Landed on a beach - Will sand cause long term problems? (Mavic mini)

[eddiebedi]

Hey all,
I took my drone out to the ocean in strong winds in a desperate attempt to capture footage of whales passing by. It was not a good idea as I should of known better and I am surprised it didn't flip to be honest. on my way back the winds prevented my drone from flying towards the home point.

going against the wind took a lot of battery so when it got to a worrying amount of charge left I directed the drone adjacent to the wind direction to counter this wind problem and reach the shore - which I managed to get at 15%.

I needed some charge left so I could find & did not want it to crash land so I landed about 800m away from the home point on sand (was either that, the ocean or in shrubbery that was difficult to access).

I recovered the drone with quite a bit of sand throughout so I cleaned it as best I could with an air duster can (without taking anything apart), and after a few test flights it seems A OK.

My issue is it's not possible to rid of 100% of the sand grains so I'm wondering if it could cause any potential damages in the future or if I should take it apart/get it professionally cleaned to be safe.

Cheers

 

[henrysunderland]

I land my Mavic Air 2 on sand all the time. Easy to blow off the sand after you pick up the drone. Give it a quick wipedown. No problem.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Yes sand in there is a potential hazard.
Try a vaccum cleaner and sucking the sand out, I always think there less chance of the resulting air movement driving contamination into a gap where it will, of course, lie until the worst possible circumstances free it to do its evil work. Also, arrange/orientate things so that gravity is assisting the removal.

 

[old man mavic]

one of those small vacuum cleaners ,that you get for cleaning computer keyboards, are a good idea, the sand particles could cause issues with the gimbal motors ,and you would get a message gimbal overload , and if all seems ok now, then just try to avoid such conditions in future

 

[passedpawn]

An occasional water landing will resolve your sand problem.

but seriously, while sand is awful on moving parts, but I doubt youll get any in motors unless you crash

 

[Deleted member 103366]

To Eddiebedi, let me put it this way.
When taking off and landing from 'dry' loose sand at the beach I hand launch and hand catch. The only time I have taken off from, or landed on, the actual sand that sand was wet/damp and compacted by recent wave action and the drone might have had landing extenders on, I have only done that once.
I wouldn't even put a Phantom 3 up off loose sand or land it on loose sand.
If I can avoid it I won't even put the case down on sand.

 

[aeropic]

I think the major concern would be salt corrosion. The motors are brushless, the only fragile parts wrt sand are the Ball bearings. If when rotating manually you don't hear grinding noise, it's ok !

 

[hiflyer201]

Live and learn. From most of the posts you should be ok. You did what you had to do.