Hi Guys,

I have just flown my brand new Inspire 1 after a long absence due to a crash. It is a brand new air frame and out of my first three flights, using the same battery, it failed to lower the landing gear, in return to home mode which the app had initiated, on the last one. It was really scary as its a brand new camera as well and I had to take control and make it hover whilst it attempted to land and catch it from below so it didnt crash on the gimbal.
I am getting re-used to the Inspire and taking everything really slowly so I am a bit put off by this issue.

The first two landings, in auto mode were on to hard ground whereas the third was onto short grass.
Return to home had been initiated automatically as I was letting the battery run down and even though the app said "landing gear is lowering" it was obvious it wasnt going to lower so I took control and caught the aircraft. Moments after the the power cut out.
Was it maybe that there wasn't enough power to lower the gear, even though the Inspire had initiated the return to home?
In the first two flights where the landing gear did lower, it seemed to be very near to the ground when it did so. I seem to remember it happening about 10 foot off the ground before.
Its a very hot day here and the battery temp reached 50 degrees... any bearing?

I have put a new battery on the aircraft and it will raise, lower and enter travel mode when using the remote control switch. I will fly it again tomorrow.

Many thanks

You should be extremely careful in operating the Inspire with 15% or less battery indicated.
Since the last few FW updates, the battery appears to shut down functionality, including control functions, which almost guarantees a disaster.
If you receive the message "Warning: Propulsion output limited.  Aircraft motility has been lowered", You'd better land immediately because a CRASH is immenant.

Interesting... but I didn't receive any warnings and it was on an app initiated return to home due to the battery.

Do you have intelligent landing gear enabled in the DJI Go app? What kind of surface were you hovering over?

Movin on Posted at 2016-8-16 23:41
You should be extremely careful in operating the Inspire with 15% or less battery indicated.
Since t ...

Not the case at all.

The 'propulsion limited' message can appear at almost any stage in use of a battery charge and does not mean that a 'CRASH is immenant'. I have seen this message with charge percentages in the mid 60s to 70s and the bird has flown well for another 10 minutes.

All it means is that the cell voltages have dipped and that the Pilot needs to take additional care to monitor charge depletion as the flight proceeds. This is especially common in cold conditions.

It is a matter of having awareness of the A/C systems and piloting appropriately. If issues arise, then take steps to manage the risk.

Agree however that piloting at the 15% or under level is dangerous. I return home at 30% and land the craft with a minimum of 25% charge remaining as standard practice. Only time my batteries see charge levels under those percentages is while they are being conditioned/calibrated.

Hi Positiveimage,

Can I suggest that using automated functions for landing gear lowering/retraction, takeoff/ landing the A/C and return home flight is not good practice.
We have seen that firmware and apps can have issues from time to time which leads to inconsistent behaviour in flight/landings.

You are much better off using your skills as the pilot in charge and manually conducting these activities with direct control.

Farnk666 Posted at 2016-8-17 08:46
Hi Positiveimage,

Can I suggest that using automated functions for landing gear lowering/retraction ...

Hi Guys,
Ive just done another flight with the Inspire (minus the camera) I used a whole battery just running through take off and landings, both automated and manual as well as return to home. Across about 20 landings, there was one where the gear didn't open. The Inspire was on RTH which I initiated via the controller. I had to let it down gently and carefully land on its belly (good job the camera wasn't attached!)
Coincidentally the Inspire was on a return to home, which the app had initiated due to low power, when this occurred yesterday.
Any thoughts? This is potentially disastrous for the Inspre and camera/gimbal unit. This shouldn't be happening with a brand new quad!
Any thoughts DJI?

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-8-17 04:50
Do you have intelligent landing gear enabled in the DJI Go app? What kind of surface were you hoveri ...

Hi Jamie,
Intelligent landing gear is always on. The surface was short grass and is still happening see my latest reply.

Positveimage Posted at 2016-8-18 00:49
Hi Guys,
Ive just done another flight with the Inspire (minus the camera) I used a whole battery j ...

Just to make sure I'm visually on the same page on this second run, it also indicated that the landing gears were lowering automatically but they did not. Is that notion correct? You were not able to engage them manually at all?

You can over ride the auto landing gear at any time you feel the need to , if you are in auto
just rotate the landing gear switch up then down , the landing gear will then deploy.

Positveimage Posted at 2016-8-18 00:51
Hi Jamie,
Intelligent landing gear is always on. The surface was short grass and is still happenin ...

Have you seen any changes? Are you able to manually enable the landing gear as uptowndisco mentioned?