Sad Crash, Happy Ending

[FlyGuy8675309]

Not much to the the story other than my Mavic dropped from the sky as seen in the flight data video below. I can't see an error on the data log. My only guess is a prop broke/came off, or I hit a bird or a bat.

Was VERY lucky where it landed. If this happened 5 seconds sooner, my Mavic would be in the water -- luckily it landed on the soft, marshy shoreline. Broke an arm, gimbal and some other stuff. Repair est. was $300, but DJI covered it completely. I feel very fortunate.

If anyone can see anything from the video or log, please chime in.

Flight Data Video:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Data log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com

 

[larrythedirtbag]

Love happy endings.

 

[mrreddog]

Wow, just spinning out of control while dropping like a rock??

 

[Chirp]

I have a video similar to yours, spinning to the ground.
I assumed a blade came off because...

When it landed upside down it had 3 stubs of broken blades remaining on the MP and one blade was completely missing. The missing blade is the one I am assuming came off in flight.

I had just removed and replaced the blades to make sure they were installed correctly before taking off on a
commercial job. It was very cold and my hands weren't working too well. I'm pretty sure I just didn't get one of the blades
on correctly. This was a $400 accident/mistake after repairs.

 

[tictag]

If a blade had come off in flight, I would guess that the flight logs would record an 'over rev' error. I doubt the ESC's would allow the motor to spin uncontrollably so maybe even an 'motor error, shutting down motor' error or something similar. Don't know this for a fact but I do know that almost everything operational on the drone is measured and recorded.

 

[MavicCF]

If a blade had come off in flight, I would guess that the flight logs would record an 'over rev' error. I doubt the ESC's would allow the motor to spin uncontrollably so maybe even an 'motor error, shutting down motor' error or something similar. Don't know this for a fact but I do know that almost everything operational on the drone is measured and recorded.

When a propeller is lost, you usually see the motor that lost the prop speed up quite a bit as it attempts to increase thrust where it has suddenly been lost. I haven't looked at the log yet (I'll have to fire up the Windows computer) but I'll check if any errors pop up, I don't remember any, but we'll see. As far as showing what the problem was, pitch/roll/yaw and motor RPMs will be the most useful.

 

[Chirp]

If a blade had come off in flight, I would guess that the flight logs would record an 'over rev' error. I doubt the ESC's would allow the motor to spin uncontrollably so maybe even an 'motor error, shutting down motor' error or something similar. Don't know this for a fact but I do know that almost everything operational on the drone is measured and recorded.

I'm glad you said this bc I have been wondering what the flight logs say. All I have looked at is the animation in DJI Go.
I will do the research and figure out how to get the logs-something I haven't done yet--and will post them if there is something interesting.

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

I have a video similar to yours, spinning to the ground.
I assumed a blade came off because...

When it landed upside down it had 3 stubs of broken blades remaining on the MP and one blade was completely missing. The missing blade is the one I am assuming came off in flight.

I had just removed and replaced the blades to make sure they were installed correctly before taking off on a
commercial job. It was very cold and my hands weren't working too well. I'm pretty sure I just didn't get one of the blades
on correctly. This was a $400 accident/mistake after repairs.

Well when I found the Mavic there was 1/2 a prop missing and I couldn't locate it anywhere near the crash site so my thinking is it either failed or, like I said in my OP, it hit a bird or bat. This was the third consecutive flight of the evening so there wasn't anything loose.

Props to DJI for covering this, though (pun intended!)