

Is your data from the Core2? Reason I ask is the battery info is mis

Edit: Did you launch from a higher location and the fly below that point the entire flight? Btw, sorry for so many questions.

I powered up and then was below that height for the entire flight. Basically I powered up and did a compass calibration up in the parking lot, and then carried the drone down into the gorge and took off from there.

 

[flyNfrank]

After calibrating the compass did you leave the quad ON, and carried it to the launch point, or did you calibrate and power OFF, and then went to launch point where you then powered the quad ON again?

 

[richiewrt]

It stayed on the whole time.

 

[Mako79]

Is your data from the Core2? Reason I ask is the battery info is mis

Edit: Did you launch from a higher location and the fly below that point the entire flight? Btw, sorry for so many questions.

Basically I powered up and did a compass calibration up in the parking lot, and then carried the drone down into the gorge and took off from there.

Was the parking lot asphalt?? Was there heaps of cars around??
If you have compass calibrated near asphalt and cars then that would explain your crash.

When you get your phantom working, go back to the exact calibration location. Place your phantom on the asphalt and power her up and see if you get a warning on your Smart device/FPV. It should say something about compass or MC calibration required. This warning indicates that there are interference in the area. Go somewhere else to calibrate/take off.

You should always calibrate compass in an OPEN FIELD away from any metal or rebar.

 

[richiewrt]

There is no pavement around for about 1/2 a mile. The only car around was more me about 50 ft from where I did my calibration.

 

[MrC]

If you have it open, check the esc's / motor wires for burning. Maybe it was another v3 esc failure?

 

[flyNfrank]

It stayed on the whole time.

I think could see where I was going with my last question to you. What Mako79 mentioned is right on point, and one area you never want to be off on. I want to add that you should always...always reboot the quad after you calibrate the IMU and/or Compass. I think because some are able to fly after doing a calibration and not reboot is why they don't know of there being any harm in not doing it. It's no different then when you do a firmware update of any kind on the vPlus. I hate to say it, but this very well could be why you experience the type of failure that took place. Unfortunately I don't have the proper data to see into the gps side of what took place. Nor is there battery voltage in your data to search for a electrical issue. All flytrex data you do have is good with no issues showing anywhere.