I wont be flying for a while, ... sadly

My Inspire was totalled this morning

Arm broken, 3 motors burned, bent airframe, bent worm screw, smashed camera lens, etc etc.

I'll see if it can be fixed, but I guess a few months lie ahead of shipping, quoting, waiting etc etc etc

All the best, will be around in the forum

Regards
Muscadel

Sorry to hear ...pilot error or something else?

Sorry to hear this.
May the force, the patience and the budget be with you.

Bad judgement, Pilot error

Was flying without a spotter on a MX track, trying to pick out my friend's bike, just too much workload to check the FPV, think about the wind, spot the Inspire, spot the bike, look for obstacles...
Simply clipped a branch, and the Inspire got stuck 20m or so in a canopy.  Before I could do anything the fall was too much on the hard ground.
All lost in a second..

So sorry to hear.  Could be any of us on any day.  

Gotta get the shot, go hard or go home.  

All the best and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks Jim
Yes, I agree, if we do this, we do this all in, all risk and eyes open.
Get the shot, or go home and play with something else
Will keep you guys updated

As above, sorry to  hear that, good luck.

Muscadel
Sorry about  your loss....it is heartbreaking

Wouldnt it be nice to have an auto eject with parachute...

Sorry to  hear that, good luck.

Thanks Guys!

Here is my very skew, very broken Inspire

Really sorry to hear.   
Hopefully you'll be back in the air soon.

Muscadel Posted at 2015-3-1 23:33
Here is my very skew, very broken Inspire

I'm really sorry to hear about your experience. If you ever decide to sell parts I'm sure there are people here that will appreciate that. I do hope you are again flying soon!!

WOW. our worst fears in living color. really sorry..sounds like a total but we will hope for the best..may dji help you and get it back in one piece. they tend to total phantoms and say buy a new one pretty easily..but i hear a little better with the inspire.
    mine ended up hung in a tree 25ft. up with only two motors and esc damage..two weeks so far and dii says 3-4 weeks is typical at this point.













who say there are lots of repairs and i will be lucky to get it back in another 3-4 weeks.

Terrible site.  Sorry it happened to you.  Hopefully it comes back quickly so you can be flying again.

The sort of good news is, the Inspire is fully insured, all risk.
It's up to the insurance company now of they want to repair or replace, my guess will be replace.
If they do replace, I will try to backpurchase the Radio from them, or even buy the entire wreck for spares
I'll only have clarity once I've spoken to the broker tomorrow

The very bad new is I could not retrieve the video

Gutted for you but excellent news its insured. Hopefully your up in the air again soon.

Insurance is something I need to sort out, any recommendations? Does it cost much?

Im in South Africa, so indicatively the insurance is about $40 dollars a month

I have been thinking of getting insurance also for mine here in the states.  Just don't know what is out there yet to insure it.

Muscadel - I had a similar crash. I just finished the entire repair process. I can tell you the one thing that I was happy about.

I was very very surprised how reasonable the repair cost was. I don't know if this can help you estimate but mine was

Replaced:

1 Carbon Fiber arm completely snapped in half
1 Motor
2 landing gear
Entire outer shell
Wiring cover

Total including all labor and parts was $440.

Over the last few days there have been several posts re crashes that have been due to poor piloting skills or bad choice of location. This post is one of them. Thankfully nobody has been injured as a result of them. The way things are going it is only a matter of time before somebody is hurt. In this post "The sort of good news" is that the inspire didn't drop out of the tree or go out of control after hitting the tree and cause an MX rider to lose control, crash and break his spine or worse.

Unless I have completely misunderstood the "get the shot or go home and play with something else" comment, (If I have I apologise in advance) my view is this.....
To those that have that selfish, immature mentality, do the general public, and the rest of us drone flyers a favour and please do go home and play with something else before you injure or kill somebody or ruin the hobby for us all. May I suggest Lego or maybe colouring in. Grow up!!   

Dave E, couldn't agree more, no spotter, presumably members of the general public present, from the photograph the decal on the nose cone says it all, grow up, it's not a toy!

Hallo Dave

Quote :To those that have that selfish, immature mentality, do the general public, and the rest of us drone flyers a favour and please do go home and play with something else before you injure or kill somebody or ruin the hobby for us all. May I suggest Lego or maybe colouring in. Grow up!!

First of all, you were not there, so you can't judge the circumstance,  your self righteous rhetoric smack of arrogance.
If you have read any of my posts, you would know I PROMOTE safe flying, well thought through and planned flights, and safety, especially those of bystanders as a primary concern.

The track has a dual layout, with a track outside a track, and my camera was pointing 45 degrees inwards at all times, thus I never get overhead of riders or bystanders.  I was asked to film the riders on closed circuit, with their consent and permission.

At NO point was anyone in danger, or even put in the way of harm, and as I said my workload was just too high, so you and "Pand" can take your judgemental comments and shove it right up your arse.  I have 100's of hours under the belt, flew RC, Quads and have a PPL.
Perhaps you should get to the facts before calling people immature.

I lost a quad today because I flew against the elements to get shots on commission for riders that use the footage to train, I don't ask money for it, I do it because I help people., and truly people like you make me want to vomit.  

jhogge Posted at 2015-3-2 02:07
Muscadel - I had a similar crash. I just finished the entire repair process. I can tell you the one  ...

Thanks!  That gives me a lot of hope!

pandppurchase@g Posted at 2015-3-2 05:32
Dave E, couldn't agree more, no spotter, presumably members of the general public present, from the  ...

First of all, you were not there, so you can't judge the circumstance,  your self righteous rhetoric smack of arrogance.
If you have read any of my posts, you would know I PROMOTE safe flying, well thought through and planned flights, and safety, especially those of bystanders as a primary concern.

The track has a dual layout, with a track outside a track, and my camera was pointing 45 degrees inwards at all times, thus I never get overhead of riders or bystanders.  I was asked to film the riders on closed circuit, with their consent and permission.

At NO point was anyone in danger, or even put in the way of harm, and as I said my workload was just too high, so you and "Pand" can take your judgemental comments and shove it right up your arse.  I have 100's of hours under the belt, flew RC, Quads and have a PPL.
Perhaps you should get to the facts before calling people immature.

I lost a quad today because I flew against the elements to get shots on commission for riders that use the footage to train, I don't ask money for it, I do it because I help people., and truly people like you make me want to vomit.

Muscadel Posted at 2015-3-2 06:21
First of all, you were not there, so you can't judge the circumstance,  your self righteous rhetor ...

Muscadel, sorry for your loss. These Monday morning quarterbacks show up on these forums after every incident and can't wait to point out how irresponsible we all are, and how much more enlightened they are. I had a sad incident yesterday, too, and they showed up like a flock of geese. Don't take the bait. Most people on this forum are here to help, even if a determined few seem only intent on criticism. Good luck with the repairs or replacement. Looking forward to great footage from you in the future.

Sorry to hear about your bird!  I had a very similar issue.....today I was flying over a tree and I clipped a very small tree branch. The Inspire spun like a top till it hit the ground. Luckily mine landed pretty flat and just broke 3 landing gear including the white shocks. All blades were toast, but the motors are ok. Looks like Dji is going to be VERY busy Monday morning!  Happy flying!  

Thank you Abe, and Jaron, all the very best
People need to understand that we will make errors while we get proficient at what we do
It's called LIFE
Hope you are up and repaired soon,  Jaron

Really sorry for your loss...
Hope it won't take too long for the RMA process.
People still make errors even when they r full of experience.  We should take its risk, operate carefully every single time.
One of my friend own an Inspire told me that everytime he flew it up he ready for a possile loss...Sorry again

DJI-Autumn Posted at 2015-3-2 12:52
Really sorry for your loss...
Hope it won't take too long for the RMA process.
People still make e ...

Hallo Autumn

Thank you very much for the kind words.
I agree we have to be mentally prepared to lose a bird, even if we do out best.
We train, we learn, we practice and we progress into situations where our skill gets us awesome footage, but accident can and will happen in a second!
I wish all pilots amazing times, and sympathize with any Pilot that loses his bird.
Its never nice, and especially sad when sanctimonious pricks come in from the side and give you a so called moral lesson to boot, as if their drones are crashproofed by the hand of God

Muscadel Posted at 2015-3-2 16:01
Hallo Autumn

Thank you very much for the kind words.

Hi Muscadel,

Hopefully, you'll be back in the air soon. I've lost many models in my time and its never easy, particularly at this price point. Fortunately, components can be replaced and all will be well again.

Regards

Peter

Muscadel If you read my post again you will see that I didn't suggest that you had been flying dangerously on this occassion. You are correct in saying that I wasn't there. I stated that there have been several crashes due to poor piloting skills or bad choice of location  and that thankfully nobody was hurt. I do however maintain that your take all risks necessary attitude is dangerous.
You mention facts, here are the facts
1) You crashed your inspire.
2) By your own admission your crash was due to the workload being too high. You also added that you flew against the elements.
3) This crash was avoidable.
No matter how many hours you have under your belt, or whichever way you choose to look at it, this crash was due to pilot error ie. poor piloting skills. I did not say it was dangerous, I said thankfully nobody was hurt as a result of the crash.
Your "get the shot or go home" attitude ie. take all risks necessary to get the shot, is wrong. I am particularly surprised at this attitude considering that you have a PPL. You say you promote safe flying, however this attitude is not that of a safe pilot.
Yes everybody makes errors and yes that is LIFE, however we should always do as much as possible to avoid errors like this.
You are obviously angry at my comments and believe that they are unfair. If your "get the shot" comment wasn't meant in the way that it appears then rather than resorting to offensive language and name calling please expand on what you meant.
If on reflection you maintain that your attitude is a safe one then I stand by my comments.   




   

Oh the joys of being a UAV pilot!

Im in South Africa, so indicatively the insurance is about $40 dollars a month

That's not bad at all considering the value of kit!

Dave E Posted at 2015-3-2 18:42
Muscadel If you read my post again you will see that I didn't suggest that you had been flying dange ...

Hi Dave

My attitude is that once all necessary precautions has been taken to insure as far as humanly possible safeguard against injury has been taken, then the pilot should take his balls in his hand, man up and take the risk to get the shot.  If the result is a broken bird, then hopefully something has been learned.
If not, the footage is a proud showcase for our craft, and the next generation coverage we bring to the table.

NO accident is unavoidable, by definition, an accident is an unforeseen, unplanned event
Situations can be recklessly created that by default are more conducive to accidents, but that is why we need to get good at what we do, to minimize risk, and maximize output.
Red Bull, F1, Oracle Ocean, KTM, Nascar, and the endless list you can end to that was not brands created on the couch criticizing others, it was built by pushing the focus and endurance of us as humans to the next level, whilst maintaining a level head for safety planning

By the way, there is a world of difference between Pilot Error, and Poor Piloting Skills.
In my case, it was a depth perception error, as I am the Pilot, its Pilot error,...
However, it bears NO reflection on my Piloting skills

Sorry for your loss, it could have happened to anyone of us. At least to those of us willing to get the perfect shot and enjoy flying, not preaching from the sofa. It's kind of strange how some people react when you feel the need to share with them your current trouble, it seems they do their best to make it double.
Don't take it personal, Abe was also "encouraged" to never fly again by some fellow forum members, just because he was too kind to share his last flight with us.
It's great you have insurance, I bet not even one "sofa preacher" has one, so you"ll be back in the air soon. Take it as it is, you have a new story to tell and this experience already made you a better pilot. Take care !
P.s yesterday I traveled for around 1000 km, to get some aerial footage of an endangered heritage building located in Bucovina. Weather was messy, strong winds and the Ucrainean border was only a mile away. So I decided to land and try on another day. All my way back home I asked myself if it was the right decision, and the right answer is I should have tried harder, take the risk and smile all my way back home, not thinking what it could have been. The risks will always be there, no matter how hard and responsible you will prepare your flight, it takes just a little tiny second to encounter a branch, a tiny cable or a sudden gps loss, when you're taking the risk to get a close shot. So do your best and enjoy flying, we're not hear on this forum to prove our invincible pilot skills, just enjoy your bird and explore together, as much and as often as you can.

mani Posted at 2015-3-2 20:21
Sorry for your loss, it could have happened to anyone of us. At least to those of us willing to get  ...

AMEN, and BRAVO

Pointless discussing this further we have different views on safety and what costitutes pilot skill.

Just a further thought here..

Is amazing to notice that the pilots who have encountered some sort of momentary expensive silence, are far more supportive and humble to share their experiences than the Sofa King Sanctimonious preacher pilots who take footage from 300 feet and then get giddy how low they flew...  Oh , I suppose its no wonder they have incidents on a 5 Acre field, once a month at 300 feet, ..

BRAVO to the brave pilots who are interested in getting the footage that makes our investments stand out, and make people catch their breaths in amazement, all withing the common sense boundaries of safety