Critical Failure, likely total loss

I had a major crash yesterday while just beginning a mapping mission using the Map Pilot app. The Phantom 3 pro ascended to 100' AGL per the flight plan, just started out for the start point and crashed (tumbled end over end) to the ground about 10' from the takeoff point. Props broke, gimble completely broke off and the main body is badly damaged. The battery was still on, though slightly dislodged and at 93%. I've been in contact with DJI and their response was that because I wasn't flying with the DJI GO app, the flight data wasn't recorded so they would be unable to assess if it was an equipment problem and cover the repair/replacement.

I have the log file downloaded from Healthy Drones (now AirData). It shows no loss of signal, errors or anything else abnormal, except that the drone switched from Waypoint to Atti mode just prior to beginning to lose altitude (23.9 seconds in), and then to GPS_Atti Mode shortly after that (24.5 seconds). The log file ended at 25.12 seconds showing an altitude of 12.139' above takeoff.

Anyone had anything similar happen? Is it true that the DJI flight data is only recorded when using the DJI GO app? Any idea what could have gone wrong? I'm very careful and conscientious, flying commercially with a Sect. 107 license doing environmental mapping.

Aaron Worthley June 15, 2017 20:08

Official comment

Sorry to hear about your incident. We haven't had any reports of anything like that happening. It sounds like maybe it threw a prop or something hardware failure related. Bird strike?

Once the flight is programmed and you hit start the aircraft firmware is what is actually doing the flying.

Is that 12 thousand feed above takeoff or 12 point 139 feet?

There are actually TONS of logs taken for DJI to be able to sort through. They are in the folder that you can access when you connect your device to iTunes. They may be able to sort through those since the DJI SDK itself has internal logs. They added that a few months ago.

Zane June 15, 2017 21:06

Please sign in to leave a comment.

4 comments

12 feet, not 12 thousand. I'll pull the files via iTunes and send those along to DJI, thanks for that info. I wasn't looking at the drone at the moment it failed, I had just looked down at the screen as it was just starting out for the start point, but I had been looking just a second before and never saw anything, bird or otherwise. Can these just throw a prop randomly? Anyway, I'll send it in and see what they say. Thanks for your great mapping tools, I am not deterred!

Aaron Worthley June 16, 2017 12:36 0 votes

When trying to download the "SDK_logs" folder from the Map Pilot app via Itunes, I get the following error: "SDK_logs" could not be copied because an error occurred. The required file cannot be found.

Any idea how to get at this? I was able to download everything else from Map Pilot and DJI GO without a problem.

Aaron Worthley June 16, 2017 13:19 0 votes

They don't usually throw a prop if they are installed properly and it would be unlikely that it would make it all the way up to the cruising altitude without failing first, but weirder things have happened. I personally watched a prop fly off an Inspire half way through a flight when they were using the screw on ones.

This really sounds like a hardware failure of some sort.

You might have to browse into that folder and download the files individually to get them out. The file structure is pretty complex.

Zane June 16, 2017 17:08 0 votes