So I've had my Phantom 2V+ for 8 days, bought it with 2 batteries and have at least an hour of flight time each day that I've had it. Flies amazing, got some great video, tried out the ground station, everything was great, better than I imagined. Updated it when I first got it, also did the lastest update for everything, including the batteries on the 28th of October. Well I am located in Utah, and I fly down to Arizona and take it with me. Once down there I fly for probably 4-5 total hours no problem. On Sunday I took it over to an older builiding to get some sweet video. I wait to gather satillites, I had 10 before I took off. I had set a home point, and calibrated the compass because I had traveled so far (I had calibrated it prior to my first flight when I first got to AZ). I get about 15 minutes of flight time, no problems at all, battery still has about 7 minutes of time left. I have the phantom hovering at about 150 ft deciding what to film next when all of a sudden, all 4 props come unscrewed and the drone comes crashing straight down to cement. I know I had them installed correctly, you can't put reverse thread on a normal thread post and so on, plus I had already been in the air 15 minutes without any problems at all. Drone is completely damaged. Ribbon cable is wripped, gimble is destroyed, drone case is cracked, and even the battery broke out of it. After checking online, I can't find anything else like this. Talking with some other Phantom owners, the only thing we can figure is that for some reason, all the engines went full speed reverse mid-flight, unscrewing all the props. I found all 4 props, and they are perfectly fine. I called DJI yesterday and got an RMA to send it in, and when explaing to the agent what had happened he says "oh yours did that too?" and I said yeah, is this a known problem and he responds with "I dont know" nevertheless I sent the drone in yesterday to their california location, but I am wondering if anyone else has heard of something like this? Or has any other ideas what might have happened??

I can honestly say that I never heard of something like that happening before

did you get a video at least?

That's one of the things that sucks... No video, I had it recording but I guess with the sudden loss of power, it didn't save the video, the battery literally broke out of it. Other horrible thing, is that it landed about 6 inches to the right of a small child maybe 1-2 yrs old. I will never be flying over any body ever again, not even just a few people!
Also, swomilan, sweet JK in your profile pic, used to have a pretty built XJ, and I was riding shotgun in a JK that flopped once!

swomilan Posted at 2014-11-5 02:25
I can honestly say that I never heard of something like that happening before

I've never heard of it happening on any DJI product.

T J Gilbert Posted at 2014-11-5 02:38
I've never heard of it happening on any DJI product.

I've never heard of that happening, I always use the spanner to tighten them on even though they are self tightening.

There was a thread over on phantom pilots that actually had the same thing happen. After much discussion, the most likely probability is that all 4 motors stopped, thus the props spinning off.... complete loss of power. And it's pretty clear you are not the only one this has happened to.

Holy crap!  That's scary!  

Kevinx4 Posted at 2014-11-5 04:46
There was a thread over on phantom pilots that actually had the same thing happen. After much discus ...

Kevin, please provide links to those reports over at Phantompilots

http://www.phantompilots.com/vie ... ilit=Props+fell+off

It was 1 prop on this one, still looking for the other one where all 4 came off

I'm on phantom pilots all the time, heard of one coming off but not 4 !

Mori55 Posted at 2014-11-5 07:41
I'm on phantom pilots all the time, heard of one coming off but not 4 !

I think one of the guys at RCGroups had the same issue. He was hovering just like this and the props suddenly came off. Luckily he had GoPro footage of it. He found out later his power leads to the board were loose, so it was the same as disconnecting the battery in flight!

A sudden stop in momentum like that could very well cause the props to fly off. But props or no props, you lose power...you're coming down. Hard.

Cloud9 Posted at 2014-11-5 08:10
I think one of the guys at RCGroups had the same issue. He was hovering just like this and the pro ...

I doubt that a sudden loss of power would cause such a thing since there is no esc  motor brake or we would see that also happening when a CSC is done to stop the motors.  The case I know about where one prop came of was due to a defective motor/ESC  which caused the motor to erratically stop and start.

Hi

The same has happened to me - well 2 props in my case.

Did you ever find out what happened here?  What did DJI say when you sent is back to them?

same thing happened to me yesterday, not all 4 props but one came off and the Phantom hit the ground, damage Gimbal, damage motor, damage hull...

did DJI responded on this?

It is a shame about not having flight video.

Something smells bad about this story.  "All 4 props come off at the same time"?  Not likely really I have trouble buying any of it.

Good luck {:3_56:}

Hi all,
the props on the PV2+ take just over 4 full turns from off to tight on. Now assuming that the motors are revving at 5000rpm , that is 83 revs per second. If a motor stops or stutters and the props are only finger tight and momentum carries them on, it will take only approx  4 hundreds of a second for them to unscrew.  That's not long folks-food for thought!. Keep them tight.  
Cheers!
rod and the Cheshire cat

Rod, I tighten mine up pretty well by hand - but assuming someone doesn't tighten them, doesn't it make sense that flying would make them fairly tight?

I'll have to experiment with that one - keeping the quad close to me - and seeing whether they tighten themselves up...

It does seem weird for all 4 to come off....but, then again, they say if you sit an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters, sooner or later the entire works of Shakepeare will come out of one of them.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2015-3-10 09:24
Rod, I tighten mine up pretty well by hand - but assuming someone doesn't tighten them, doesn't it m ...

yes, I guess it's a question of degree. They do tighten up when running, but a sudden stall or stutter and the laws of momentum will prevail, shortly followed by the laws of gravity!

I have seen a couple of videos where a motor stalls and the prop gets fired up into the air. It does happen.
Cheers!
Rod and the Cheshire cat  

rod Posted at 2015-3-10 09:40
yes, I guess it's a question of degree. They do tighten up when running, but a sudden stall or stu ...

Happened to me today -WOW... this seems like a wide spread issue.  Did DJI replace your Phantom?

I bought my Phantom about 5 weeks ago. Today while flying my Phantom V2+  All FOUR props flew off and my Phantom Dropped from 50 feet. I had been flying for 10-15 minutes before they flew off. How can you fly for 10 min. with self tightening props and then they fly off? I called tech support and they asked me to return the Phantom and they would look it over. Oh well,  I hate being without my Phantom for up to 5 weeks! I sure hope DJI does the right thing!

topturf1@bellso Posted at 2015-4-15 07:27
Happened to me today -WOW... this seems like a wide spread issue.  Did DJI replace your Phantom?

...

Update folks:  I have researched this and the props are apparently revving at 11500 rpm under power.  This is 191 revs per second!!  
The props have only 4.2 turns to screw them full on, so a motor stutter or power break of only 2 hundredths of a second  (.0209 secs)will fire them into the air if they are not tight.

believe it, and make sure they are tight. There are several videos of this happening on youtube.

Rod and the Cheshire cat  {:2_25:}

OK DJI!!! I will be watching this carefully to see if y'all do the right thing here.

I am very close to upgrading to the P3, but will likely goto the Solo, or maybe the Hubsan x4 pro if y'all don't support your "self tightening propellers" . . . Your engineers should have no problem finding a way to add a safety back-up to prevent this.

Also keep in mind each motor can produce about 2.4#-in torque (calculated).

Spun on prop, after flight, takes only 1.2#-in to unscrew (measured).

Hand tightened - as hard as I could - after flight ALSO only takes 1.2#-in to unscrew (measured).

Wrench tightened takes  13.5#-in to unscrew (measured).

You decide if you want to still not use your wrench - foolish, but your choice.

Could a couple of small zip ties be used to keep the prop from coming off?  I install a couple on a motor, but haven't ran it yet. Go around prop and through a part of the motor where the wrench is used. Seems like it would work. My case allows for props to stay on so that isn't an issue.

thartiga@yahoo. Posted at 2015-4-16 09:21
Could a couple of small zip ties be used to keep the prop from coming off?  I install a couple on a  ...

Motor balance? I would put a wrench on them.

If props are just Hand tightend, if hovering a hunderd or so feet up, if all of a sudden it looses power & maybe a prop or two gets loose, couldn't auto rotation spin them off? (I've seen the videos and these things will auto rotate)  All 4 though? Don't know but I guess it is possible.

About loosening props in the air, I believe that I've experienced a very similar situation  2 months ago, my bird has a sudden power losing and fell from the sky on the day, two of my props were badly damaged, however the others two seems to be loosening while still in the air and looks as good as new........

My video was also corrupted after a sudden power loosen, and then I found something really helpful on repairing such kind of video files.
And it does work!!>> http://live555.com/drones/DJI-Phantom-2-Vision+-video-fix/

I've provided the repaired file for DJI as an evidence, took a week with several e-mail discussions, DJI took full responsibility for the case after all, the customer service response fast with exellent attitude, I think DJI is doing a remarkably improvement on the customer service!

johnchao411@gma Posted at 2015-4-17 00:24
About loosening props in the air, I believe that I've experienced a very similar situation  2 months ...

Glad to see this.

Regarding the twist tie idea, somebody mentioned balance issues . . . wouldn't the on board controllers compensate?

I had already designed clips like the one that there is a link on on the Inspire. . . btw, would those inspire clips work on P2V+?

jonathan@gatehe Posted at 2015-4-17 11:19
Glad to see this.

Regarding the twist tie idea, somebody mentioned balance issues . . . wouldn't  ...

The onboard controllers will not compensate, you would probably get severe vibrations, causing a crash.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-4-17 11:25
The onboard controllers will not compensate, you would probably get severe vibrations, causing a c ...

Whew!! Glad I waited to see! Thanks Gerry!

jonathan@gatehe Posted at 2015-4-17 12:18
Whew!! Glad I waited to see! Thanks Gerry!

You're very welcome.  I just hand tighten my props.  Hold the motors and give a little twist tighter and have never lost one.  Sometimes I have to get the wrench out to get them off.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-4-17 12:22
You're very welcome.  I just hand tighten my props.  Hold the motors and give a little twist tight ...

I just filled the props with super glue. That outta hold em on.

I'll still get clips like the Inspire has if I can find them---just for peace of mind . . . be cool if that was already built on to the props tho, or came with it as an option.

Jon

(seriously folks, no glue in the props!!)

A friend suggested me to glue up the props and motors by "anaerobe glue", I actually did.......not sure if that would gives help or not while encountering big reverse torsions, but it gives peace to my mind each time flying birds.

Could this problem be with props becoming stripped from over tightening or just taken off and on so many times  instead and thats whats causing them to come off mid flight?

Well...not in my case, absolutely sure

The props flew twice before crash, always tightening up very carefully with my bare hands.

Before the accident, my vision+  has been flew for more than 20 times(354 minutes) and without a single problem.

Yug Posted at 2015-4-20 08:37
There are various grades of glue. Which did you use? Not sure this is ok to do but I have an open  ...

I used FLYpaper.  

Yug Posted at 2015-4-20 09:18
Hello Gerry.

Not happy..confined to quarters due to rain!!

  So sad, here was a beautiful sunny day, but 20+ knot winds.  Rain later tonight,  Here is my weather,  I'm just off the east end of Lake Ontairo located at ART.

http://beta.intellicast.com/Nati ... ue&enlarge=true

I subscribe to a youtube channel called Demunseed and Jim was at the NAB in Las Vegas and did an Interview with Randy Braun of DJI about 13:20 Randy talks about how the motor and ESC are so powerful and slow down so fast that you really need to tighten the props so they won't come off in flight.  

Yug Posted at 2015-4-20 08:37
There are various grades of glue. Which did you use? Not sure this is ok to do but I have an open  ...

...The label on the glue just told it's for screw fixing(can't find any grading info.) and there's a warning message something like "the object will become non-removable after glued...". Well...but actually I'm still able to disassemble  and assemble the props all the time