I caught this from my Phantom 3 while another person was flying theirs...he was lucky

Thanks for watching!

Prop guards when flying in close to obstructions like tree limbs, animals or people. No prop guards when flying in open areas where there is little danger of the prop hitting anything. I have the snap on/off guards so it makes it an easy task.

MerlinL14 Posted at 2016-12-29 12:22
Prop guards when flying in close to obstructions like tree limbs, animals or people. No prop guards when flying in open areas where there is little danger of the prop hitting anything. I have the snap on/off guards so it makes it an easy task.

He was also moving very slowly in that video. I personally don't think a prop guard will help when there's some speed behind it. Yes, obstruction may not hit prop but if there's speed may just bend the guards. I bought them, but never use them.

I had originally ordered some with my Phantom 3 Pro, but thankfully there were only permanent guards available, and I cancelled my order for prop guards.
If snap-on rotor guards had been available, I may have had them today, but to install & remove them screw on variety, before and after every flight, making drone transport simple, would have been a hassle, & too much bother for me.
Thankfully, we have lots of open areas without hindrance from trees, shrubs, or any other large over grown plants... ;-)


RedHotPoker

Adam Flurk Posted at 2016-12-29 13:23
He was also moving very slowly in that video. I personally don't think a prop guard will help when there's some speed behind it. Yes, obstruction may not hit prop but if there's speed may just bend the guards. I bought them, but never use them.

I agree, any speed and the guards will be non effective. However when flying in close to these obstacles you normally tend to be flying slow and methodical, sometimes concentrating on the video image rather than what the "spinney things of death" are close to! They are a user option and a personal preference, so everyone to their own.

Get caught in the wind with them on, and you will be in for an exciting ride. ;-)

But it was a preference, I chose to avoid.


RedHotPoker

Prop guards are really useful.
Really useful for:
Catching the wind like sails and causing "flyaways"
Eating speed and battery life
Getting in your video
Giving a false sense of safety

If you think propguards are the answer, flying away from obstructions is a better one.

Labroides Posted at 2016-12-29 14:19
Prop guards are really useful.
Really useful for:
Catching the wind like sails and causing "flyaways"

Sometimes the hard earned lessons are the best ones learned, and easiest to remember.

Crashing or losing your new DJI Phantom drone, basically from using then silly looking, overrated prop guards is priceless... Haha

Practice flying away from any obstacles is still the best OA available. ;-)

RedHotPoker

Labroides Posted at 2016-12-29 14:19
Prop guards are really useful.
Really useful for:
Catching the wind like sails and causing "flyaways"

I got a nice little chuckle out of this one.... Thanks!

Ive always used clip on guards.
Yes they can get in view, Yes they must take more battery life.As mine are red&green,they help me with flight orientation
You never know when they might be needed. A freind of mine clipped a bush coming into land without guards on. After it hand crashed and was lying upside down, he inspected the damage. 3x props(changed all 4), scratches to the body and green marks due to the bush he hit. If guards were fitted that day, he might still have crashed, but i dont think the damage would have been the same.
But i did laugh, {:4_181:}as he takes the P*ss out of me for using guards...

Prop Guards are nice for the added security but I did find that if you are flying in a little bit of wind and trying to take a picture they get in the way. I have to adjust the camera down a little bit or go backwards and take the picture.

I'm curious as to the impact of the prop guards on the chassis.  I've had to replace a chassis due to hairline cracks in 2 of the arms at the motor mount screws, this was discovered before I installed clip on guards.  The added leverage of the prop guard will increase the forces to the mounting point which seems to be a vulnerability already.  But the flip side of that is, it does add a crush zone and a small amount of accident forgiveness in a certain cases.  But like Captain obvious says, the best way to avoid cracks is to not wreck the drone.

Prop guards or not....i will still try not to crash imto anything. If prop guards were the saving grace to reckless flying everyone would have them installed.

I have snap on/off prop guards but use them seldomly because I don't fly close to objects or indoors often.
Once I flew indoors and the mode switched from P-OPTI to P-GPS automatically. Because of a bad GPS interpretation my P3P started repositioning into a wall abruptly. Thanks to the prop guards the props continued rotating and I was able to counteract instead of watching the drone crashing to the floor. (Motor obstructed ("Enrique") protection logic)
This incident made clear for me that the prop guards' main functionality is to keep the props turning instead of just protecting their integrity...

I'm curious as to the impact of the prop guards on the chassis.

Stress cracks have nothing to do with prop guards.
If anything , the type that has a piece that screws on under the motors, re enforces that area.
Prop guards are Marmite tho..

I'd agree, it's a good thing he chose to have prop guards on that day.