Has anyone experienced a crash after a propeller crack in mid air without any collision or contact of an obstacle?
In my case, I have. and it has caused a lot of frustration for the past few weeks.
A propeller crack in mid air left my Inspire free fall directly to the ground & now I am currently left with landing gear shaft damaged & broken,
propellers completely fallen off and crakcked into debris, camera gimbal unit completley fallen off and broken.

When I was able to retrieve bits of the propeller I was able to find one blade that had been cracked right in the middle parallel to the lengthly direction of the prop-which seemed to be a quality failure of the prop.
the take off point was an open area.
I pressed the record button and took off by the auto take off function as usual.
the inspire 1 seemed to be in perfect condition-no unstable hovering or drifting and stayed almost still in mid air approximately 1.5meter above ground.
After 10-15 seconds of confirming the stable status of the Inspire, I decided to fly off-
when all of a sudden a sharp strong cracking noise was heard at one of the propellers and the craft immediately tilted towards the ground.
It literally free-fell down to the ground and crashed hard with the motors still on. I managed to turn the motor off by pulling the two remote sticks to inward down position.
When I approached the Inspire, I was able to realize that....
- two propellers had completely broken and cracked.
- the right front landing gear carbon shaft damaged and cracked at joint (the direction to where the inspire tiltled after the cracking noise and crashed to the ground)
- camera and gimbal unit completley detached from the craft with wire all pulled off
I had gone all through the safety procedures-
-making sure that the propellers have been securely tightened. clipping the propellers with safety clips.
-Making sure the TB47 battery and remote controller was fully charged, as well as my phone.
-Calibrating and confirming that the calibration was successful.
-Making sure that GPS signal was strong. Setting the home point to the take off point.


Has there been anyone who has had the same incident of a mid air propeller crack crash?

What happens if one of the prop locks break and falls off mid flight ?
That could probably hit the blade of the prop and cause this !

w1der Posted at 2015-6-22 00:03
What happens if one of the prop locks break and falls off mid flight ?
That could probably hit the  ...

w1der, have u had that experience...?

No ... but when I used the prop locks ... every time I put them on, I thought that it´s only a matter of time before one of them cracks (cause of design) ...
If that where to happen, it would prolly break on one side, causing it to flip over in the opposite direction and then pushed through the blades just about where your´s is cracked.

Don´t you think?

No ... but when I used the prop locks ... every time I put them on, I thought that it´s only a matter of time before one of them cracks (cause of design) ...
If that where to happen, it would prolly break on one side, causing it to flip over in the opposite direction and then pushed through the blades just about where your´s is cracked.

Don´t you think?

No ... but when I used the prop locks ... every time I put them on, I thought that it´s only a matter of time before one of them cracks (cause of design) ...
If that where to happen, it would prolly break on one side, causing it to flip over in the opposite direction and then pushed through the blades just about where your´s is cracked.

Don´t you think?

No ... but when I used the prop locks ... every time I put them on, I thought that it´s only a matter of time before one of them cracks (cause of design) ...
If that where to happen, it would prolly break on one side, causing it to flip over in the opposite direction and then pushed through the blades just about where your´s is cracked.

Don´t you think?

Oh, this is bullocks !

so what's going on with w1der's replies?

Linolens Posted at 2015-6-22 10:05
so what's going on with w1der's replies?

I think in response to heavy SPAM the forum has been getting they instigated a shield that looks for particular phrases.

A couple of forum users constantly get their responses blocked, which makes me think they tend to use specific words or phrases that trigger it.

This isn't moderators, it's an automated process that is catching innocents as well as true SPAMMERs.

I'm sure they are trying to work out the bugs as this has been reported many times.

Out of interest, how many flights had the props done and what condition where they it - were there any small or tiny chips or abrasions etc on the leading edge of the props that could have caused a catastrophic failure like that?

Wonder if a large solid bug like a flying beetle etc could cause enough damage to then cause the prop to fail?

I think w1der was asking which props you have.  Do you have the self locking, or the threaded ones with snap on prop locks.  I can see his train of thought.  If a prop lock came off, and hit a blade, this could happen.

Pgale Posted at 2015-6-22 23:11
Out of interest, how many flights had the props done and what condition where they it - were there a ...

For the props, I never allowed myself use props that ever happened to have the slightest contact with any object with motors on. Because I know that at high RPMs the slightest cracks which seem to be invisible with naked eyes can cause a deadly destruction of the prop-which will be fatal if it ever happens in mid air.
The props I used were DJI standard selftightening props, and I never used any other props made by non-DJI companies, because I coudn't trust their quality, & furtherwise if anything goes wrong I wouldn't be under coverage of the DJI warranty service.
& that is the exact reason why I am frustrated at the moment because now I've got DJI props cracked in mid air and my Inspire damaged.The props were farely new with less then 20 flights having changed them recently.
The weather on the day of the accident was about 29 to 30 degree celcius. Could this cause quality issues?

Starship Posted at 2015-6-23 04:21
I think w1der was asking which props you have.  Do you have the self locking, or the threaded ones w ...

I've got the self tightening props. let's say if the prop locks were securely clipped, but came off and did hit a blade in mid air, and crashed the Inpsire,  wouldn't this be also a quality issue?

hykdesign Posted at 2015-6-23 20:52
I've got the self tightening props. let's say if the prop locks were securely clipped, but came off ...

That's the reason the self tightening props and clips were replaced with the QR props.  The problem is, you can't really prove at this point, that the prop locks were installed correctly.  Not saying that's what happened...... just playing devils advocate.

Starship Posted at 2015-6-23 21:53
That's the reason the self tightening props and clips were replaced with the QR props.  The proble ...

I guess I will need to take movies of the inspire at every flight take offs.

Does plastics looses its flexibility when expose to high heat of the sun and some oxidation? for 10$/year maybe it wise to change it let say once a year of heavy use? Or maybe test flexibility of each prop as a pre-flight check..

hykdesign Posted at 2015-6-23 20:43
For the props, I never allowed myself use props that ever happened to have the slightest contact wi ...

Yeah, many years ago I was commissioned to film some high speed footage (1200 fps) of a CD-ROM disk exploding in a CD-ROM drive. All we had to do was make a tiny crack in the centre of the disk and then spin it up to max speed. It made quite a mess and we even had long sharp slivers of CD-ROM plastic exiting the drive at very high speeds. Pretty dangerous and a good lesson how plastics can fail under extreme stresses. I can see how a prop could fail potentially.

You know, hard plastics will crack and break.  Especially in colder weather.   My phantom 3 has more of a flexible prop that bends.   I would think that it probably would have a longer life.    As I remember, the inspire props are hard plastic.    Why don't they make them out of carbon fiber?  Carbon fiber won't break on it's own....only when it hits something and then it shatters.    I fly an align 550 and the blades are carbon fiber.  

What I'd like to see on the inspire 2 would be three blades.. In the case you loose one, you have two to help get you down.    Maybe carbon fiber and foldable.   I think that would do away with having quick lock props or props spinning off.   Something like this.


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InspirelessAggi Posted at 2015-6-28 14:53
You know, hard plastics will crack and break.  Especially in colder weather.   My phantom 3 has more of a flexible prop that bends.   I would think that it probably would have a longer life.    As I remember, the inspire props are hard plastic.    Why don't they make them out of carbon fiber?  Carbon fiber won't break on it's own....only when it hits something and then it shatters.    I fly an align 550 and the blades are carbon fiber.  

What I'd like to see on the inspire 2 would be three blades.. In the case you loose one, you have two to help get you down.    Maybe carbon fiber and foldable.   I think that would do away with having quick lock props or props spinning off.   Something like this.

Yes yesterday I was Hovering approx 5ft off ground suddenly Right front shot off cracked right through where it clips to motor my Mavic 2 pro has never crashed until yesterday I had been flying over a large reservoir just returning back to base sadly damaged gimble. So glad this did not happen over the water but still sustained a fair bit of damage my Mavic is 3 years old and until yesterday as brand new.