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Interesting flight - Has anybody used these props?

Donnie Frank

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Hey doods!

Interesting flight the other day that just confirms my paradigm that one should always test flight one's drone before going out on a shoot.

The client is a real-estate client that was one of my first clients ever. I generally don't shoot real-estate any more, but because the Mavic Pro is so diminutive and easy to deploy, and because Joe was one of my first clients, I grandfather him in so-to-speak. That said...

My normally rock-solid Mavic was giving some problems. To my discredit, I hadn't flown it for a month (been doing mostly mapping with the P4P), and didn't do test flights before meeting Joe. Overall, the Mavic flew well, but for some reason all of the Object Avoidance crap got turned back on. This wasn't due to an update because I don't allow the Mavic or the Go 4 app to update. Odd that all that crap was turned on. For the most part, she flew normally. But when I went to land her, the last 3' she dropped very quickly. I accelerated in time that when she struck the ground, no damage was done, but you know how that looks to a client. It was then that I noticed the "RADAR" graphics on the screen, which made me go into the Sensor menu and turn all that crap off. Unfortunately, what I did not notice post "crash" was that one of the rear props had struck the asphalt and promptly ejected roughly 1/2" of propeller tip. As you can imagine, this put the drone out of balance, which cause the gimbal to behave a bit erratically. Not so much as to cancel the shoot, but just enough to be an annoyance and raise concern. A better inspection netted the broken prop. Upon even closer inspection, I noticed that all the props had some form of minor ding in them, so I just changed them all.

Prop trepidation...

Sans some really bad P4P experience, my entire drone career I have used aftermarket props with no issue. I find that I can not only save money, but in some instances the cheaper props have actually proven to be better than the OEM props. This was for my Phantom 1. Fast forward a few years to my Phantom 4 Pro, and I had TWO catastrophic mid-flight prop failures that caused the drone to fall to its death. So NOW I have some trepidation regarding aftermarket props.

Previous to the P4P crashes, I had purchased 3 spare sets of aftermarket props for my Mavic Pro via 2 eBay venders.

2.JPG


Well, I had used one of the aftermarket props a few months ago, and it's been working just great without issue. So I've decided to use those first. Because I'm changing out all 4 props today, this leaves me short one prop from the tested set. I now have 2 sets of aftermarket props from a different vendor that I do not wish to toss in the garbage if I don't have to. The logic being that just because one company made crappy P4P props, that shouldn't sour me on the remaining aftermarket, who have manufactured as good or better props.

A physical inspection of the "2nd vendor" aftermarket prop reveals excellent form and fit. They fit nice and snuggly and the rivets seem of equal quality. That said...

Before flying on these new props, I thought I would consult the constituency to see if any of you guys have used these props. Here are some photos of the props and the packaging. The white tip prop is the field tested prop that worked great, and the gold tip is untested.

In the package:
IMG_9409.JPG


Comparison:
IMG_9410.JPG


BIG FAT NOTE - BIG FAT NOTE - BIG FAT NOTE - BIG FAT NOTE - BIG FAT NOTE - BIG FAT NOTE:

What I'm looking for here is actual experience with these specific props, not general opinions of aftermarket props. Please table your general opinion. I would appreciate it. If you have actual experience with these props, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanx in advance,

Donnie
 
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