Last weekend I flew my Phantom 3 Professional and crashed it, but it was out of my control. Here's what happened, and is now happening.

1. Flew it 8/29 on several missions, and had zero incidents.

2. I didn't do anything to it but charge the batteries.

3. Flew it the following weekend on 9/5 and after using the controller to fly it straight up, it started going away from me to my right. I took my hands off the sticks to make sure it wasn't me accidentally, and it just kept going. I was able to fly it down a bit and closer to me, but then it just made a b-line for some trees, then crashed to the ground right next to a car. Thankfully, it avoided the car. I had no control of the aircraft like I normally do.

Visible damage:

- Props turned a little green from the tree.
- One of the (what appears to be an) attenae that ends in a plastic piece and pops into the landing gear had popped out. I popped it back in.
- Some slight scratches to the side of the camera. Somehow it hit something.
- Two of the anti drop clip pins popped out from the Camera Vibration Absorbing Board. I put new ones in that were included in the accessory kit (and have since ordered more)

From what I recall, it fell straight--props down. It happened so fast, and I was so confused about what was happening, it may have fallen another way though. I basically lifted up off the ground, it flew up and over some trees... I was able to fly it back toward me, lower it back down a bit, and then it went right back to those trees and instead of going over them, went right into them.

I haven't flown it since last weekend. Today I upgraded the firmware to Phantom 3 Professional Firmware v1.4.0010

So what's wrong now?

1. It won't calibrate. I get the error after I perform the two horizontal and vertical position turns that there's magnetic interference and it won't re-calibrate. I've tried it several times in several different areas.

2. When I move the aircraft around by hand, the stabilization is still smooth, but it gets twitchy. Here's a test video I recorded inside, but it does the same thing outside: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4c431l0juqmxgq/DJI_camera.mp4

Any ideas? The camera seems fine (the image recorded and sent to the controller), so maybe the gimbal got jacked?

Thanks for your help!

No response here.
No response from a tech support request.

I guess I just have to buy a new one?

can you upload a video of your flight record

HI Chrisduke,

Did you check your Sensor readings? Where you in a area with an electromagnetic field?

I did check to see if there was any Solar Activity that day and it seemed quite.

So it does sound weird do you have a flight log????

If you still had two retaining pins on your Phantom, that's correct. You only use two retaining pins - installed on opposite corners. If you use retaining pins on all four locations, your gimbal will not function properly.

Art Burke - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

Did you recalibrate the IMU since the crash?  Most likely needs to be done after impact.

Also, that wire you said had popped out so you stuck it back in the leg?  That's part of your compass array, so you may want to make sure it goes where it's supposed to at both ends, could be the reason for your compass error?

Anyway, as aburkefl alighted to, you need to remove two of those pins from the gimble, should only have two pins diagonally across from each other, the other two just have the flimsy shock absorbers.

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-9-18 03:33
If you still had two retaining pins on your Phantom, that's correct. You only use two retaining pins ...

Thank you for letting me know that. I just made the assumption that all 4 corners should have the pins! Ok, so now I need to remove 2 of them LOL Which 2 should remain, if I'm looking at the front of my drone?

stvnvicbc Posted at 2015-9-18 08:47
Did you recalibrate the IMU since the crash?  Most likely needs to be done after impact.

Also, that ...

I purchased new landing gear that has since arrived. I'm going to replace them both to see if that resolves the issue. Also, as you and aburkefl noted I now need to remove 2 pins that I added, assuming that there should have been 4. The problem is that I don't know which two to remove so if you (or he) can let me know which ones should remain, that would be appreciated!!

Thank you all for your help, as I still haven't heard back from DJI tech support

chrisduke Posted at 2015-9-20 12:41
I purchased new landing gear that has since arrived. I'm going to replace them both to see if that ...

I found some pics of the drone http://dronelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Phantom-3.jpg and see that it's the left front and right rear pins that need to stay in place, so I've answered my own question.

Regarding the landing gear, while I did purchase new landing gear--it won't help because it only includes one of the wires. It looks like in order to replace the landing gear you have to open up the drone. I'm not ready for that. I did pop out the plastic pieces that push into the landing gear and determined that the #4 post (which is the one with the 2 wires) was the one that popped out during the crash. When I pushed it back in, the wire was crimped a bit so the wire casing has allowed the conductor wires inside to be exposed. I looked with my magnifying glass and it doesn't look like the individual wires were spliced in the process, but it's clear to me that I do need to replace this wire. Problem is I'm not sure where to buy that part. Any help would be appreciated. I'm hoping that's all this is.

chrisduke Posted at 2015-9-20 16:55
I found some pics of the drone http://dronelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Phantom-3.jpg and s ...

The pics you found answered your question. Realistically, I think as long as two opposite corners have the retaining pins, you're probably fine. However....

Many people are using cable ties, fishin line, etc., to *loosely* couple the mount to the gimbal. Those retaining pins are very difficult to get out (the older ones and other competitors come out more easily) but, in a reasonably hard crash they can still be jerked out, ripped off, broken off, etc. The cable ties, fishing line or whatever, loosely run through the rubber booties and connected so there's no additional pressure on those rubber booties, will help in a firm crash and might be the difference between tearing off a cable and keeping it intact.

One of my older quads is a Blade 350 QX2. It has an almost identical "holding" system for the gimbal mount. The very first version of it I flew just had a fixed mount for a GoPro. An additional restraining system saved my GoPro one day. I have also heard (but not verified) of a guy who flew his Blade out one day with a GoPro attached and he claimed it came back without the GoPro. Since he didn't know where it fell off, he had no idea where to look!

In fairness, there's only so much you can do. In some ways, unfortunately, these things are ultimately disposable. Even with care, they'll never last forever. One day an ESC will fail or a motor will die or something else will go haywire (after it wears out). Or you'll buy the latest version and sell the old one!

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-9-20 19:46
The pics you found answered your question. Realistically, I think as long as two opposite corners  ...

I love the last sentence of your post, wishing that what will happen in my case......

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-9-20 19:56
I love the last sentence of your post, wishing that what will happen in my case......

Paraphrasing an old line:

There are old drones
There are bold drones
But there are no old, bold drones! LOL

I have an old Blade 350 QX2 - I think the original Phantom 1 and maybe even the Phantom 2 are "older" but it still works. After wrecking one other one, I've got quite a collection of spare parts for the one that still works!

Art Burke - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL   di-da-dit

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-9-20 21:33
Paraphrasing an old line:

There are old drones

I decided to keep only ONE flying object and the rest set them free to eBay lol, too much expensive hobbies we have as in my case ham radio/photography/model aircrafts and now apparently i became an amateur ariel photographer/film editor and director LOL