I'm not to crazy about trying it out and finding out myself. Hopefully someone could tell me: What happens when a prop hits something in flight? Does it try to recover? Does it just stop the motor and subsequently plummet to the ground? Does it just keep trying to turn the prop until the obstruction is out of the way?
What happens when a prop hits something?
- Thread starter lynsomeon
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It all depends on what it hits.
It's generally a good idea to fly where there's nothing to hit.
It's generally a good idea to fly where there's nothing to hit.
I guess it depends on the size and nature of what it hits.
I misjudged how far behind a tree I was, and flew through the tree instead of flying behind it, and it passed straight through and out the other side, with just some trimmed leaves and branches, and some stains on the props.
On another incident I actually broke a half inch off both tips of a prop when I hit a solid branch and not only did it keep flying, it flew the rest of that battery before I found out.
The computer control must have compensated the speed of that prop, and/or slowed the others, to rebalance the system.
But I sure wouldn't rely on it.
I've had much the same questions as you whenever I've been swooped by birds. If the bird hits the props, assuming the props aren't completely broken, would they regain speed fast enough for the quad to recover? I actually don't know, and don't want to find out, so I always head for home fast when birds begin swooping.
I misjudged how far behind a tree I was, and flew through the tree instead of flying behind it, and it passed straight through and out the other side, with just some trimmed leaves and branches, and some stains on the props.
On another incident I actually broke a half inch off both tips of a prop when I hit a solid branch and not only did it keep flying, it flew the rest of that battery before I found out.
The computer control must have compensated the speed of that prop, and/or slowed the others, to rebalance the system.
But I sure wouldn't rely on it.
I've had much the same questions as you whenever I've been swooped by birds. If the bird hits the props, assuming the props aren't completely broken, would they regain speed fast enough for the quad to recover? I actually don't know, and don't want to find out, so I always head for home fast when birds begin swooping.
I work for a cellphone tower company and I've had one of my coworkers (an A-hole) threaten to throw a bunch of 3/8" lock washers and nuts at it if I fly it near him on the tower. Of course I plan on being far away from the tower to not hit anything but if he's high enough on the tower above the drone (and actually does do it) I'm wondering what would happen.
Not much luck here.
If you fly high you generally fly safe, since there's nothing to hit.
But a couple of weeks ago I was trying to film my doughter riding her bike, facing her. So I had to fly backwards, she was biking on a rollerblade ring without anyone else... but there was a few trees just outside the track... and I hit one of those. My P3 was probably just a couple of meters high, luckily, because, guess what? It fell on the ground on it's back.
But I am still an happy P3 owner... because apart a few stains of grass it is still flying well.
Long story short: if you hit something your bird will fall down.
If not, you're a lucky guy.
Is a weak object like leaves or bugs it will shred the object with no problem. But something hard like a building or tree? You're going down
The video of the first hit I mentioned, but I forgot that I'd had guards on, that would certainly have helped I would think
A prop hit the head of my foot... it's pretty painful.. Indoor flight btw.. Not recommended.. (will never do that again) xD 
What happens isn't good. I flew under my patio and a let it hover about 2' off the floor, I went to grab my phone real quick for something and then the P3 started very slowly started drifting over towards a chair and I thought NOOOOOO, first prop just tapped the chair and that's where it went south, broke the tips off of two props and scratched the other 2 very badly.
Time to invest in another set, So glad it came with 2 sets to begin with. It's like they know.
Time to invest in another set, So glad it came with 2 sets to begin with. It's like they know.
I know this is an old thread but I just thought I would add some valuable input. I can now say for certain what happens when a prop hits something lol.
I broke my first set of props trying to take off to show my buddy my new toy and the battery was at 25%, I figured I could putt it around a minute or two, no problen...WRONG. The auto takeoff hovered the drone (DJI Phantom 3 Standard) about 6 inches off the ground and then starting flying across the pavemen until the skids dragged and threw it on the props. That set got replaced, no damage to aircraft body.
New props, 2 days later - flying in town with my Samsung s5 as my screen (so small), and I couldn't see a **** thing...I was checking out the local church bells at a close view to see what's so interesting about the noise that wakes me up every weekend when I just happened to barely see as I rotated the gimbal down what appeared to be tree branches. small ones, maybe a willow tree..? Either way, I tried to maneuver away from them but it was just too late. I didn't actually break a prop this time, but my phantom 3 standard hit these tree branches and flipped upside down and started making a sweet 80 ft fall back to the earth (on to concrete) as I screamed NOOO!!! My Phantom 3 standard just made mid-flight adjustments and put itself right back up and hovered mid aid with about 50 ft left when I carefully flew it back to land, nothing buy some green scratches on the prop
Don't count on it, but things CAN go right...
I broke my first set of props trying to take off to show my buddy my new toy and the battery was at 25%, I figured I could putt it around a minute or two, no problen...WRONG. The auto takeoff hovered the drone (DJI Phantom 3 Standard) about 6 inches off the ground and then starting flying across the pavemen until the skids dragged and threw it on the props. That set got replaced, no damage to aircraft body.
New props, 2 days later - flying in town with my Samsung s5 as my screen (so small), and I couldn't see a **** thing...I was checking out the local church bells at a close view to see what's so interesting about the noise that wakes me up every weekend when I just happened to barely see as I rotated the gimbal down what appeared to be tree branches. small ones, maybe a willow tree..? Either way, I tried to maneuver away from them but it was just too late. I didn't actually break a prop this time, but my phantom 3 standard hit these tree branches and flipped upside down and started making a sweet 80 ft fall back to the earth (on to concrete) as I screamed NOOO!!! My Phantom 3 standard just made mid-flight adjustments and put itself right back up and hovered mid aid with about 50 ft left when I carefully flew it back to land, nothing buy some green scratches on the prop
Don't count on it, but things CAN go right...
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