I have noticed in about ever case someone complaines about or discusses a crash with thier Phantom. Each and every time they say .... I did not have line of site, It acted eratic so I flew farther, I flew it out a mile and a half and tried to come home or my battery was at 32% and was at 500 feet...etc etc etc. Is it me or is almost all the crashes discused on any forum the fault of the pilot. Even Mythbusters said he had a near crash becuase he rushed. Is it just me or is it everyone who crashes their Phantom the direct reaon it crashes. It is like reading a WTF list of why would you do that........

I think you've answered your own question.

I would agree.  I have "crashed" my drone only 1 time (first 6 minutes of owning it in the air) and it was 100% my fault.  Yes, I'm sure there have been a few issues where a motor went bad, battery went bad, GPS failed, but lets face it.  It is OUR responsibility to check these things before, multiple times during, and after EACH flight.  Since my small incident I have a much better sense of what I need to do to be responsible, and careful during my flights.  I'm no expert, by any means.  Only have a dozen or so flights under my belt, but I read a LOT, learn from my (and other's) mistakes, and take every precaution to ensure my bird comes home safe and in the same condition it lifted off as.  Some people just don't want to take responsibility on their own.  To easy to "blame the other foot" for tripping I guess.

Bingo ! ! !

I've had two "incidents" with my Phantom - both of them pilot error. (That tree should never have jumped in my way!) That said....

I also own a couple of quads from another company. One of them suffered a bona-fide "flyaway" a couple of weeks ago and is currently in the shop for repair or replacement - they haven't yet told me which is the case. It was a case where everything that could be calibrated was calibrated, I wasn't doing anything stupid - brought the craft to a hover about six or seven feet off the ground. Glanced at the screen to check status. The quad suddenly took off like a banshee (never actually seen a banshee but I'll bet they're fast!) to my right, making what looked like a bee-line for my new car. Missed the car but slammed into a support post just beyond the car, blah, blah, blah.

I'll wager there have been some bona-fide flyaways, regardless of whether it's a Phantom, a Solo, a Chroma or a (fill in the blank). But I'll also wager a huge number of "fly-aways" were not flyaways at all. With the thousands of Phantom 3s that have already been sold, there's probably a small percentage that have truly failed. Many crashes initially reported as flyaways have ultimately been identified as "...I did something I shouldn't have done." (Or perhaps, ..."I forgot to....")

jayhkr Posted at 2015-8-30 23:29
I would agree.  I have "crashed" my drone only 1 time (first 6 minutes of owning it in the air) and  ...

well put!  Jayhker

No matter how "idiot proof" DJI tries to make the Phantom...  There will always be a dumber idiot who can find a way to crash it and blame DJI for the crash.

Fulgerite Posted at 2015-8-31 19:04
No matter how "idiot proof" DJI tries to make the Phantom...  There will always be a dumber idiot wh ...

This^^^^^^

I think the vast majority of crashes can be avoided. That's a way of putting it where it doesn't blame either DJI or the Pilot - more like that with better education a pilot can "avoid errors" which can cause problems. I'm talking specifically about the Phantom 3 - with other brands YMMV a lot.

Also, you have to look at such crashes and losses in terms of "incidents per flight" instead of "incidents per aircraft", IMHO.

As a really rough guess I think the hardware defect (causing crashes, etc.) rate on these newer birds is very low - probably well less than 1 in 1,000. That's very decent quality for something in this price range with these capabilities.

However, the more distance and hours anyone puts on a machine - the more forces (including idiocy) which act upon it. One guy flies his most every day for many miles - while another plans his flights and uses the machine for actual pictures and video. The later will last a lot longer.

I just received my phantom 3 standard today. Updated the firmware calibrated everything. Made sure I had good GPS signal flew away about 50 yards tested the return to home it worked perfectly. Took the phantom up to 174 feet took some video of my house. Came back down flew around the yard at low level. Then took it up one more time to 154 feet hovered placed the phantom in point of interest mode it started orbiting perfectly. Then for no reason it flipped over and powered into the ground. It's in a dozen pieces now camera broken off and smashed. You can hear things inside rattling around. I have a $699 paper weight. Any ideas what may have caused this?

emtp@roadrunner Posted at 2015-9-23 17:29
I just received my phantom 3 standard today. Updated the firmware calibrated everything. Made sure I ...

can you post the video?

I've got a crap load of flights on multiple phantom3's with 7 (seven) bonafide crashes (actual breakage of parts)... I thread the needle on a lot of flights... they have all been my fault. I have yet to see any bad programming, gps issues that weren't my own or mother nature prodded.

Even "falling out of the air" incidents; while I feel sorry for them, there is generally *something* that caused it besides a malfunction. Like a 7 layer OSI model... most can browse the internet for a long time without issues... but without understanding all the layers.. there will always be something.

I think there is something that is not readily acknowledged here, and that is the P3 is a complex device, needing careful attention to detail in preparation for a flight, and during the flight. And the penalty for not doing all that preparation properly can be a crashed aircraft.

Not many other consumer devices these days have quite the same 'penalty' if you get it wrong. Can't figure out how take photos on you iPhone? No problem, just keep trying until you do, it isn't going to spiral into the ground and destroy itself.

And I suspect there are a lot of people out there buying P3s who are approaching it from the same simplistic angle as other consumer devices, not reading the manual fully, not researching the subject on forums such as this, and getting pissed off when it all goes pear shaped.

I do not have a P3 yet, still saving money for it, but I lurk on here to learn from others who have the experience to help me avoid making an expensive mistake.

Geebax Posted at 2015-9-23 21:49
I think there is something that is not readily acknowledged here, and that is the P3 is a complex de ...

Yes... They need to understand all the layers. In as much as DJI has tried to abstract them all out for the newbies, it actually puts them at a disservice as they don't know 'why' it works, and thus don't know what to look for on the minute scale when it's all happening very quickly.

emtp@roadrunner Posted at 2015-9-23 19:29
I just received my phantom 3 standard today. Updated the firmware calibrated everything. Made sure I ...

You must have a Standard for $699 and if you flew near your house can I assume your house or other's around you are using Wifi?  I do know your system uses wifi for the video stream and can't think how that would make it flip over but...  Not sure about the Standard at all but if you have something like the Flight Record (off your device iOS or Android) so you can upload to Healthy Drones you might be able to see something interesting like battery power, GPS Signals weak etc.  GPS Sats rise and set just like planetary objects so if you started with 10 or 11 you might have lost 4 during your flight.   Another thing to think about is a new battery they need broken in or so I have heard.  Something like 50% or so for the first 10 flights.

Every crash so far is my fault. So far, no crashes. I'm happy.

Jokes a part, eventually motors, batteries or whatever electronics will wear out and will malfunction. Hopefully it will not be in harms way.

I had an ESC failure on my P3 4 days after I bought it. Luckily it was intermittent and I got the unit down on the ground.. not the prettiest landing ... and I was only about 10 feet off the ground. Front right ESC was beeping and I had a message on the iPad screen indicating and issue with the ESC. Fact of the matter is there will always be a chance of a manufacturer fault. Nothing is perfect. Mine was sent back to DJI for repair/replacement on Sept 14. As long as the company backs/supports their product will keep consumer confidence.