Mavic pro reliability

[jason38]

Hi guys,
The other day, I nearly crashed my mavic pro in water , but it didn't maybe cause of a miracle...or simply because dji drones are so much reliable...

I was shooting a little river (mostly to drain batteries) with trees around, it was nice...
While I made my drone come back manually and slowly through little branches above water, a little wind gust blown over my drone and made it drift a few cm and hit a branch with its rear arm...
I slowly made it go to the other way, but it seemed to be strucked up by this branch!!
Sudently it goes away from the branch, and drifted hard on a side and down, near water, but I manged to stabilize it...but it hit another branch, and the same scenario started again...
This time I stabilized it 10cm above water... :/

I made it come back , but it was shacking a little bit.
After landing, I saw the two right props were nearly completely destroyed!!!

I already sweated a lot when it was stuck in the branches, but I had a retrospective scare of what could have happened if sensors inside the drone had failed or made a bad anticipation of the drone movements...

I'm very impressed by the drone's reaction during what happened.. It stays very very stable (a few shackings ) wherease two props on the same side were destroyed, and the fact that it stabilize itself and stops drifting very quickly just frankly amazed me!!

The props are from master airscrews , and impressed me as well, by their relative solidity , and their very low noise too...

 

[beanbubba]

Great news! They are tough little birds for sure.

 

[Starz]

Based on the picture, looks more like you tangled with a log!
You are what I call an “FF”. (fortunate flyer)

 

[jason38]

Based on the picture, looks more like you tangled with a log!
You are what I call an “FF”. (fortunate flyer)

Yes, I know I was so lucky at this time !! Make me wonder what my wife was doing during this flight.... [emoji19][emoji23]

 

[Palliz]

I use MA props these days (same color too) - just wondering if you'd have been so lucky had you been using DJI OEM props? Happy you managed to recover & get your baby home.

 

[appleair]

I've encountered small oak tree branches twice because of wind gusts, and the DJI props had nowhere near the damage shown here. Maybe it's the details of the encounter, but those sure seem like hard plastic!

 

[old man mavic]

check the motors for damage when you take off the props make sure that the little lugs under the hubs are all intact they can break and fall into the motor causing it to jam spin the 4 motors and make sure they all feel the same

 

[Rnl]

I don’t think dji. Blades would’ve got you home,a lot more brittle.

 

[charliesRig]

wow Nice recovery It sure looks like they took a Beating
good job on the recovery
(from there web site)
Master airscrew Propeller are Glass Fiber R Composite Material
.
Master Airscrew Propellers | Extreme Performance and Efficiency
.

 

[Rnl]

I've been using them for awhile now, and love them.

 

[McHero]

I did some slight tree trimming after backing into a tree! Pulled forward when I herd leaves spreading! Avoided crach and props slightly scratched.

 

[Steady Eddie]

Wow, it's amazing that the drone could still fly with maybe 50% of the lift generating area gone one side. Those two motors must have been working really hard to get you home. Nice story!

 

[jason38]

I already hit a chair one day trying to fly indoor, with OEM DJI props...
One prop were destroyed like MA props, but way closest from the axle, and the other one were brocken as well, but it poped out off the release... Hopefully my mavic was 20cm above ground, but if it happened last time over water, the drone would crashed , no doubt!
I think MA props are more robust, as they seem more "foldable" so they dont break like glass when they hit something...

I use MA props these days (same color too) - just wondering if you'd have been so lucky had you been using DJI OEM props? Happy you managed to recover & get your baby home.

 

[jason38]

I did, everything looks great..
I tried a little check flight yesturday and everything were fine!

check the motors for damage when you take off the props make sure that the little lugs under the hubs are all intact they can break and fall into the motor causing it to jam spin the 4 motors and make sure they all feel the same

 

[jason38]

Yep, it's exactly what I was thinking when throttle stoped!! How the drone can fly in these conditions !?
I tried to take off again, over a mattress , it took off, and I was still able to go both sides , backward, forward, like it was brand new!! (Exept some vibrations and position holding/altitude variations), but right motors were not so hot compared to the other side...

Wow, it's amazing that the drone could still fly with maybe 50% of the lift generating area gone one side. Those two motors must have been working really hard to get you home. Nice story!

 

[jason38]

Just wanted to update this thread after a scarying discover..

Last day, I came back from a hike where I flown my drone, and I let it on the table while I was transfering videos on my PC...
My wife came and just told me as she was walking beside my drone:
"Wow, you didn't tell me that your drone were "sanded" by the branch, when you almost crashed it..."
I told her that my drone was like new with its new propellers,, as I never crashed it and always take care of it...
But I came to get a closer eye on it , and a retrospective fear come on me...

I didn't notice that at all, but the whole end of the right front arm was scratched, burned, like if someone just sanded it with hard pumice paper...

Hopefully, I read a thread few days ago , talking about some strange mavic crashes, while flying on Sport Mode... It apears that , with speed and porps rotation, front arms can fold themselves backward, and then hit the back props, and then crashe occurs...

So I known what happened...:
My mavic hit that branch, and it folded back the front arm , which hit the rear prop... But I REALLY get F..ING LUCKY , because the arm came back on its right forward position... I don't know why, because it's at the EXACT point where the arm can fold himself (you know, you need to apply an effort to fold the arm back, but in the midle, you don't need to apply effort, because the arm can fold itself along the drone)

It seems that the arm may have been mid-folded for " a while" , because both the arm and the prop loks like it has been burned with a lighter...

How a drone can recover flight conditions after that? It was my lucky day for sure!!
After that I know that I can be confident about my mavic, it's a reliable and wonderful machine, but I also know that I reach more than limits of the mavic, and that I'll probably never be as lucky as I did that day...