Hey guys, interesting video of today's weird emergency landing and I wonder what do you think caused this situation. Drone was way far away from me so I didn't hear anything, but suddently it tilted to a side and a gimbal error was briefly displayed on the live view. What I saw was it started descending rather slowly without me being able to control it and shortly after that video was cut and I thought my Mavic is gone for good! But a few seconds later the view was restored with an image of some bushes and a life-saving map, which displayed the current location of me and the drone. I was some 500 meters away so I jumped in the car and started following the map and after a few minutes I located my drone in a small forest. Amazing thing - it was all intact! Camera, body, everything impecable. The ONLY 2 issues were a broken "front leg" (still attached, just twisted and "dislocated"), which apparently absorbed the force of the fall (you will see in the video that the fall was softened by tree branches before the hit in the ground) and what is maybe more telling was a missing blade (just one of the two linked blades of the propeller) - it was clean off - no parts in sight, the axis that holds it is till there. I looked around but briefly to find it but it was a forest after all and I was excited to find my drone pretty much unscathed.
My hypothesis is that it was attacked by a bird of prey OR it collided with some other bird, like a swallow, as they are quite active this time of the year. This perhaps broke the propeller and cause a sudden directional change which prompted the gimbal to produce the error and cause the drone to starr this gradual descent, as if it was hanging in there with as good as it can with 3.5 of its propellers. So, could you help me analyze the situation as you can imagine it pretty much shook my confidence in flying a drone. What if this happens in the city for example, it could drop on people and I was so certain this can never happen due to the great technology and my experience with the Mavic and Phantom before it. I mean, for 6 years they were steady and completely safe and now it seems it can drop out of the sky so easily.
1. So do you think this kind of going down is due to the drone losing a propeller during flight?
2. What could have caused the gimbal error, as the video doesn't seem to show any foreign object?
3. Do you think it is possible for the propeller to break off on its own due to plastic getting old or something? In other words do you recommend replacing the propellers as a form of maintenance?
Thanks guys, wish you luck as mine when you crash land as I think it dodged quite a bullet here.
Hi JoePsysky, sorry to hear about the incident. You could please contact with our support service to apply a flight data analysis, and here is the link, http://www.dji.com/support. In addition, since the aircraft has been crashed, it is recommended to send back for comprehensive check to ensure your long-term usage if you needed. Thanks.
DJI Thor Posted at 8-26 23:55
Hi JoePsysky, sorry to hear about the incident. You could please contact with our support service to apply a flight data analysis, and here is the link, http://www.dji.com/support. In addition, since the aircraft has been crashed, it is recommended to send back for comprehensive check to ensure your long-term usage if you needed. Thanks.
Thank you, I'll do that and yes - It is getting a pit stop at my local DJI shop for a check. I'll ask the guys there if they can shed some light on what could have happened.
JoePsysky Posted at 8-27 06:14
Thank you, I'll do that and yes - It is getting a pit stop at my local DJI shop for a check. I'll ask the guys there if they can shed some light on what could have happened.
Okay, should you have any further inquiries, please feel free to contact us.
Basically, I wanted to get some opinion on what do you think caused this situation and do you think the propeller was hit and broken during the flight, which caused the descend. (rather than when it hit the branches)
Do you think this kind of descend is exactly what would happen if the drone lost a blade?
JoePsysky Posted at 8-28 00:44
Basically, I wanted to get some opinion on what do you think caused this situation and do you think the propeller was hit and broken during the flight, which caused the descend. (rather than when it hit the branches)
Do you think this kind of descend is exactly what would happen if the drone lost a blade?
Hope you understand that it's needed to perform data analysis, so we can locate the cause. You can contact our support team to apply for data analysis through the link above or wait for the dealer to see how they can help.
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