Don't land (or crash) in the sand!

[hkRyan]

I think this goes without saying, but I thought I would share my accidental experience anyway. Day ONE of my holiday trip I went to the beach in front of my hotel to test out the intelligent modes. No people, not a tree in sight. One small bush in the middle of the beach. (I think you can see where this is going.) Was using the "follow me" function in profile mode so it was flying sideways. I had it flying on the water side of the beach where there was zero chance of hitting anything, but as my subject changed direction, so did the Mavic air and flew right into the only small obstacle on the beach. The collision was so minor that I barely thought about it, until I saw that it caused my Mavic to land in the sand next to the bush. Tried to blow the sand out of the motors with compressed air, no dice. Even disassembled the motors (very very very hard to do) but the sand already did it's dirty work.

Damage report from DJI... 4 new motors, arms, gimble, and fan. OUCH!

 

[hkRyan]

That being said, the repair only cost me $125 and DJI actually just gave me a new bird, so I am pretty pleased with their service. I do not have the DJI Refresh package.

 

[thongbong]

Wow thats a great deal for not having refresh! Seriously.

 

[thongbong]

How long it take from sending in to getting replaced?

 

[hkRyan]

How long it take from sending in to getting replaced?

Yeah, that was my thought too! I had considered getting the Refresh package, but decided against it when I read in another forum that the repairs were generally relatively inexpensive. I was really pleased to find out this was true. I live in Hong Kong, so the repair process here is really straight forward (but different from other countries, I believe). They evaluated the damage at the DJI Store and gave me a new one within an hour!

 

[DJI_dutch]

I think this goes without saying, but I thought I would share my accidental experience anyway. Day ONE of my holiday trip I went to the beach in front of my hotel to test out the intelligent modes. No people, not a tree in sight. One small bush in the middle of the beach. (I think you can see where this is going.) Was using the "follow me" function in profile mode so it was flying sideways. I had it flying on the water side of the beach where there was zero chance of hitting anything, but as my subject changed direction, so did the Mavic air and flew right into the only small obstacle on the beach. The collision was so minor that I barely thought about it, until I saw that it caused my Mavic to land in the sand next to the bush. Tried to blow the sand out of the motors with compressed air, no dice. Even disassembled the motors (very very very hard to do) but the sand already did it's dirty work.

Damage report from DJI... 4 new motors, arms, gimble, and fan. OUCH!

Maybe consider buying a take off platform from like AliExpress or amazon? It helped me out a lot while flying in sand. It won’t be expensive!

 

[hkRyan]

Maybe consider buying a take off platform from like AliExpress or amazon? It helped me out a lot while flying in sand. It won’t be expensive!

That's a great idea. Though, this accident was more a result of my carelessness. I hand launch and land when on the beach

 

[RayOZ]

Happened to me with my Mavic. I was at a black sand beach. And the sand is dark because it had metallic elements, which I found out later. Basically, it was attracted to the motors and gimbal. No way to ever clean. To make matters worse, a couple of passerby though they were doing the right thing by flipping my drone upright (I crashed and it flipped upside down). With the drone still on, and the cooling fans running, it sucked sand inside!
Send it to DJI under care refresh, they just replace the Mavic. I don’t think it’s new though. You can’t tell with the part number, but I pulled some flight logs, most had no gps coordinates, like it was only on for a few minutes. The few logs that had gps, coordinates points to somewhere in France, although the date and time stamps seems off, as in in 2012 and 2015.

 

[hkRyan]

Happened to me with my Mavic. I was at a black sand beach. And the sand is dark because it had metallic elements, which I found out later. Basically, it was attracted to the motors and gimbal. No way to ever clean. To make matters worse, a couple of passerby though they were doing the right thing by flipping my drone upright (I crashed and it flipped upside down). With the drone still on, and the cooling fans running, it sucked sand inside!
Send it to DJI under care refresh, they just replace the Mavic. I don’t think it’s new though. You can’t tell with the part number, but I pulled some flight logs, most had no gps coordinates, like it was only on for a few minutes. The few logs that had gps, coordinates points to somewhere in France, although the date and time stamps seems off, as in in 2012 and 2015.

That's crazy! That is pretty much the same thing that happened to me. My drone crash landed on a black sand beach in a small town in the Philippines. When I picked it up I saw that the dry sand was sticking to the outside of the motors and I figured the worst. I had to go two towns over to even find the right screwdriver to open the motors up when I realized that no amount of air was going to blow that sand out. We went through a can of compressed air, a can of electronic parts cleaner, and loads of putty before we could get the blades to spin freely again. I hadn't even realized the fan got it too until I sent it back to DJI. Oh, and for anyone looking to take those motors apart.... good luck! The bells are so darn tight it took three men 30 minutes to pry off each one. I wouldn't have put so much effort into it if it weren't my first day of a 10 day vacation. However, I did learn a lot about how to dismantle the motors... so if anyone needs advice (mostly its just "don't try"), let me know!

 

[JSKCKNIT]

Good info to know....Planning on going back to the Big Island of Hawaii and flying the black sands there....will keep this in mind.

 

[RayOZ]

Good info to know....Planning on going back to the Big Island of Hawaii and flying the black sands there....will keep this in mind.

Don’t fly too low either. I had trouble calibrating the compass a couple of times. I didn’t think it was the sand, I though I just didn’t do it right. Too close to the black sand could cause magnetic interference.

 

[Mike_in_Letcombe]

That being said, the repair only cost me $125 and DJI actually just gave me a new bird, so I am pretty pleased with their service. I do not have the DJI Refresh package.

Probably means some poor schmuck will end up with a 'new' Mavic Air with some sand in the motors. I'm waiting for my Lava Red one....please tell me that yours was not Lava Red!

 

[alanren]

Good to know, I will keep clear of beaches. As for the need to calibrate the compass. My first couple of flights with my Mavic Air where taken at an abandoned steel works. More than a decade ago the sight had been flattened and decontaminated ready for redevelopment leaving wide open spaces with no hazardous to fly into. Every time I landed a compass calibration was required. Re calibration would only work when the machine was taken up to a nearby road side. Despite the decontamination there was still enough iron in the top soil to upset the compass. So be wary of former industrial sights, they may look to be the perfect sight to fly, particularly for learners like my self, with their wide open spaces, but there can be hidden dangers.