I have been flying my phantom 3 pro for about a year with hundreds of flights. Have never had any issues, always pay attention to wind, surroundings etc and love how everything works.

This morning i took it out to get some photos of the ice storm we had over the weekend. Took off, did some test moves as always to make sure all controls are working and responding. Flew for about 4-5 minutes, then all a sudden it just started jerking around and jumping up and down and spinning, almost like someone grabbed it and started shaking it. I couldn't get any controls to respond, no errors or warning showed on the screen, and within about 15 seconds it started to loose altitude and crashed.

When i got to it, it was laying on the propellers, one broke in half, the entire housing is cracked around all the props and bent along with the battery was popped out but still on. I can find nothing as to what would have caused this. There was no breeze, no birds, nothing around, i had clear line of sight when it happened with a panic, luckily it came down in open grass, but came down very very hard.

Is there and way to investigate more on why this might of happened? it looks like the whole thing is trash.....

are you on healthy drones? if you use that site you can upload your flight data and post it here and the smart guys can help you out. Also phantom help is another site. Im not expert in this but others will likely chime in with the real facts. Sorry for your loss!

that healthy drones site is pretty neat. Here is the data from this morning

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

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-17 08:18
that healthy drones site is pretty neat. Here is the data from this morning

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

Not an expert here but it looks like your compass went "south" just before it crashed. Was operating normal before that.  Do you see it under SENSORS - COMPASS?

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-17 08:18
that healthy drones site is pretty neat. Here is the data from this morning

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

I'll be curious as to what other say, but it looks like you had some major compass issues going on. Don't know why, but hopefully somebody will offer up a answer. Sorry for your loss.

Palladous Posted at 2017-1-17 08:28
Not an expert here but it looks like your compass went "south" just before it crashed. Was operating normal before that.  Do you see it under SENSORS - COMPASS?

yes i saw that too. But everything happens so fast there is nothing to do about it. It was spinning so fast i am guessing the compass would definitely go out of whack

@ 5m 22s you switched to Atti mode.  @ 5m 22s you got a warning.  Why did you go to Atti mode?

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-17 08:33
yes i saw that too. But everything happens so fast there is nothing to do about it. It was spinning so fast i am guessing the compass would definitely go out of whack

You would be better off uploading the lfight record to Phantomhelp.com, it offers a much better analysis than Healthydrones.

A compass error will not make it crash to the ground. It will make it fly erratically and fly into something, but definitely not just drop to the ground. It seems more like a motor or ESC issue.

Sorry for your crash, gowildside.
You can fill in an online repair request form and apply for pick up here :https://repair.dji.com/en/SelfRepair/Area
Our engineers will help to analyze the data and let you know what could have caused the issue.

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-17 08:18
that healthy drones site is pretty neat. Here is the data from this morning

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

If you are going to use Healthy Drones, you need to make sure to check the share csv and kml options before creating the share link.  Otherwise the full telemetry data isn't available to review.  Using Phantom Help will provide this data without any further intervention.

Also, when and where was the last place that you did a compass calibration?

Based on the limited information available in Healthy Drones, it appears that your flight was without issue up until the last 15 seconds.  Even after this it appears it was still reporting its location and updating altitude and other telemetry correctly.  I assume you found the wreckage at the end of the line as indicated on the map?  It is likely it clipped overhead lines at this location on the way down.

The last 15 seconds shows it rise from 60' up to 120' then drop down towards the ground.  The disturbing data is the rate of rotation -- anything faster than 25° per 0.1 seconds is considered "out of control" of the aircraft and due to a strike, strong winds etc.  This probably averaged around 50°/0.1s, and peaked at 115°!  I can't see any physical obstruction on Google maps (although they are a few years old) that you may have clipped at the start, but there are wires precisely at the end of your flight.  We would be speculating about the cause here, but it could be due to a birdstrike, or a loss of prop or a blade breaking off etc.  Were all props still attached when the aircraft was recovered?  How many blades were broken/missing?  Any evidence of feathers/blood or any foreign items on the body?

Some of the data collected in the flight telemetry can be examined to determine if the aircraft lost a prop in flight.  Unfortunately these parameters aren't shared by sites like Phantom Help or Healthy Drones.  DJI do collect this data and can determine if this is the case, if they look hard enough for you.  You will need to sync your flight record for this flight with DJI and ask them to determine if it lost a prop at 315 seconds into the flight.

acenothing Posted at 2017-1-17 14:46
@ 5m 22s you switched to Atti mode.  @ 5m 22s you got a warning.  Why did you go to Atti mode?

It is highly likely that while it was spinning, it was also tumbling.  If it goes "upside down" the GPS antenna will lose lock with the sky and the aircraft will switch to ATTI.  This can be confirmed by reviewing the flight data when it is made available.

acenothing Posted at 2017-1-17 14:46
@ 5m 22s you switched to Atti mode.  @ 5m 22s you got a warning.  Why did you go to Atti mode?

I didnt switch to atti mode.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2017-1-17 23:37
Sorry for your crash, gowildside.
You can fill in an online repair request form and apply for pick up here :https://repair.dji.com/en/SelfRepair/Area
Our engineers will help to analyze the data and let you know what could have caused the issue.

Ill look into this when i get a chance. Ordered a new shell today.

endotherm Posted at 2017-1-18 00:13
Based on the limited information available in Healthy Drones, it appears that your flight was without issue up until the last 15 seconds.  Even after this it appears it was still reporting its location and updating altitude and other telemetry correctly.  I assume you found the wreckage at the end of the line as indicated on the map?  It is likely it clipped overhead lines at this location on the way down.
[view_image]
The last 15 seconds shows it rise from 60' up to 120' then drop down towards the ground.  The disturbing data is the rate of rotation -- anything faster than 25° per 0.1 seconds is considered "out of control" of the aircraft and due to a strike, strong winds etc.  This probably averaged around 50°/0.1s, and peaked at 115°!  I can't see any physical obstruction on Google maps (although they are a few years old) that you may have clipped at the start, but there are wires precisely at the end of your flight.  We would be speculating about the cause here, but it could be due to a birdstrike, or a loss of prop or a blade breaking off etc.  Were all props still attached when the aircraft was recovered?  How many blades were broken/missing?  Any evidence of feathers/blood or any foreign items on the body?

It rose in elevatuon because i was trying to go up to avoid it crashing. It did not hit anything on the way down. Highest anything is about 40 feet up in the area. I am very familiar with the area and surroundings. Filmed this building multiple times. There was maybe 5mph wind, no birds, i had direct line ot sight the whole time as usual.

One prop was broke in half and i couldnt find it. This is actually what i am suspecting that the prop somehow broke mid flight. I would assume it reacts the same way a helicopter would losing the tail ritter. Maybe not.

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-18 17:53
It rose in elevatuon because i was trying to go up to avoid it crashing. It did not hit anything on the way down. Highest anything is about 40 feet up in the area. I am very familiar with the area and surroundings. Filmed this building multiple times. There was maybe 5mph wind, no birds, i had direct line ot sight the whole time as usual.

One prop was broke in half and i couldnt find it. This is actually what i am suspecting that the prop somehow broke mid flight. I would assume it reacts the same way a helicopter would losing the tail ritter. Maybe not.

The only way you will find out if the prop broke in half is to have DJI analyze the flight data and confirm it.  As to why it happened is going to be nothing more than guesses and speculation.

I doubt it would react the same as a helicopter losing its tail rotor.  The main rotor would provide a great deal of momentum and the tail rotor is positioned vertically to provide horizontal stability only.  It would "flat spin" in the horizontal x,y plane.  If you are fortunate you would crash upright and it is perhaps survivable.

In a quad, losing a single prop, which also contributes to lift, creates a more complex pattern.  It will tumble and spin in x,y,z planes, with the motors speeding up and slowing down in an attempt to maintain level flight.  The broken prop will act like an eccentrically weighted "rumble motor" like those found in a Playstation controller or a cellular phone for "vibrate".  It would be impossible to control.

Mine flipped over completely and tried to drill back to China.

Just an update. My phantom is headed to dji for investigation and hopefully repair.

"When i got to it, it was laying on the propellers, one broke in half,"

                      If that prop failed in flight that's what follows, just
sometimes the answer is simple. I want to believe that may be what caused
the crash because it had been flying so well in the past.

         Hope your back in the sky soon!

Got my phantom back today, unfortunately can't test it out again since it has been raining all day.

However, does anyone know where i can get the little plastic pins that hold the cushions in on the camera? it only has two of them in it now for some reason they didn't put all 4 in, the dji store shows the white dampers but no pins.

I looked on amazon, but seems most selling them have pretty negative reviews here and there and then one of them has like a 4 week ship time....

gowildside Posted at 2017-1-17 08:18
that healthy drones site is pretty neat. Here is the data from this morning

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

Note that you are quite close to a power or communications line and just 33 feet up when you got compass interference. The EMFs given off could easily have caused the compass error.

gowildside Posted at 2017-2-6 15:17
Got my phantom back today, unfortunately can't test it out again since it has been raining all day.

However, does anyone know where i can get the little plastic pins that hold the cushions in on the camera? it only has two of them in it now for some reason they didn't put all 4 in, the dji store shows the white dampers but no pins.

The anti-drop pins you are talking about are only fitted to two diagonally opposite corners of the gimbal, you should not have four fitted.

RSW Posted at 2017-2-6 16:43
Note that you are quite close to a power or communications line and just 33 feet up when you got compass interference. The EMFs given off could easily have caused the compass error.

No they would not. It requires something far stronger than the field around a straight wire.

Maybe it is the weather, anything can crash because of weather. For example, planes, helicopters. Mine prop once got so cold that it fell out of the sky on my old drone.

Geebax Posted at 2017-2-6 16:48
The anti-drop pins you are talking about are only fitted to two diagonally opposite corners of the gimbal, you should not have four fitted.

When i bought it. Brand new out of the box, all 4 corners were pinned.

gowildside Posted at 2017-2-6 17:55
When i bought it. Brand new out of the box, all 4 corners were pinned.

Well, they should not have been, only two need to be fitted, otherwise you will experience shaking of the camera in flight. It is not very well explained, but see page 33 of the on-line manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... 1.8_en_20160719.pdf

Geebax Posted at 2017-2-6 16:48
The anti-drop pins you are talking about are only fitted to two diagonally opposite corners of the gimbal, you should not have four fitted.

Yup only two are fitted.   I lost the rubbers in flight on my others so I put a tie in so they don't get lost if they come loose.  

Thanks for all the info and help everyone.  I got it in the air briefly but was a little to windy to really test it out. Although a little gun shy right now. Still don't know the true cause but dji fixed it under warranty. The parts shown that were replaced indicates what it might of been a main board malfunction, but really don't know.

Geebax Posted at 2017-2-6 16:49
No they would not. It requires something far stronger than the field around a straight wire.

It's more likely that the aircraft hit the line and dropped 30ft to the ground before it registered a compass error.