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Crash Vids on YouTube

spsphotos

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Been watching some of the drone fail (crash) vids on YouTube. Some make me cringe, some laugh, some go WTF were they thinking....lol. Find few common reasons:

1) Too fast (sport mode) and pilot panics or is not paying attention and doesn't realize obstacle avoidance is not on. LOL.
2) Flying backward into trees, etc
3) Misjudging distance to objects
4) Trying maneuvers that the pilot simply doesn't have the skill for (yet).
5) Wind
6) Stupidity
7) Drone failure
8) Birds
9) Wires.

Many of the crashes, especially into trees are totally avoidable by just paying attention and not trying to get fancy. Backup crashes are just because you don't look before you leap. The handful where it was actually lost of connection or other drone failure is understandable. Hell, saw one where a bird took it out. Just could not understand how someone goes 50 yards and just runs straight into a tree. I crashed twice. First was a real newbie (first real flight) mistake of not looking up before I took off. The other was trying to be fancy and fly around the house at 3 feet and overcompensated. That was the mini 2 on Cini, it was a lot more responsive than I anticipated. But still, some of the things I'm seeing are like WTF?

So, what's your worst crash?
 
10) Assuming obstacle avoidance is foolproof and will always bail them out.

Most of them (really everything other than #7 and #8) are just minor variations on #6.

My worst crash was failing to realize (early in my drone ownership) that low-battery RTH would kick in and rise straight into the branches of a tree. I had a false sense of security flying low and staying very close and so knowing I could land very quickly and easily, within seconds, when the battery was nearly depleted. Forgot the automated system would ruin that plan.
 
Watched quite a few crash vids, there dose seem to be a lot of common mistakes, plus work mate brought his MM into work when he first got it.......Hit a Bin in works yard in sports mode (New Props) next visit, took it into workshop.......Sports mode again, Hit one of the main Doors (New Props Again)

Then he tryed his MP in his front Room after picking it up.........(New Props Yet Again)

Strange but when watching the first 2 crashes, I could see what was going to happen :( as had watched the same thing happen on a lot of the vids.
 
11) power on the drone under magnetic interference caused by rebars buried in concrete. The drone went crazy and accelerated by itself until it hit my balcony. Not quite stupidity (6) but surely ignorance

 
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No crashes yet in two years. (Knocks on wood).

Most crashes I have read about are due to flying beyond pilots skill or knowledge.(Kinda fits into #6) A small percentage due to hardware faults.
 
x+) failure to understand what the drone will do in a given set of circumstances.

It's a coverall reason but I think relevant. e.g signal loss option set to say hover or land, what happens if the drone rejects the landing site and eventually runs into the low battery zone? How will the drone react if it has obstacle avoidance and an RTH is initiated?
 
My worse crash was using the Litchi app and not paying attention at the take-off point. Crashed I2 as it flew up and into a tree branch.
 
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11) power on the drone under magnetic interference caused by rebars buried in concrete. The drone went crazy and accelerated by itself until it hit my balcony. Not quite stupidity (6) but surely ignorance



This looks like a lost GPS signal due to tall buildings when GPS position jumps and the drone is trying to compensate, because he "thinks" is 50m to the left.
 
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I have difficulty judging distance.

My worst crash was day after Christmas when I had just gotten my P3A. Took it down my driveway to the street then went up. I didn't go as far as I thought and went up into the utility wires.

Another time tried out APAS with my M2Z. As it avoided the roof of a park bathroom, it hit power wires going to the building. Battery popped out, some broken props and body cosmetic scrapes but otherwise OK despite hitting concrete from about 10 feet.

I did learn to use distant horizon to check altitude over trees and such. If an obstacle in the view is below horizon, I'll clear it going over.
 
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Most of my crashes have been from either flying backwards and not paying attention or not stopping fast enough or malfunction.
 
So, what's your worst crash?

I got a little careless two weeks ago and suffered my first ever crash. I was flying low and slow in Tripod mode, but misjudged the distance to a stone pillar as I panned sideways. I actually witnessed the crash as I turned around precisely at that moment to check how close I was to the building behind me. The momentum of the drone took it into a pillar sideways even with no further stick input. Thankfully this means it wasn't a particularly forceful crash, but the props caught the pillar, the drone got knocked sideways, before hitting the pillar again as it tried to position itself upright (this is the sort of crash that sideways sensors would prevent).

As the props lost their battle against the stone pillar, the drone dropped to the ground from around 2 meters up, apparently impacting on the rear legs, with the right leg being bent out of place by the force of impact. Incredibly, the drone bounced up again and regained altitude to 2-3 meters, holding stable position despite a misaligned leg. At this point, I obviously manually landed it asap and assessed the damage, which ultimately cost me 650 RMB (just under $100) to fix.

I think I got a little over-confident recently and pushed it too far flying low. Even though I was on Tripod mode, it's still very hard to shoot safely if you go below the height of nearby obstacles. I thought I was being careful, but still misjudged.
 
My worst crash.
Combination of not thinking to turn RTH off under trees, and #7 equipment failure, the remote disconnected while I was about 3 feet away.
 
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