Hello everyone,

first of all let me say, that I was always very satisfied with the Inspire1. I was flying it since February 2016. In total I did 87 flights and 7.45 hours flying. The I1 was always working fine and the video results were good. Most of the flights were over water at strong winds, because I used the I1 mainly for filming sailboats. (for example this short video at around 35 km/h wind speed )

On 24. June 2016 I did again a flight over water. At the end of the flight the Inspire 1 dropped immediately from 10 meters to 0 meters without my command and crashed into the lake. It sunk within seconds unable to reach in the water. It is now lost because of this crash.

FLIGHT DESCRIPTION

After takeoff I climbed to 10 meters height. I did not change the altitude intentionally the whole flight. The flight lasted 5.09 minutes. According to the App the height was stable round 10 +/- 1 meter all the flight. In the short video below downloaded from the App you can see the altitude of the I1. It is recorded from approx. flight minute 4.30 to 4.55 . You can see that there is almost no wind and that I was flying at around 10 meters height (the mast of the sail boat is 6 meters high).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vte-Kr36tPI

After finishing the recording of this video, I wanted to land, turned towards me and gave 100% power straight towards me (like I did short before in the other direction from flight minute 3.35 to 3.50). Suddenly the I1 dropped from 10 meters to 0 meters without my command! I gave 100% power up but no reaction and the I1 crashed onto the water. The motors were working until the last moment. The App showed in the moment of the crash a height of 8 meters but it was of course 0 meters (see picture below). The distance was 335 meters between RC and I1, 11 satellites were connected, "safe to fly (GPS)", compass calibrated, battery TB48 charged before flight, 68% remaining battery at crash, no error reports in the App.

I always had the impression, that the Inspire 1 is a safe drone. I read different reports of flyaways but I never thought something like this could happen to me. I always check everything before a flight, that nothing can happen because of incorrect use. I am very shocked that the Inspire 1 changed its flight altitude immediately without command. Luckily nobody got hurt!

DJI SUPPORT

I reported the crash at the same day to the DJI support Europe. They analyzed the flight and I only got the response, that it was my fault because I am not experienced enough and that I was flying very low. I answered that I was not flying low but 10 meters and that the I1 dropped by itself, but I did not get any answer back. That is now one month ago. In the meantime I also got in touch with my dealer where I bought everything. Again I filled out the analysis form. I asked my dealer last Friday about the status and he said that DJI is not answering at all since three weeks now.

The Inspire 1 is not a cheap toy. I expected it to be safe and that DJI is a company where you can trust in satisfying support. I am very disappointed of the safety of the Inspire 1 and of the DJI company behavior with this accident.

Please can anyone explain me, why the I1 was flying for more than 5 minutes stable and suddenly drop from 10 meters to 0 meters without my command? Why was it showing 8 meters hight in the moment of the crash? In my point of view this is a very dangerous failure of the Inspire 1.

Why is DJI ignoring my letter since 3 weeks? Belief me I do not want to make any negative reports about DJI but this is really frustrating.

egra

I'm really sorry to hear of this negative experience. Could you please provide the ticket number from your correspondence with the Europe team?

Could you upload the data from your mobile device to HealthyDrones.com and post a link to that flight here.

In addition, could you please provide your DJI Account email, so that I could attempt to review the flight record for that day?

interesting to find the cause of the crash???

DJI-Jamie Posted at 2016-8-1 18:16
I'm really sorry to hear of this negative experience. Could you please provide the ticket number fro ...

Hi, I think the numer is 230137, but this conversation is all in german. The e-mail I can send you by PM but this is not working, maybe because I am new here!? If you can read the conversation with the german support you will see the attached .xlsx where my id is written.

egra

markaguille Posted at 2016-8-1 18:58
Could you upload the data from your mobile device to HealthyDrones.com and post a link to that fligh ...

http://healthydrones.com/main?share=oYnttj

egrab Posted at 2016-8-2 06:58
http://healthydrones.com/main?share=oYnttj

Thanks egrab, Could you post the link again with CSV and KML file download enabled please.

markaguille Posted at 2016-8-2 12:58
Thanks egrab, Could you post the link again with CSV and KML file download enabled please.

Yes, the link is now updated with the downloads.

I could be wrong, but looking at the Flight Specific Full Range Amp Map for that flight, it looks to me like the amps were in the above 20.2 category. When you gunned the throttle to 100% could it be that the battery voltage dropped off and the Inspire battery "protected" itself by shutting itself down?

egrab,

When was the last time that battery was calibrated? How many charges ago?

egrab Posted at 2016-8-2 13:37
Hi, I think the numer is 230137, but this conversation is all in german. The e-mail I can send you ...

Unfortunately, I'm not able to accept friend requests, which in turn means that I cannot receive PMs. I will get with the Europe Support team to better review your case.

SimonMW Posted at 2016-8-2 16:29
I could be wrong, but looking at the Flight Specific Full Range Amp Map for that flight, it looks to ...

I am thinking the same Simon. Taking off with less than 100% charge in the battery is how most of these incidents occur, coupled with big amp drain from full stick could be enough for the battery to shut down.

It has been discussed a lot on the forums about never taking off with less than 100% charge in your battery but I can't help thinking DJI should do more to make sure everybody knows this.

markaguille Posted at 2016-8-2 17:37
I am thinking the same Simon. Taking off with less than 100% charge in the battery is how most of  ...

Yes. The battery was at 92% on take off. Also, not only was the throttle at 100%, but the collective was at 100% too, so this could have caused quite a massive sudden drain. It looks as if this might have been the first couple of times the battery had been used. So I'm not sure where that would stand in terms of calibration?

SimonMW Posted at 2016-8-2 18:16
Yes. The battery was at 92% on take off. Also, not only was the throttle at 100%, but the collecti ...

Flying at 15m/s and only 8m altitude it would have hit the water before the props would have stopped spinning, giving the appearance that the motors were still running.
I believe the battery shut down mid flight.

SimonMW Posted at 2016-8-2 18:16
Yes. The battery was at 92% on take off. Also, not only was the throttle at 100%, but the collecti ...

Flying at 15m/s and only 8m altitude it would have hit the water before the props would have stopped spinning, giving the appearance that the motors were still running.
I believe the battery shut down mid flight.

I adore Dji ...but I think they should work more on the safety specially for the batteries and I'm not talking about manuals people needs videos   tutorials coz it's more straightforward and I'm talking about indeepth tutorials , I wish to see like ' what are the best practice to keep voltage more than 3 . Why they only say after 20 filght u have to calibrate ? For me I did it b4 that count coz I had a warning of a low voltage so I did a battery calibration and after that every thing went ok , by they the number of  flight with that battery was 7 flight not 20
So they have to make everything clear

nadim@aljazeera Posted at 2016-8-3 17:55
I adore Dji ...but I think they should work more on the safety specially for the batteries and I'm n ...

The app will tell you if the battery needs calibration but it is interesting to know when there is a battery issue like this, how many charges since the last cal.
In the advanced settings in the battery menu you can select "Show Voltage on Main Screen" if you want to monitor voltage (recommended).

The battery was a completely new TB48, used the first time just some days before this flight. I have (had) three batteries, so I don't remember exactly how many flights and charges I did with this battery. Only very few, but for sure way less than 20, maybe 5 (is this anywhere recorded in the go app? (of course without the possibility of connecting it to the Inspire because it's lost)).

I charged the battery before this flight until all lights showed constant green. I don't know why it was 92%, maybe because I did not immediately takeoff and did some video resolution settings etc. before takeoff. The app didn't tell me to do calibration. I did calibrate the other two batteries just some days before because for those the app showed me to do so.

The crash is already 6 weeks ago and still no solution from DJI. That's very disappointing! I need the I1 very urgent for planned filming.

egra Posted at 2016-8-4 07:56
The battery was a completely new TB48, used the first time just some days before this flight. I have ...

I seem to recall that Healthy Drones said the battery had been charged twice. Which of course is a very low amount. It is always a good idea to have the battery monitor open when flying so that you can see what is happening to each cell. That way, if there is an anomaly you can decide to land straight away.

Thank you all for the opinions and considerations!

Last week I got feedback from the Europe Support and today from my dealer, thank you for that! The Europe Support stopped the contact, because I contacted my dealer simultaneously - now I understand why I didn't get an answer again. My dealer told me today the same statement from DJI HQ, like I already got last week from the Europe Support about the analysis of my crash. Rough translation of the DJI statement:

"The flight was very low above the water, the Inspire lost slightly height and the pilot reacted too late, when the Inspire already touched the water and overturned. No covering of any costs."

Well, more or less yes, but in my opinion that's the result and not the reason for the crash. The reason is losing "slightly" 10 meters height. That never happened before. Therefore I think that's not normal and some kind of technical failure of some failed component of the copter. Also the indicated altitude of 8 meters when crashing is an argument for that version.

The second possible version is that DJI is right and it is normal that the Inspire looses slightly 10 meters without command. But in this case I really have to think, why I should pay again a lot of money for this kind of safety? Sorry for the negative mood in my words. My dealer told me he can not sell the Inspire single, that means I have to buy everything again, the RC, the charger, the suitcase, the props, ... I already got two RCs and all the other stuff.

I am really interested in the technical details, therefore my two questions from my first post 10 days ago are still not really answered:

- "why the I1 was flying for more than 5 minutes stable and suddenly drop from 10 meters to 0 meters without my command?" what is the reason for that? Was it the battery, the altimeter component or whatever. There has to be a reason for that! (again there was no wind, no birds, no signal errors, good GPS connection, no command to descend ...)

- Why was it showing 8 meters height in the moment of the crash?

(Only my third questions why DJI didn't answer is now explained.

egra

egra Posted at 2016-8-11 21:43
Thank you all for the opinions and considerations!

Last week I got feedback from the Europe Support ...

When dealing with surfaces like the water, it may have caused issues with the VPS. Did you have your VPS off or on at the time?

SimonMW Posted at 2016-8-2 23:29
I could be wrong, but looking at the Flight Specific Full Range Amp Map for that flight, it looks to ...

Looks like another case of a 200 dollar DJI smart battery sacrificing a 3000 dollar quad to save itself. It makes no sense what so ever. A battery should keep the motors turning no matter what till it dies, period.

VPS is not active until a height of less than 1m, right?
And of course the crash was by hitting the water but the root cause question is why it did change the height. Given the log data it should be easy to find out if the pilot steered it into the ground or not. I can think of other reasons like down drafts but all very unlikely.
And what is the minimum height when filming? Obviously more than 10 meters according to the statements being made?