Propellers: How damaged is too damaged?

[RogerDH]

Don't take what I'm about to say a condescending, but this is the rule I follow. If you cannot afford to keep up with the maintenance of your hobby, vehicle, home...etc, then maybe you are over your head. 10-20 dollar set of props is a breaking point! you really have to think what happens if you need another battery or something that will cost you hundreds to replace or repair?

Well, I would take that as condescending because you missed his point: He didn't say he couldn't afford new props; he said he didn't want to buy them if it wasn't necessary.

 

[Riverbravo]

See Picture, it is when threads stop and shoulder touches the housing, yes on the props, but make sure your putting the right ones on right motors...IF you have taken all props off and get lost, simply arm it with props off and denote rotation, then put one prop on with leading edge correct...from there it is easy as other side is opposite as is prop to the rear or front of one installed.

In short "X" pattern once you have established one.

Thank you that answered my questions. Based on what you are saying I think my plan will be going one prop at a time.

 

[Recoveryone]

Well, I would take that as condescending because you missed his point: He didn't say he couldn't afford new props; he said he didn't want to buy them if it wasn't necessary.

Money is tight these days and if possible I would like to get the maximum use of these propellers.

 

[old man mavic]

@Riverbravo the screw has a small threaded part then a smooth shaft that fits into the prop hub, so once the shoulder of the smooth part reaches the top of the motor, it also has the benefit of the friction between the two surfaces to help prevent it coming undone
because of the small size of the thread the supplied driver is all thats required to tighten it down correctly, if you use a driver with more grip it could be possible to cause the screw to be overtightened and then be very difficult to remove or even strip the thread of the alloy motor cover once the prop is installed it should be able to move freely and and not be trapped by the screw, be careful when you purchase new props as the Mavic mini one props are different to the Mini2 ones both in the hub design and screw size so they are not interchangeable even the threads are different

 

[GizmoBowler]

I had an incident where a tree swatted my mini out of the sky. I was hovering under a branch and a gust of wind blew it down into me ?

A quick check showed no damage but after that I noticed that the mini would drift backwards on takeoff.

A closer look revealed the nicks. A quick 4 motor prop change, and all is good again!

 

[Whoflungdung]

I have had my drone about 8 months. I am new to the Hobby and early on I was having too much fun with sport mode and crashed into Grandma's house slightly. At the time I thought the Drone was completely fine and have continued to fly it with no issue. Fast forward to now I have been exploring other propeller options. My researche has lead me to many horror stories about flying with damaged propellers Etc.I decided to examine my propellers closely. I noticed that several of them have a slight burr at the edge of the tips. Just enough enough to catch your finger nail if you run it against the underside. There is absolutely no damage to the leading or trailing edges of the blades. There are also no chips, cracks, bends, or signs of warping. The Drone runs exactly how it did when it was out of the box and has had many hours of flight since the crash. Am I in the clear or could something happen suddenly? Money is tight these days and if possible I would like to get the maximum use of these propellers. After all the horror stories OEM is all I will be putting on this drone. They are significantly more pricey and I don't want to spend the money until I absolutely have to. Thank you for any and all help.

Mention to Grandma her house damaged your drone and could she shout you a set of props for your upcoming birthday. On my original props and will be checking mine. My policy is up and out away from everything.

 

[cgmaxed]

I have had my drone about 8 months. I am new to the Hobby and early on I was having too much fun with sport mode and crashed into Grandma's house slightly. At the time I thought the Drone was completely fine and have continued to fly it with no issue. Fast forward to now I have been exploring other propeller options. My researche has lead me to many horror stories about flying with damaged propellers Etc.I decided to examine my propellers closely. I noticed that several of them have a slight burr at the edge of the tips. Just enough enough to catch your finger nail if you run it against the underside. There is absolutely no damage to the leading or trailing edges of the blades. There are also no chips, cracks, bends, or signs of warping. The Drone runs exactly how it did when it was out of the box and has had many hours of flight since the crash. Am I in the clear or could something happen suddenly? Money is tight these days and if possible I would like to get the maximum use of these propellers. After all the horror stories OEM is all I will be putting on this drone. They are significantly more pricey and I don't want to spend the money until I absolutely have to. Thank you for any and all help.

I had a mavic 2 air that crashed because of a bad prop. The base was cracked, but I didn't notice. It flew off in midd flight. It crashed in some bushes.

 

[Pilot Adam]

Basically, in my experience. Prop damage of any aircraft causes an unbalanced prop rotation. Because of the drones' gyros and such. You may not notice it. Hopefully you can replace soon.

 

[GFields]

IMHO any damage is too much damage.

 

[RicGPDX]

River,
Any damage beyond a cosmetic scuff that you could probably remove with an eraser is always "too damaged" in my opinion (and the FAA's). Virtually any physical damage can set up virtually unnoticeable vibrations that are still hard on the motor and arm and may affect control in a way that the software isn't designed to cope with. These aren't airplanes where the propeller only provides propulsion. On a drone, the props are everything. You could put the same system on a lawn chair and it would fly nearly as well.

 

[Newguy126]

The safe answer is, "replace as soon as there is any damage that you can notice". But a little damage to the tip alone is probably not significant. A little damage to the leading edge, especially near the root, is cause for immediate retirement of that prop.

I notice a slight roughness at the bottom of the blade tips. I used some very fine wet and dry sandpaper to very lightly smooth them and have flown hours with them with no problems.

 

[SpitFire]

Welcome to the forum from Chicago the Windy City.
Just like many have said, carefully check your props, before and after a flight.

 

[Riverbravo]

@Riverbravo the screw has a small threaded part then a smooth shaft that fits into the prop hub, so once the shoulder of the smooth part reaches the top of the motor, it also has the benefit of the friction between the two surfaces to help prevent it coming undone
because of the small size of the thread the supplied driver is all thats required to tighten it down correctly, if you use a driver with more grip it could be possible to cause the screw to be overtightened and then be very difficult to remove or even strip the thread of the alloy motor cover once the prop is installed it should be able to move freely and and not be trapped by the screw, be careful when you purchase new props as the Mavic mini one props are different to the Mini2 ones both in the hub design and screw size so they are not interchangeable even the threads are different

Excellent information thank you for posting it. Hopefully none of it was gained through personal experience. I have to say they are killing me with the Mini 2 stuff. I have to go through poorly written product descriptions with a fine tooth comb. Would have been nice if they went with a different name rather than 2. Good to know about the props I had wondered about interchangeability.

 

[Riverbravo]

I had an incident where a tree swatted my mini out of the sky. I was hovering under a branch and a gust of wind blew it down into me ?

A quick check showed no damage but after that I noticed that the mini would drift backwards on takeoff.

A closer look revealed the nicks. A quick 4 motor prop change, and all is good again!

Sounds like the 21st century equivalent of Charly Brown's kite eating tree. Glad there was no permanent damage.

 

[Riverbravo]

River,
Any damage beyond a cosmetic scuff that you could probably remove with an eraser is always "too damaged" in my opinion (and the FAA's). Virtually any physical damage can set up virtually unnoticeable vibrations that are still hard on the motor and arm and may affect control in a way that the software isn't designed to cope with. These aren't airplanes where the propeller only provides propulsion. On a drone, the props are everything. You could put the same system on a lawn chair and it would fly nearly as well.

I hadn't considered vibrations that might be caused. I imagine the wear and tear could be magnified given the light weight material of the drone. I think you just helped me reach a decision. It's no Huey after all. Thanks for the insight. Someone should make that lawn chair. Sounds way safer than the one the guy tied all the balloons to.

 

[Riverbravo]

Thanks for all the advice and the welcomes. I decided I am going with a new set of propellers. Had to take a second mortgage out and live on a budget so tight I can't even afford Top ramen, but I will have the money to keep up with the hobby . Seriously though I plan putting a lot of miles on this drone before I upgrade. I definitely wasn't thinking about the unseen wear vibrations might be causing. Can't say I'm looking forward to the replacement procedure, but with all the info that was posted I'll be ok. I will post back when I get the new set on.

 

[Riverbravo]

The props are on and the Drone passed its test flight as far as I'm concerned. Got a little tedious with the installation but I made it through. It is the strangest thing though. I am not sure if it's just my eye but the set of propellers on the left front arm seem to bend up higher than the other sets of propellers. However oh, it seems as if they are bent in the exact same way with the tips being perfectly even with each other. I know you said is individually balanced and I wonder if that's where the factory set them or if I'm just crazy. There was absolutely no issue with the performance of the Drone as far as I could tell. I decided to stay close to the ground so it was mostly hovering with some rapid right stick maneuvering thrown in at the end. The flight lasted about 15 minutes. I am thinking if I screwed something up it would have manifested itself in that window of time. Anyway thank you again everyone for the help and advice with this. I went ahead and got two sets of propellers.

 

[Riverbravo]

DJI does a cheap, foldable landing pad.

The next bit is slightly off-topic but here goes. When I started out in this hobby, I had a small case containing a Tello, spare props, spare mobile, and a wifi range extender. Now, I have a backpack containing a Mavic 2 Pro, seperate Drone bag, extra batteries, flying dedicated iPad mini 5, landing pad, DSLR and tele lens for ground shots, 2 emergency style collapsible cones, mobile device adaptor, and a plastic tub containing spare props for 2 different drones (I also have a mini) spare memory cards, screws, etc, lens cloths, connector leads, landing extenders, polarised sunnies, different adaptors and a few explanatory leaflets for inquisitive passers bye outlining drone laws (but never had a problem)! Clipped to the side is good quality foldable wet weather gear and a "headlamp. Oh and headphones for listening to rock music. " On the odd occasion, I have even carried my laptop. My routine is to go out for a long walk, stop part way through at my favorite coffee shop for a coffee and cake ( hence the exercise), then carry on with my walk. Halfway through fly a battery or two, then finish my walk. All that weight then becomes an exercise aid! Sometimes when not intending to fly, I just carry the pack for the exercise.

When iI fly over water or at the beach, I also take a Kayak, wetsuit (for me), wet bag, and drone water rescue gear plus drone rain jacket. I want to get my monies worth out of this hobby?, also you never know what (legal and safe) opportunities might pop up?

This routine has also led to my being asked if I want to go filming for 2 months at Everest base camp next year with a pro pilot for his media company, Don't know if I will (I kind of have this heights thing) but you never know where this hobby will take you.

For some reason when I like to this post earlier I only saw the very top part about The Landing Pad. I was scrolling through just now and happened upon the rest of the story. That is an impressive amount of equipment. I imagine you do get your share of exercise. Everest sounds like an amazing opportunity. You will be too busy looking up at your drone to look down. I say go for it. I read an interesting article not too long ago where someone used a DJI drone to assist with a rescue on Everest. I can't remember what model. They were pushing the height limits but apparently were successful in locating the climber.

 

[thomasoes]

I always listen to the noise my drone makes and if it does not sound like a well tuned car I wont fly untill it does

 

[James G.]

I have plenty of batteries and could easily replace the Drone or the propellers. I simply do not like spending money needlessly. In my view this is kind of like an oil change. You certainly do it when the manufacturer recommends, but most would probably direct those funds elsewhere if it's not necessary.

Whenever I see props cheap I buy them. MAS has a sale every once in awhile and if you buy two sets they come with free shipping. Props are about the cheapest thing about these. Kind of like tires on a motorcycle. Pricey, but so much riding on them. Drones are expensive and sound propellers are what it depends on to function properly.