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My Phantom 3 Advanced just fell straight out of the sky...
1608 8 2015-10-23
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heclectic
lvl.1

United Kingdom
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Hello everyone,

After nearly 5 months ownership and 85 (almost) flawless flights covering 14 hours and over 290 km, my Phantom 3 Advanced just fell 30m straight down out of the sky, only about 200 metres into its last fateful flight.

It appears I have been both incredibly lucky and unlucky on this. Only visible damage is one snapped blade and one completely ripped off camera (clean snap through the yaw arm ).

On switching the aircraft on, it reports gimbal, roll and yaw are critical errors and it won't go on to start-up and just beeps loudly with no lights. I have since removed the gimbal mount plate and unplugged the two multi-plugs from the aircraft. Now, it appears the aircraft doesn't begin any warm-up at all and just beeps loudly... there are no lights and this time, no discernible contact with the RC.

Now, quick question 1: is the Phantom 3 meant to be capable of flight without a camera? (I had always assumed it was.)

If so, then my aircraft has bigger problems than meets the eye and attempting a repair on this gimbal or buying a replacement will be futile.

Quick question 2 is to anyone from DJI here: what's likely to have gone wrong with my aircraft to cause it to fall out of the sky and what is my list of options for getting this back in the air quickly?

2015-10-23
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Rebel
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United States
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2015-10-23
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Ithacus
lvl.1

United States
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You are correct in your assumption. You have bigger issues than just the camera/gimbal assembly. I hit a branch and my bird dropped 30ft causing the camera to separate and showed roll/yaw error but I was able to fly with and without assembly. I have tried replacing the ribbon cable a couple times with no luck…..however I am lucky enough that it still flies flawlessly.
2015-10-23
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Swedrone
Captain
Flight distance : 14066975 ft
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Sweden
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Sure I flew my phantom without the broken off camera for many flights
2015-10-23
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heclectic
lvl.1

United Kingdom
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Rebel Posted at 2015-10-24 00:42
The space shuttle challenger was taken out of the sky by a simple o ring.  Anyone trying to guess wh ...

Indeed, which is why I asked specifically for a DJI rep to offer best guesses, because theirs would be eduducated ones born of experience of many failures. Seems academic now though.

Thanks for the other comments. Looks like an email to DJI and preparation for an awful long wait is in order...
2015-10-24
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todor
Captain
Flight distance : 2172805 ft
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Bulgaria
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I really sorry about your last flight experience, but have to ask you honestly are you taken off on 100% battery? It's just statistics on my point of view
2015-10-24
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heclectic
lvl.1

United Kingdom
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todor Posted at 2015-10-24 18:56
I really sorry about your last flight experience, but have to ask you honestly are you taken off on  ...

No worries, thanks for asking. As it happens it was a relative rarity on my part as I almost always fly a freshly charged battery, but I made this flight with an 80% battery that had been fully charged about 3 or 4 days before. I've 3 batteries and try to look after them in a rotation coupled with trying to only charge them when they're going to be needed. This one had been charged with the other two to do a specific job but hadn't been used. Was really only flying it to take it down to 30%. Costly thinking... as it turns out
2015-10-24
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Rebel
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United States
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2015-10-24
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Michael M
First Officer
Flight distance : 1984898 ft
Canada
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this happend to me. your imu box has been ripped from the main board. send it in for repair
2015-10-24
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