ok I've learnt the hardway that the motors can be made to cut out when the craft is in mid air, from positioning the sticks In a certain way,

Question is what is the point of this feature it is inherently dangerous, and pointless as far as I can see,

The craft knows it's not on the ground ? Why not disable it when the craft is airborne to avoid accidental triggering ?  



My poor inspire is no more after its death plummet from 50 m, I feel stupid but at the same time really very angry that such a dangerous and pointless feature is there ?

Does anyone have experience with the repair service ?

Would I be better just buying a new one pretty much everything is trashed but the main body is ok and the 3 motors can still spin, it also can still power on although entering travel mode to get it back the box was a trauma, I'm in the uk by the way

From what I'm reading Dji service dosen't seem to be very good, or it may be the distortion of people only reporting bad experiences?

Feel free to troll me and tell me how reckless I am for not reading every page of the non existent printed manual !!'
I only found this info on page 50 of a pdf manual 2 days after the incident happened after downloading it with a third party app








Update and details

Thanks for your feedback,
I was not in beginner mode,
I have some experience with flying craft but not extensive.  To give a little background and so I can get the events clear in my own mind I case I wish to follow this up, my story goes like this, one night on YouTube a few days before leaving on holiday, I think to myself maybe I should to take my parrot one drone that might be fun,  but then the thought occurs to me, I wonder what new drones are available now? as the parrot isn't particularly good due to the tilt controls of the iPad. So I have a search around and find the inspire, wow!! What a piece of kit, I hungrily consumed hours of video before deciding this is clearly the one to have, it is an amazing piece of equipment.

I manage to get one day before leaving for holiday, I take the quick guide out of the box to read whilst traveling,  so I'm now on holiday,  and the time comes to unbox my inspire and really have a good look at it, I'm aware that you must update the firmware and set about to do this, however this was not possible due to only having an iPad and had no means to get the new files onto my inspire, so I think to myself well this is a version d and all though it hasn't got the latest firmware it probably hasn't got the original versions so I feel nervous but ok, I remember watching a video where the drone couldn't be flown because it hadn't been updated so thought this may happen to me, and if my version of the firmware has been found to have issue I won't even be able to get it off the ground so I'm ok with it.

Any way I'm still no where near ready to launch the drone, time to try the simulator, thought it most strange that the craft has to be fully rigged up to use the simulator but ok I can do that ,, as I do so I'm still scratching my head why would I need to have it powered up to do this?  So I power it all up, safety first of course so I leave the rotor blades off,  I play with the simulator for a bit and see the controls are very simple and intuitive, but I do not like setting 2 so opt for setting 3, which was better for me.   I'm still no where near ready to launch this thing so dive into the academy videos, and watch these, plus more YouTube videos,  I totally missed the manual was there just below the simulator, to be honest I felt a little overwhelmed with the amount of content the app has and some of the autonomous functions, most of the content of the app I have found after the event like flight logs etc, it really is very good integration of community etc and I must say I'm impressed overall.

Re the CSC kill switch function, as I said in previous post I found the info about this through a third party app called flight help which is effectively just the manuals and a simple interface 2 days after the event.

So finally time for launch, safety first let's run all the calibrations and do a full check list and have a clear flight plan, I also set the height on the return to home function that will keep it safe, this is just a test flight so my plan is just some simply manoeuvres, I was very nervous literally hands shaking and sweating,  the flight location was at a villa on the side of a hill wonderful views down the hill and lots of empty non populated places to fly over when I become more confident.

Test flight goes according to plan I took her up and around tested the controls and she's a ok very easy to fly like all the videos had been saying, I'm literally in love with it,
The next few days followed a pattern of checks fly, re charge my one and only battery,  I start to shoot videos etc, friends out where we we're staying are selling their property so I offer my new videographer skills
And offer to get some shots of their place, which I did, my confidence in the craft is growing, bar one incident where I used auto take off mode and the craft lurched backwards approx 3 m and nearly collided with a wall!, hmmm, not sure what happened there, so set a new rule, don't use that feature

. I'm expecting that the craft will shut itself down after a few uses and demand an update as I had seen in a video review online so each time she started was a surprise and a joy, but I'm thinking, this is a later version so any issues have been resolved and Dji do not feel the need to do this now because the product is safe and bug free.

She really was a wonder and able to easily handle all the inputs thrown at her my particular favourite was the fly back to me and have it air brake above me but my most favourite was getting a silky smooth landing, for me the motors cut out by just reducing the altitude and when she was on the ground fully pull back the stick that controls up and down motion, for me the right hand one,  so confidence grows and I'm having fun, she can strafe, turn, perform air braking manoeuvres she can even turn and strafe at the same time going forwards and recover no problem

, I am mentally applauding the Dji engineers after each use, this is an excellent piece of kit, I'm also sucking up lots of videos on YouTube and learning more.  For me the camera and everything is great but it was only 50% the reason I bought it, I wanted to fly it as well and she didn't disappoint in performance,  so the problem came after filling up the sd card with video, I'm now bored of getting shots and video of the same location, so just use it to fly and not worry about capturing more content, as I said I now feel pretty competent in the crafts handling, some where after approx 50% of its overall use which was 36 flights, I turn off beginner mode, I want to go a little further and a little higher, I watched some videos of people flying over 2 km away, wow!!  I wonder if I can just reach over there I'm thinking, or ohh I wonder what that is, although I still want to be able to see my bird in the sky, so my longest distance was about 1000m I think and I could still see a spec on the horizon,  line of sight is required to keep my blood pressure In check, I lost sight once for a about ten seconds when looking away from the screen to check I still had full reception and let me tell you not a good feeling, not to be repeated. So anyway now comes the day of the fateful flight, last day before returning home, I do the usual checks the launch a few passes above me a few turns and spins wow I love this thing,  so now I'm going In reverse ( I haven't tried this yet)  pulling a move I've done going forwards loads of times, effectively like a reverse 180 but I wasn't just randomly smashing the sticks around there was grace to my movements but then one input to many and I obviously in CSC territory I know now and, wtf!  Did the blades stop in midair or have I just destabilised her so much she's In a little trouble, obviously full throttle upwards did nothing and the poor bird flat spins to its death,  

I was totally confused and felt sick, had it hurt anyone it came down with a hell of a thump, thankfully no one was, I admit I was over someone's Vila at the time of the move the craft crashed through their satellite dish no rugby World Cup for them for a few days, and broke a few roof tiles, thankfully no one was injured, is all I keep reminding myself.

So now time to dissect what happened I swear I saw the blades stop moving but why ?  So I get on the Phone to Dji to report the incident, and am still waiting for an email acknowledgment, after uploading flight logs etc,  I watch the flight log over and over and do not understand why my correctional inputs are not recorded on the log, but put it down to the fact she tapped out before the signals had a chance to be recorded in the log although clearly that makes no sense, I'm totally confused and gutted.

So on plane back I finally come across on page 50 of the PDF manual In this third party app a little line with an warning symbol,  saying to be careful not to do this when its in the air !!!!!! Are you kidding me that can't be right surely Page 50,  not page one. No mention in the quick start guide, no big huge warning sticker anywhere!! No mention in the video tutorials / guide, by the way if you want to avoid turning your craft off in mid air don't do this!!

In my opinion this is not acceptable,  why would such a well engineered and manufactured consumer product have such an obviously inherent dangerous setup,  with improper warnings.

1 Why have this feature activated in this way ?  As mentioned above by Paul obviously this should be a a separate button labelled kill switch, not something that can be triggered while in use in this way.
2 Why not provide the top ten warnings as information in the quick guide? With this at number one
3 why should this feature be there at all when the craft is airborne and it knows it is ?
4 why not provide a printed user manual?  

Please give me one argument to why this CSC feature should be activated in this way?
Has anyone else suffered this ? I would expect so, although some may not be honest and claim random fly aways.     

In the strongest possible terms I advocate an immediate change to this before someone is killed,  and Dji sued out of existence,
I make a prediction that to do so may accept some liability of poor design decisions and Djis legal people will be scratching their heads as to how they can implement this and not accept liability for the inadequate documentation and warnings of such an inherently dangerous feature. However do the right thing and change this immediately before the inevitable happens.  If you are a video blogger please feature this soon as a warning to others.

All the arguments of you it's obvious you shouldn't do this its not a stunt quad copter or, why would you do this are not relevant, the fact is you can do this, this is a consumer product requiring no specialist licence or training before use, that has been built with an inherently dangerous feature, with inadequate warnings or printed documentation.

There should be more needed for a motor shut down like additionally pressing the rth button. In wild flying why should you not fly down rotating right and back-right? It just can happen.

If this happen to me I send a romanian speaking girl for warranty (or to court) claiming that there were no instructions in her language.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-17 21:23
Machoman...
I do agree that the CSC kill-switch isn't the best of implementations and I've made po ...

It is agile - much more then in this video - you can try it in the simulator. Its just everyone is scared or focus only on video no one bought it just for flying.

Easy fix - if CSC is that much of an issue for you - sell your DJI and purchase another UAV.
This is not going to change.

And OP, not trolling you - but almost no tech consumer good comes with a printed manual anymore.
All the manuals are available through the flight app or online.
I understand that your are frustrated and unhappy that this occurred, but the onus is on every pilot to have read and be familiar with aircraft controls and operation before taking to the air.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-17 23:13
Easy fix - if CSC is that much of an issue for you - sell your DJI and purchase another UAV.
This is ...

A little off topic but not really. This case reminds be of a High Court decision just happened in Austria where a bank was found guilty to compensate losses from a crap bond THOUGH the customer has signed a order where there was printed on it a disclaimer that the transaction is in a higher risk class then his profile.

The court found that its not enough that this is written on a form because its common in live that people do not read such stuff. Therefore a bank employee would have needed to explicitely tell this to the customer.

Who reads a complete manual searching for strange stuff there before using a thing which just arrived? Is this normal behaviour people really do and can be seriousely expected?

I second that this is a terrible idea.

OP, did you try to restart the motors?

I guess that's where MARS parachute would really pay for itself

DJI needs to add a button under a cover, one of those KILL SWITCH types..

This will only require Remote Controller change.

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-17 17:51
What you have inadvertently triggered is the emergency motor shutdown - the "kill-switch".

It has i ...

Hi Paul I'll explore options for repair before making my mind up re what to do with her,  what would you do with the air frame ?

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-17 17:51
What you have inadvertently triggered is the emergency motor shutdown - the "kill-switch".

It has i ...

Thanks, I'll explore the options for repair and let you know, what would you do with the airframe ?

Capt_M Posted at 2015-10-18 07:05
I second that this is a terrible idea.

OP, did you try to restart the motors?

I have seen the parachute product and it should be mandatory!

I had no time to react I hit full up throttle, but didn't realise I had turned her of pf in midair

Machoman Posted at 2015-10-18 09:58
A little off topic but not really. This case reminds be of a High Court decision just happened in A ...

Completely irrelevant Macho - as a pilot, the onus is on you to completely understand the operation of the craft. The primary means for the manufacturer to train you on this information is the User manual.

If you choose to avoid or ignore the instructions the manufacturer has provided to you in order to inform you as to the operating procedures and features of the craft, then you have decided to take on the additional risk that ignorance raises.

It's no defence to state that 'no-one reads the user manual anymore' - imaging telling that to a magistrate!

This is what happened to me,  see my post "inspire fell 200 feet"  totally my fault,  panicked when craft went into go home mode and I accidently killed the motors and it dropped like a stone. Luckily it crashed into a bush and camera detached but all ok. Moral of my story is always read the manual,  know all controls and features 100% before flying. My incident scared me to death and I sympathise with you. Hope you get it all sorted.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-18 09:48
Completely irrelevant Macho - as a pilot, the onus is on you to completely understand the operatio ...

You can buy the Inpsire in a electronics shop or even on ebay. You dont need to prove anything for this and dont need any license. Nowhere within your buying process is written anything about that as s pilot you have to completely understand the craft. You dont even have to be 18 to buy it.

Dont forget there was a guy in USA who sued a car manufacturer because he switched on speed regulation and went behind to drink a coffee and crashed but was not told that the car cannot drive itself when he switch on speed regulation.

At court you dont need common sense you need to find an interpretation and stay with it. Even if it seems totally funny you still can win such cases.

I even think that 90% of owners do not understand how shown altitude works. I also think most did not read the full instructions unless the plane does some strange thing already and they search for a description of it. DJI sold at least 400.000 P3/Inspire units how many of the owners did even look in a forum for anything? They come when it has flown away......

When I bought the Inspire it was my first RC plane ever. I would have had no idea about it but I studied everything before also to buy the best product available. When I went into the shop I actually have already known more then the dealer about it. But who does this normally?

I could also crash into the next house and claim there was no german manual included, the dealer just told me its basically flying automatically and nothing else. Point.

Machoman Posted at 2015-10-18 22:29
You can buy the Inpsire in a electronics shop or even on ebay. You dont need to prove anything for  ...

Again, just because a user decides to be ignorant does not mean that the onus shifts to the manufacturer when things go wrong. You take the responsibility when you pick up the controller - just as you take the responsibility when you get behind the wheel of a car.

Licensing has nothing to do with it. Where the tech is purchased is irrelevant - Ignorance is no excuse.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-18 13:40
Again, just because a user decides to be ignorant does not mean that the onus shifts to the manufa ...

Cars come with a written manual in the language of the location where they were bought. Otherwise it would not be allowed to sell them. Used cars can in some cases have manuals in a foreign language but thats something different and I am not sure it only private selling is allowed like this.

Machoman Posted at 2015-10-18 23:49
Cars come with a written manual in the language of the location where they were bought. Otherwise  ...

Again, completely irrelevant.
You've previously stated that you couldn't be bothered reading the manual anyway.

Back to basics. Here's a scenario.

A person decides to purchase the inspire, based upon their perceptions of ease of use and functionality that is described by the marketing material and we reviews.

That person may or may not have a first language that is serviced by DJI through their manuals and support materials.

That person decides that reading the manual is all too hard are instead relies upon watching some YouTube clips or similar -perhaps reads a few forum posts.

After some initial tentative flights, the person has built up some confidence, so extends the scope and risk of their flight operations. Each time getting further away / closer to buildings and persons, etc.

One day the person decides to fly in a populous area (based on other clips they have seen on YouTube and possibly DJI's skypixel site) they encounter an issue and lose control. The UAV descends out of control from height - damaging property and injuring one of the people below.

Fast forward to the police interrogation and court appearance.
The question is asked - 'Where you in control of the aircraft?'
The answer is 'No'.
The follow up question is 'Why were you not in control of the aircraft?'
The answer is 'Because it did something strange and unexpected - I didn't know what was happening'
The next question is asked 'Are you trained in the use of and familiar with the operation of this aircraft?'
The answer is 'Sort of'
The next question is asked 'Have you read the User manual?'
The answer is 'No'

I'll leave the next steps to your imagination.

Macho - the language DJI supplies the manuals in does not provide any excuse to a person in ignoring the manufacturers advice and instruction. If there is no option in German and you need a translation then it is up to you to obtain it. You make this choice and commitment to a full understanding of aircraft functionality and operation when you purchase the Inspire and everytime you pick up the controller and take off.

  

PaulKerry Posted at 2015-10-18 12:14
Ross, I wasn't intending to sound patronising and although I was replying to "you". I usually try t ...

No worries, Paul , sorry if it came across that way, im not pissy at all, re your comment.

Im in the south east,   I've just sent some pics etc to Heliguiy for a repair quote,   but have a worrying feeling that it will prove to be to far gone and impossible or not economical to repair,   If so i'll be breaking it and offering or sale.   I'll keep you posted.   

I'm not sure if DJI have made all components available to dealers, do you have any idea ?

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-18 12:40
Again, just because a user decides to be ignorant does not mean that the onus shifts to the manufa ...

Farnk , it would seem you are not fully aware of the full requirements of a manufacture under CE marking,   

Also I'm not claiming the crash is the fault of the manufacturer, I accept responsibility ,   it however does not change the fact that the CSC is an inherently stupid and dangerous feature which should be revised to avoid the potential for accidental triggering.  Also it is clearly incorrect and shows a lack of imagination not to put this in the quick start guide or provide a printed manual.      

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-19 01:11
Again, completely irrelevant.
You've previously stated that you couldn't be bothered reading the m ...

Devils in the detail , read again , i did not ignore the manual

ross.guardiando Posted at 2015-10-21 01:27
Farnk , it would seem you are not fully aware of the full requirements of a manufacture under CE m ...

Yes I am actually.
The comment was not directed at you.

Your opinion as to CSC being worthwhile, stupid, foolish or otherwise is irrelevant.
Any person picking up any controller for any UAV and taking to the skies takes the accountability to be in complete control of said aircraft for the duration of the flight.

That means a complete understanding of all controls and functions before even switching on the aircraft. This also means that the user must familiarize themselves with all manufacturers documentation.

Could DJI do its manuals better? Of course they could. There are minor issues here and there, but CSC is covered in detail.
Is all the information there? Yes.

First thing I did when I ordered the inspire was to d/load the manual, print it and read it from cover to cover. What is so hard about that?

You have had a tragic experience, and I'm truly sorry that this has happened to you. However it was completely preventable had some due diligence been performed beforehand.

Farnk666 Posted at 2015-10-20 23:12
Yes I am actually.
The comment was not directed at you.

No offence taken, My experience would also have been avoided by good design and sensible implementation of a kill switch function,   safety is paramount with consumer products, and this is a very poor design decision and implementation, it is inherently unsafe,   my experience will be repeated by others,  it is not irrelevant to discuss / point out obvious floors in design considering the potential lethal consequences.

ross.guardiando Posted at 2015-10-22 02:26
No offence taken, My experience would also have been avoided by good design and sensible implement ...

That would be 'flaws' in design.

DJI has used this approach for generations of UAV and flight controllers. Yes some people will be caught out, but in every case that is due to a lack of familiarity and understanding of the basic flight controls and operation procedures for their aircraft.

This is primarily due to the marketing approach from DJI and its competitors in portraying their products as 'easy to fly' and 'out of the box' which attract people who have not had any experience in piloting craft of any size, shape or configuration.

There is an expectation that 'it just works' and that reading a manual and learning the control setup and features / functions of the device is unnecessary. Of course nothing could be further from the truth - we are piloting and responsible for a large craft that would impart considerable force on impact in the case of an uncontrolled descent. All the more reason to be completely familiar with the product before taking to the air.

You are understandably upset with this outcome and I truly sympathise, however you can't apportion blame or root cause of this incident to DJI. They are guilty of many things that should be addressed, (and I am one of their more vocal critics) but CSC and it's implementation is not one of them.