mav16
lvl.1
United States
Offline
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This was all outdoors. The second crash, I wanted to put the drone into tripod mode, hovering about 10 to 15 feet high, to record video of my son and I playing catch from 30 to 40 feet away. I'm standing in front of the drone, maybe 10 feet away, my son was to my left, the drone's right, about 20 feet away and my wife a few feet behind me. There's a wall of our house behind him, maybe 15 feet back, from where my son was standing. I started it, lifted it off with the left joystick up, had it hovering about 10 feet. I was about to put the drone into tripod mode and hit record when things went wrong. Without any input from me, the drone suddenly drifted and turned to its right, our left, towards my son. My son got scared and ran back. I immediately pushed the left joystick down to land it. It did not respond. The drone just turned to its right, flew forward and downward towards my son. I yelled at my son to get down, the drone went over my son's head by a few inches and hit the wall.
I don't have video of this as I never even hit the record button. This all happened within a few seconds from take off.
I do have some prior experience flying my friend's Phantom. Sure it's a different product, but same basic flying concepts, so I'm not a complete newbie. Four things are wrong here.
First with no input from me, the drone just decided to suddenly drift to its right, turn turn right and fly forward. While the controller was in my hand, I did not press a single button on the controller. I was in the app, about to hit the tripod button, when it went to its right by itself.
Second, since it turned right, the drone was flying forward again with no input from me. At this time, I was pressing the left joystick on the controller down to land it. Since it was flying forward, the forward obstacle sensors did not work. The drone just wouldn't stop, until it hit the wall.
More importantly, it almost seriously injured (or worse) my son.
Lastly, DJI's response so far has been nothing short of appalling, shocking and disappointing. Given their shady responses so far, I'm sure they will blame me and point to pilot error. Nonetheless, I already disputed the charge on my credit card and just need to send this back to DJI. Again, had I purchased from Apple or Amazon, this would not even be an issue. I'm only at fault for failing to do more research on DJI and it's poor support history before buying the product. I would have either not, or waited to buy it from a reputable retailer instead. Based on this experience, I will NEVER buy a DJI product, ever.
According to CA law, it is illegal to refuse a refund, especially in circumstances where the product is defective. Even if it wasn't defective, its within my right to return it if I changed my mind. I also want to point out that DJI has another question business practice where they capture full payment, even before the product ships, per other threads on this forum. Also another illegal act. This stuff might fly in China, but does not work in the US.
To the folks asking me to upload the logs, sorry I don't know how nor do I care at this point. I already deleted the app, want nothing to do with this defective drone or DJI. I simply want my refund.
I wanted to share this experience with others, so potential buyers beware. |
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