If a prop fails or even a motor I've not heard of anyone who has been able to fly the Phantom on 3 props? It would seem a crash is highly likely!

I assume the Phantom is too heavy to fly on 3 props?

I've seen some quads (although much smaller ones) stating if a motor fails the software will compensate. I assume as this is not within the programming then it's something that can't be done?

Personally I think if Dji wanted to make flying a Phantom safer then it something to consider.

i doubt the weight would be such a factor as compared to the imbalance the unit would have with a missing prop.

i'm gonna take an educated guess and say that if a prop fell off, your quad would most likely spin and drop to earth like a rock.  

I don't think so.

If it could fly with 3/4 prop power, we probably could put a much lager camera there.

Catch 22 alert... if we could put a larger camera, well, we would so, no way to fly with 3/4 prop power.

If this made any sense. ;)

If one motor quit or lost a prop the opposite motor would have to shut down also. That should help keep balance in the quad. Then have the other 2 motors can raise/lower and rotate as necessary for safe landing. That could be done because of the opposite rotation in each motor.  The other 2 motors would have to work a lot harder to compensate but I think with the right programming it could be done.

When I first got my P3S, I practiced flying through small holes at close to ground height.  On one unsuccessful try, I had one propeller broken.  Tried to fly the drone with broken propeller afterward and it went sideways soon after take off.  So I would guess that the drone will crash if one of the motor fails.

no, quad copter need all 4 moters or it will fall. if it was a hex or octo copter the logic board will shut off the moter opposite of the failed. on a quad you dont have that luxury.

jag01usn Posted at 2015-10-3 20:55
If one motor quit or lost a prop the opposite motor would have to shut down also. That should help k ...

FYI The opposite motors spin the same way as each other, both black props and silver props and motors spin in the same direction, and are opposite each other.

That aside, I think that the P3 could be programmed to fly, enough to land fairly safely, vertically downwards if the two surviving opposite motors are operating normally, then the 3rd motor, opposite the malfunctioning one could spin fairly slowly, and also reverse it's direction if necessary, to maintain the P3 in a horizontal attitude.
If it started to rotate horizontally immediately the motor failed, then some pretty fast reactions by that motor would be necessary to stop this rotation, by reversing direction.There would also be a risk of unscrewing the prop during these reverse spins, but immpossible? dont think so.  IMHO.

If a hexa looses one motor/prop then it will start spinning, slowly at first and then faster as time goes on. The recommended procedure is to switch to IOC mode and then land safely as soon as possible. There are videos demonstrating this on an S800. This is with WKM controller that I fly on my S800.

One important check after each flight is to make sure all the motors are the same temp. If one is hotter you have a problem and you need to fix it before flying again. I use an IR thermometer for this after each flight, but even just testing with your fingers will tell you if one motor is running hotter. On larger MRs this is usually caused by bad balance of the MR. With Phantoms there is not much you can do to unbalance them unless you install extra gear on it, not recommended.

A quad cannot fly with one or three motors operating.  It can fly with two opposing motors, which would require the entire quad to spin itself to remain somewhat stable.  Physics always wins.