Was called out to shoot some footage for a construction update at a university. 8 GPS connections, flying in phantom mode, homed before takeoff. Full battery, had been flying for just over 2 minutes. No high wind, some wind, but not gusty. As you can see in the video flying, not hovering, no altitude change. Just flipped and fell. GoPro hit the curb on the edge of a busy roadway. What's the deal?

The only thing i can see thats not correct is there is no red lights on the forward props. A power failure to the motors and lights but not the camera might be the culprit. Also you can not hear the motors fighting the problem, which would support this suggestion.

tonyphantom147@ Posted at 2014-12-12 07:22
The only thing i can see thats not correct is there is no red lights on the forward props. A power f ...

watched again, i spotted a red light on the 4th attempt. No new ideas.

Yikes, that was jaw dropping!  Seems like any idea is going to be speculation.  All my flying has been out in the boonies (160 acres and 15 miles from town) so I have no experience with flying in built up urban areas.  There is a local university here and I thought about  doing some flying around the campus with one of the professors supervising (president of the local RC club) but given all the radio signals floating around I would be very hesitant.  Might be nice if you could find somebody with the equipment to scan the 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz frequency spectrum to see how much possible interference is radiating.

Any angry bird that hit your drone?
and all the motor could work after crash?
Through the assistant SW, any abnormal reveals now?

Its bazaar, did a full twist in the air too.

Prop failure.?

WOW, no clue

How old is your Phantom? Is it a V3? How many flights?

Thanks for the input. Just bought it in September. Probably about 15-20 flights. Maybe 5 hours. It's had weird issues before like flipping over on takeoff (like two props weren't spinning up). Not sure if the motors still work. One arm is busted pretty good, but came with a repair credit, so plan on sending it in first. There was an eye witness walking nearby, but he didn't say anything about a bird.

It's also the phantom 2, with a GoPro and the H3-3D gimbal. The GoPro hit the curb and busted, the gimbal is bent beyond repair, the phantom shouldn't be too major a fix, mostly a new main housing and maybe frame, but all my iosd and video transmitters seem okay sense they are hooked on with velcro, that softened the impact for those components.

Can I pull more info through the software somehow? I fly only for video shoots so haven't messed with tracking software and things like that.

There is plenty of cell signal on campus, but have never had trouble with interference before. There is an AT&T antenna 150 yards from the crash inside our chapel steeple. But i've flown within 20 feet of the antenna many times with no issues.

What day did u fly, I had a problem on 7th Dec,  I am informed a solar magnetic  storm happened that day, might effect things. Not entirely sure how.

Dec. 11th

okbuav Posted at 2014-12-13 00:05
Thanks for the input. Just bought it in September. Probably about 15-20 flights. Maybe 5 hours. It's ...

Clearly your phantom was defective. I have never seen phantoms flipping over at take off

When possible in built up areas (and inside, of course) , you should fly without GPS if you have the basic skills down. It's possible that interruption of those signals could mess things up.....

Also make certain that the GP wifi isn't accidentally turned on.

tonyphantom147@ Posted at 2014-12-12 07:22
The only thing i can see thats not correct is there is no red lights on the forward props. A power f ...

I didn't see the lack of lights, but I agree that would mean a power loss and I think an ESC failure (removing power to one of the four motors - thus causing the tumbling).  I think the ESCs are particularly susceptible to failure because the dissipate so much heat, and I don't think they get the cooling airflow they really need.