I was finishing off a 20 minute flight, mostly over water and I tried landing in a tight space while the mavic was turned towards me. This was really stupid on my part given that there were plenty of open areas to land plus I'm very comfortable with hand landings. Anyway, the wind blew it back a bit and I panicked given that the controls were reversed and it crashed into a low railing. Luckily the only clear damage was on all four props. The drone ended up on it's side and the camera/gimbal never hit the ground.
I have plenty of spare props so I attached them the next day (today) and decided to fly it for a bit in my backyard before chancing that something was actually broken and I lose it over water or from a high crash. I lifted off okay, but after about 30 seconds of testing it lost control and crashed. Again, luckily it landed in some rose bushes and this time no damage at all. But I realized that the back-left prop had flew off. I couldn't find it but had another so attached it pretty carefully. I was pretty sure that I locked it in place this time and tried again. Again, the prop flew off and again I was lucky that there was no damage. So three crashes in a row!
This time I spent a lot of time checking out the drone, the spring on the back-left arm, anything I could find. I compared the mechanism to the other 3 ones and it seemed just fine. I put the prop back and tried to get it to come lose and it didn't. I flew it again with the camera cover on, this time very low for a while and then I hovered about 15 feet for 10 minutes, then started going back and forth, rotated a bunch and went straight up and down about 50 feet. I also made sudden stops left and right and forward and back. I had it in the air for total of 15 minutes or so and it seemed just fine. Thoughts? Do you think that I should be okay after 15 minutes of testing or should I think about sending it back? I'm planning on going to a mountain lake area (big bear) next week and really want to fly high and over the lake but now am very paranoid.
FYI, here is the video prior to the first crash.
Notice that the focus goes in and out quite a bit, especially when I rotate the drone. It was a very windy day. Do you think this could be the focus issue or might there be something wrong with the gimbal (this was prior to the crash).
* I realize that I'm just on the inside of the 5 mile ring from Torrance Airport, so no need to point that out. I tried to fly fairly low and was always within line of sight.
- LA
I have plenty of spare props so I attached them the next day (today) and decided to fly it for a bit in my backyard before chancing that something was actually broken and I lose it over water or from a high crash. I lifted off okay, but after about 30 seconds of testing it lost control and crashed. Again, luckily it landed in some rose bushes and this time no damage at all. But I realized that the back-left prop had flew off. I couldn't find it but had another so attached it pretty carefully. I was pretty sure that I locked it in place this time and tried again. Again, the prop flew off and again I was lucky that there was no damage. So three crashes in a row!
This time I spent a lot of time checking out the drone, the spring on the back-left arm, anything I could find. I compared the mechanism to the other 3 ones and it seemed just fine. I put the prop back and tried to get it to come lose and it didn't. I flew it again with the camera cover on, this time very low for a while and then I hovered about 15 feet for 10 minutes, then started going back and forth, rotated a bunch and went straight up and down about 50 feet. I also made sudden stops left and right and forward and back. I had it in the air for total of 15 minutes or so and it seemed just fine. Thoughts? Do you think that I should be okay after 15 minutes of testing or should I think about sending it back? I'm planning on going to a mountain lake area (big bear) next week and really want to fly high and over the lake but now am very paranoid.
FYI, here is the video prior to the first crash.
Notice that the focus goes in and out quite a bit, especially when I rotate the drone. It was a very windy day. Do you think this could be the focus issue or might there be something wrong with the gimbal (this was prior to the crash).
* I realize that I'm just on the inside of the 5 mile ring from Torrance Airport, so no need to point that out. I tried to fly fairly low and was always within line of sight.
- LA