Strange Scraping Propeller noise while in flight.

[NATE620]

Quick Hello to everyone

Looking forward to being a member of the forum.

Just thought i would post this in case anyone else is experiencing the same problem but not managed to figure out whats actually happening.

I have a new Mavic pro drone purchased it in December and did about 40 flights without any issues.

Decided to take it for a few flights on the weekend weather was good and had no problem in the beginning

Was doing some flying and decided to do high speed shot full throttle in reverse while ascending.

About 20 meters out i heard a weird scraping/rubbing noise coming from the drone, at first i thought nothing of but a few minutes later i heard the same noise.

I decided to bring the mavic back and land it to inspect it and hopefully see what the problem was.

On first inspection i couldn't see anything wrong with it but decided that i would not fly it further and inspect it at home under some good lighting etc.

On inspecting at home i realized the problem, the front left side impellor managed to impact and scrape the Mavic body just above the front facing sensor its a tiny dent/Scrape but its there.

This is a accident free new Alpine White Mavic and i can see nothing wrong with the drone itself including the Impellor arm (Zero Play) and the Impellor motor itself.

The only thing i can think of is that at around 20 meter altitude that there was a lot of turbulent air which caused the impeller to flex enough for it to contact the Mavic Body if this is the case its worrying

Anyone else had this kind of problem or have any input

I have logged it with Dji support and i am waiting for a reply.

 

[4wd]

Usually something is not quite right with the arm pivot point if this happens.
The new style props, being more flexible, are slightly more likely to do it but it still shouldn't happen.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Was this in Sport mode?

 

[NATE620]

Thanks for the reply 4wd.

I gave the drone a good look over and checked if there was any play in the leg and couldn't see any i swapped out the Prop also just to be safe hopefully it was just bad luck ie the perfect storm type situation and it will not happen again.

Will wait for DJI to respond and see what they say also before i fly .

 

[NATE620]

Yes i was in Sport mode.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Yes i was in Sport mode.

I asked because another forum member had a very similar issue while in Sport mode

 

[NATE620]

Thanks Anthony for reply

I have done similar manoeuvre before with no problem i can only think it was due to turbulence.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Thanks Anthony for reply

I have done similar manoeuvre before with no problem i can only think it was due to turbulence.

I think this is the thread:

Prop Strike in Sport Mode

 

[NATE620]

just got home and had another look at the leg and there is a tiny amount of play .

Do i need to take it back to the supplier or can i just get the leg tightened at say We Fix etc locally?

attached pic of damage from the prop .

 

[Dragonfly]

If you are using the new quiet props then this is going to happen at high speed either in ascent or decent as the quiet props are slightly longer than standard and much more flexible and is now a known problem with them.

If you are going to fly in sports mode often and perform manoeuvres that involve ascending/descending or hard banking then I strongly suggest you swap out the quiet props for standard.

Or you risk looseing your Mavic due to prop breakage.

 

[NATE620]

Hi Dragonfly

I am using the props that came with my drone they are standard Mavic props.

 

[NATE620]

still no reply from DJI support

 

[NATE620]

Still no reply from DJI support , sent them a email also.

What kind of reply times can i expect

 

[NATE620]

I have given up on DJI support after logging the problem twice and sending a separate email.

Are they always this bad at providing support for there customers?

 

[msinger]

Did you try their live chat or try calling them on the phone?

 

[NATE620]

How useless are dji ?

In a nutshell seriously useless.

Seems there is zero backup for there products in South Africa and any warranty related problems can only be rectified by sending the drone back to China.

Sent a email to there online support and got a reply saying someone would contact me .

That was on the 22nd January .

Still waiting on a contact from DJI.

To say i am unimpressed would be a understatement.

I then contacted dji via online chat.

Spoke to one of there online support guys and he said its a hardware issue with the drone and i should get it replaced, (local company says they will not replace and they must send the drone back to DJI) i then asked for a reference number of the chat and was told i must email DJI support to get a ref/case number, we know how well that's going !

So what now ?