I just wanted to let everyone know how great it is having a drone.  I honestly didn't know how much fun it was having one, but I will say the controls are a bit hard to get used to at first....hahaha Hence why you see the title.  I crashed the drone within two minutes of it being airborne.  Do you have any similar stories to mine?

https://youtu.be/n6V6RnMzIr4

HI - At 1:55 in the video you mention that the FAA regulations for height is 400 meters. It is actually 400 feet.  Also, at 5:47 you say that you got up to 1200 feet, which is 800 feet higher than allowed by the FAA.  Please obey the rules and stay safe.  Don't want you getting into trouble

O wow, I definitely misread that...THANK YOU SO MUCH.  

Do you really consider the Phantom 3 Standard a beast? Or were you only exaggerating your happiness and excitement.

In my opinion, Here's a beast multi rotor for ya... Heli-Max Voltage 500 3D RX-R... ;-)

Matt Botos is a great 3D pilot...

Last winter, while I was flying low to the floor with my Phantom 3 Pro' inside an abandoned airplane hangar, with other www.ercha.ca members, I dumb thumbed the RC sticks.
Drone cracked into a wall and then flipped over. Performing a CSC had no affect to turning off the motors. I walked over to it, picked it up and shut off the battery. Broke one prop too.

I must have thought it was facing away, when in reality, I had already turned around, with the camera aimed back towards me. That was a foolish error, when I could clearly see the front red flashing LED's.
Live and learn. Thankfully the damage was nil. More of an embarrassment than anything else. Haha

Switched props and took off for more fun...


RedHotPoker

dont fly indoors.

KevDrones Posted at 2017-2-5 18:41
dont fly indoors.

Winter here, and my drone has no snow shoes. Haha


RedHotPoker

Nice drone for sure. My oops moment was with my Phantom 1 flying indoors. I was flying my Phantom 1 indoors and turned it to face me. After concentrating on hovering in one spot, for some reason my brain forgot to use reverse stick movements and I drifted it in the opposite direction that I intended and I crashed. Like yours, nothing broke because it didn't have much momentum when it hit. But my cat ended up with an ear cut off. Kidding, kidding about my cat, my drone hit the wall not my cat.

oops duplicate post.

P4P+ Posted at 2017-2-5 22:44
Nice drone for sure. My oops moment was with my Phantom 1 flying indoors. I was flying my Phantom 1 indoors and turned it to face me. After concentrating on hovering in one spot, for some reason my brain forgot to use reverse stick movements and I drifted it in the opposite direction that I intended and I crashed. Like yours, nothing broke because it didn't have much momentum when it hit. But my cat ended up with an ear cut off. Kidding, kidding about my cat, my drone hit the wall not my cat.

Hey, don't play  word games, I almost gasped, If I hadn't read on. hsha

Does the cat even know you tease him? That missing ear probably happened in a dark alley.  

Have a couple of Uncles that bred, trained and raced Thorobreds. One time visiting the paddocks Uncle Bob showed me a horse with a top portion of the ear missing. Apparently a crazy cat got him back. Yeah, the horse accidently stepped on the cats tail and broke half of it off. So a few weeks later, the cat went back in the stable and jumped on the horse and chewed off its ear. Haha that cat was a mouser, so they kept it around, but the horse never forgot that mean feline. And got skittish when ever it walked past. Ha

Don't tease your cat, & if you do, you better wear ear muffs. Chuckles


RedHotPoker

My friend told me to land on a roof of a small shed, I did and then I started the motors and I feel, I cleaned most of it except the props are being replaced. Lol

RedHotPoker Posted at 2017-2-5 22:54
Hey, don't play  word games, I almost gasped, If I hadn't read on. hsha

Does the cat even know you tease him? That missing ear probably happened in a dark alley.  

ha! My cat can not be found when I fly my drone in the house, he doesn't like the noise so no, he is in no danger what so ever. I did have an idea to make a spoof video of hitting him with my drone because last summer I combed him outside and so much hair came off him and when I flew over the hair zone the camera recorded it floating about. My cat is my buddy, I take good care of him. He is 16 years old this year.

RedHotPoker Posted at 2017-2-5 22:54
Hey, don't play  word games, I almost gasped, If I hadn't read on. hsha

Does the cat even know you tease him? That missing ear probably happened in a dark alley.  

Why I even threw that gem into my post was because I had no Phantom breakage to talk about.

P4P+ Posted at 2017-2-6 22:26
ha! My cat can not be found when I fly my drone in the house, he doesn't like the noise so no, he is in no danger what so ever. I did have an idea to make a spoof video of hitting him with my drone because last summer I combed him outside and so much hair came off him and when I flew over the hair zone the camera recorded it floating about. My cat is my buddy, I take good care of him. He is 16 years old this year.

Haha, that's funny. The shed..

16 years old? That must be a record... I never knew a cat could live to that senior age. Amazing longevity.


Yes, treat it right, he is your life-long friend.


RedHotPoker

P4P+ Posted at 2017-2-6 22:29
Why I even threw that gem into my post was because I had no Phantom breakage to talk about.

No crashing to speak of? That's good news, no great news... Congratulations.

So at least you have something to look forward to then. ;-) J/K

Well, keep up the good work. You're doing well this far..


RedHotPoker

I try to fly every day.  

Crash log of my P2V:

Early Aug '15 - First launch ever, drop from the sky from 12 feet height. It was a 3 sec flight. Bad battery in the retail box. I was too much of a noob to know it. Minor damage to insulation of the gimbal ribbon cable.  

Mid Aug '15, - First flight with FPV after practicing two weeks without an app. Launched from my property instead of a nice big open field like I should have. Took my eye off the quad for a sec to look at the screen. Looked back and it was drifting towards a tree. I reacted badly and it wedged itself into the Y of the tree way up high. Had to use extension ladder fully extended and painters pole fully extended and stand on my tip toes on the second to highest ladder rung to hook the landing gear and get it out of the Y. No damage.

Mid Sep '15 - Friends came over and I wanted to show off my drone. Flew it from the house around 100 yards away. Then turned my back and turned off the controller to show off the RTH. When I turned back around, it was flying over my willow tree and trying to land in it!?! Concerned but not panicked, I calmly flicked the S1 switch to regain control - and it kept coming down into the tree! I flicked it again and again - no change! Down it went into the branches and then kind of gently fell through the long branches and hit the ground. No damage.  What went wrong? Couldn't figure it out at the time but thinking back, I think I might have had "Dynamic Home Point" enabled and my tablet had a bad fix. What else went wrong? I forgot to turn the controller back on when I wanted to take control.  D'oh!

Feb 2016 - On a Litchi mission - crashed into a tree at full speed over a mile away and 100 ft high. Inadequate waypoint height.  Misjudged height due to increasing elevation of terrain.  Found it thanks to Flytrex Live 3G. Broke gimbal arm and ripped some modded antennas out. Fixed it fairly cheap and easily. Got lucky.

July 2016 - Lost it again when it dropped unexpectedly during a descent (suddenly dropped 15 ft / sec for about 5 secs during long angled final descent) and it dropped into very thick woods about a quarter mile away. Found it thanks to Flytrex Live 3G. Lots of deer ticks in there. Found a cool deer skull though. Major damage as the motors continued spinning and heated up, melting the plastic motor mounts, and then pulled themselves right through the arms. I was able to even out the melted white plastic with a dremel grinding tool and remount the motors with longer screws and flat washers. It flew like new.

Aug 2016 - descended too low on angled descent and it got caught up in some low tree/bush branches and hung there at the edge of my property. No damage.

Sep 2016 - Hitting a high tree while very low on battery but not critical - fell 100 ft. from the top of the tree onto my property. Broke gimbal arm and all four props among other things. Ordered parts and fixed it.

Early Nov 2016 - Lost it again when a prop spun off at 400 feet height two and a half miles away flying into strong gusty winds. It fell onto a horse farm field. Found it with Flytrex Live 3G. One wing was bent 90 degrees and filled up with three inches of dirt and which also broke the ESC into two pieces and the compass was gone. Clam shell somehow opened up during the crash and then slammed shut onto the top of my center board leaving the receiver plugs lodged outside of the AC but still attached to the board. Lost all four rubber dampeners and the SD card and yet the gimbal/camera was unscathed. Battery was completely trashed - case was cracked like a nut shell and the litho bags inside the battery were shoved up into the electronic head. No litho leak though. Replaced shell, ESC, compass, and other parts. Good as new.  I blame myself because I didn't snug up the props before the flight.

And it's still flying today - the same aircraft - over 200 flights, over 200 RTHs, over 800 miles total distance between my two P2 series drones and still going strong!

Thanks! To all my friends who have helped with repairs!

Hmmm...so I have my P3S that Santa brought for me (funny the cost showed up on MY credit card but hey...that's how Santa rolls!).  So I got it out and kept it in beginner mode for my first few flights.  I then thought I'd try some trickier flying and walked down a narrow, tree shrouded path.  CRASH No 1.   Pretty minor into some bushes...no damage.  Whew!   So I relaunched and kept going...extra careful now!  But then the battery ran low didn't it...and we all know what that means.....RTH kicked in and my beautiful drone began to ascend...rapidly...straight into the tree it was under... CRASH No. 2.  Bent prop but all good.  Straightened prop and away we go.   Fast forward a week.  I've had a few good flights and am getting confident.  I have installed Pix4D and am practising 3d terrain modelling.  In my backyard circling my old land rover getting photos with my partner and little boy nearby (safe distance).  There is one tricky spot where I need to override the POI to steer around a branch.  A second before the Phantom gets there my boy calls out...'Hey Dad! Look at this!'.... CRASH No.3.  Bent wing!  Prop hitting body!!  Oh NO!  Anyway, I carefully bent everything back into shape...lessons learned!   Fast forward two weeks.  OK, time to do a 3d terrain model of some nearby granite gorge country.  On the way I think, " Too risky to do automatic grid, I'll have to fly manual!"  When I arrive I rethink, auto will be fine as long as I stay east of this spot.  "Hmm 20m high enough?" I muse out loud.  7 year old co pilot says, " No Daddy.  I think you need higher!"   "Ha! He is seven!  What would he know!" I think to myself and explain to him why 20m is way enough.  I then set my grid ... and hit launch.  Did I say East?  Oh...bugger I meant West.  West is open ground I want to fly...East is a steeply rising wooded hill.     Up goes the quad and heads off on autopilot to the...East!  "Oh Sh$$"  Madly hitting the abort button as the camera goes...black.  Ironically enough it was the very software which flew my drone into the hillside which allowed me to track its last known recorded location.  Off I went with my son like Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, my trusty tricorder (phone and RC) in hand.  200m this way....170 this way...100m this way...70m over here.  Just over that rise!  20m away.  "We must be almost standing on it" I say when I see ... the camera...all by its lonesome, no drone, in the leaf litter on the ground...deep in brown snake country.  So making a lot of noise I get the camera when my son says, "There's the drone Dad!".. Look where he is pointing and there it is about 10 m away.  So I got it...flat ribbon cable was ripped and camera separated from yaw arm.  I bought a cable online...got it a week later.  Replaced it. Full FPV video Yay!... But no gimbal function.    Anyway after buying a new gimbal and camera ($400 AUD) I was flying again.  But nearly crashed as RC was totally uncalibrated...fixed that then major SD card errors.  Finally fixed that (long story in itself) and took the thing for a fly today and YAY....we are airborne and all functions working (except follow me mode???).  Changed the stickers as I consider it resurrected and am hoping that I take enough care now not to crash for at least a few months (fingers and toes crossed).   But it really was fun tracking the thing through gorge country, eucalyptus and scrub with the RC and phone...almost worth the $450 AUD it finally cost me to repair my $700AUD drone lol.
Cheers
Blue Wolf

HAHAHAHAHAHA, great comments, and I greatly appreciate all of them.  Funny thing is, I am so excited about these drones that I am actually looking to buy another.  They really are so fun to fly!

No phantom crashes but fixed wing , helis and my vortex 250 well I wouldn't know where to start lol......Good thing about those, all things considered were that they were all pilot error and not caused by the manufacturers mistakes.

one soft crash under my belt.....newbie panic situation. got close to a spruce tree while trying to look at display, actually very close with branches under the drone, it was an oh no moment, and i did a left stick full down.  the drone landed on a branch and shut off.  easy recovery, six feet off the ground. a small green stain on one prop was it for evidence ( other than this post !). no damage...just a "note to self".

So far, I have not crashed my Phantom 3, but I have crashed smaller drones that I have. One advantage that I have is that I have the Real Flight 7.5 R/C Simulator on my computer, and it has several models of drones included. One is very similar to the Phantom, and I practiced flying that one a number of times before I bought the real thing.

I love the Real Flight Simulator. When you crash in it, you can just hit the reset button and start all over again. Real Flight isn't cheap to buy, but if you're seriously considering an actual model aircraft, it's a LOT cheaper than frequent repairs or lost aircraft.

Real Flight is one of the reasons I have not yet bought a collective-pitch model helicopter. Dang, but those things are tricky to fly!

Here's a screenshot of the quadcopter from Real Flight. They call it something like "Quadcopter X Classic," which leads me to believe they either didn't want to, or didn't get, permission to use the actual Phantom design and/or name. There are some differences, though, in that the RF controls do not have the left stick neutral position that just holds altitude. In RF, you have to adjust the left stick throttle to maintain altitude, and the Quadcopter X is aerobatic capable. You can flip it pretty easily.

That said, once you get where you can confidently control the drone in RF 7.5, an actual Phantom is pretty easy by comparison.

Wow that Real Flight is something else.  I got a scare this past weekend and thought I lost the dang Phantom, but luckily it reconnected in mid-flight and I was able to bring her back home safely!

                 

·      Crashed in a pillar under a watertower by turning in the wrong direction flying backwards in very turbulent air.

  

·      Crashed in a huge oaktree at full speed when missjudging the distance.

  

·      Crashed on the rocks by a stormy beach - in storm.

  
  
So 3 crashes in 301 flights

Rolled mine over yesterday, tried to take off in high wind. Then decided to rest her back down on the ground but it was too late she started skipping across the ground and then just rolled over.

RADROCKET Posted at 2017-2-14 04:59
Rolled mine over yesterday, tried to take off in high wind. Then decided to rest her back down on the ground but it was too late she started skipping across the ground and then just rolled over.

I usally put my foot on the landing gear to keep it down. Try that.

Same here. First time I took out my Phantom 3 I lost GPS signal, got in panic and crashed against a tree  as I was scared to lose it

Later I found out it was cause I didn't let time enough for my drone to warm up. So be sure you always wait till your phantom's warming up signal disappears from your App.

DroneTube Posted at 2017-2-14 07:57
Same here. First time I took out my Phantom 3 I lost GPS signal, got in panic and crashed against a tree  as I was scared to lose it

Later I found out it was cause I didn't let time enough for my drone to warm up. So be sure you always wait till your phantom's warming up signal disappears from your App.

I thought u could not take off until it warmed up!