Too many crashes

[Meta4]

83km flown, 45 flights - 1 crash. Battery flew out. Battery can be in but not clicked in completely. Noted this design fault. Wont crash for the same reason again.

How can you be sure your crash was due to a battery not being properly fitted?
It's normal for a battery to dislodge on impact.

 

[pross]

Should I post this everyday that I don't crash?

We probably should, these common crashes wouldnt be so common then would they Probably get banned eventually though..

 

[BIGDAVE]

I honestly think its all a big conspiracy caused by the Russians shutting down the glonass sats due to A payoff from the Chinese! OR its people with money to burn and no time TO READ THE MANUAL crash and blame it on the drone.

 

[Jackcutrone]

Two things
1. As others have mentioned this forum is like sitting in an emergency room - all you see are the accidents. The sample is skewed by far most people don’t crash by far most of the time.
2. Crashes are almost always, 99.99%+ pilot error in some form including not found complete preflight, not checking for enough satellites , ignoring magnetic error possibilities by flying off debarred concrete, etc

I too fly rc heli’s and planes and spent hours and hours practicing before I felt comfortable enough flying. With a drone you feel that pretty much right away, fly beyond your abilities or without doing a pre-flight

 

[Thoraldus]

48 flights with my P3P this last summer and 8 flights with my new M2P so far - no crashes.

 

[Hoagyroll]

I flew my Mavic today . Did a Lichti Mission . No crashes!

I know this is off topic but in a few words, what is a "Lichti Mission". I am fairly new at this. Thanks.

 

[Jackcutrone]

48 flights with my P3P this last summer and 8 flights with my new M2P so far - no crashes.

God. I never say that. As soon as I do I buy the farm.

 

[jwt873]

I know this is off topic but in a few words, what is a "Lichti Mission". I am fairly new at this. Thanks.

Litchi is a drone control app that you can use instead of DJI Go. Its main advantage is that you can program waypoints for the drone to automatically follow. The waypont programming is quite sophisticated..

Litchi for DJI Mavic / Phantom / Inspire / Spark

 

[JoelP]

You would need to analyse individual crashes to see what the common causes are.
Having analysed a few hundred, the most common cause I see is flying close to trees, buildings and other obstacles.
If there's nothing to hit, it's hard to get into trouble.
Other common causes of lost drones (not necessarily crashes) are launching from steel or reinforced concrete surfaces, failing to understand how RTH works and flying downwind and/or at high altitudes in winds that are too strong for the drone to return home.
Equipment defects would be the cause of almost zero incidents.
The probability of any of the above mentioned causes of incidents causing an errant drone to find its way into the path of a plane would be so close to zero, it's not worth considering.

Having had a premature battery failure I can say that it is possible to have a mishap that is not pilot error, but even then it landed itself safely for me.

 

[swooshdave]

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

If people weren't crashing, I would have alot more free time.

People crash, therefore I am... (descartes)

We are very fortunate to have someone with your skills and support when we mess up!

 

[Aussie Oldtimer]

Maybe I was being a little hypercritical as to the reason for posting ... as my whole livelihood and previous hobbies have had a lot to do with hand-eye coordination and more or less just down right common sense ... I am. Professional Custom Cabinet maker ... building kitchens , vanities , libraries , entertainment centers , furniture ... etc etc , for the last 33 years ... (47 my age ) ... still have all fingers ... drag raced a 7 second , 175 mph dragster for 6 years .... raced semi pro motocross in my early teens ....and have always been a gamer .... guess these things have helped me along the way with attributes that have kept me for the most part safe with my drone operation .... also I live in an area that is surrounded by nothing but water and a lot of my flying is done around these environments .... I don't wanna tank a 1500 drone ... But it is just a bit troubling to see so much about crashes .... was just wondering if it's inevitable by design ... or just a bunch of flukes

I want to be just like you when i grow up.

 

[ColinF]

I have been flying RC helicopters for decades. When I started out I was trained by/practiced my *** off under the supervision of more experienced RC heli pilots. My concern since the Phantom one (I still own mine) has been that as easy are drones are to fly the operators don't have to fly hours of practice maneuvers just to feel comfortable flying it.
The lack of properly learned muscle memory means mistakes are more likely when situations arise that require instant control inputs and split second decisions.

I'm the first to admit flying boxes and figure 8s can get old so I think the best thing you can do to improve your drone flying skills is to practice flying a drone without a GPS.
Buy a Blade Inductrix (Tiny Whoop) or something similar, they are cheap, hard to break, hard to fly (relatively speaking) and a ton of fun. They are tiny so you can fly them in your house.
I own a couple drones that do not have GPS including an inductrix and try to fly them often to keep my skills sharp.

Have I crashed RC copters/drones?.. you bet I have. And I can tell you what I did wrong in every case to cause the crash, including the one time I had a component fail.

There are many things that can cause a drone to crash, including a poor pre-flight inspection, or the unlikely component failure (might have been caught in the pre-flight). all I'm saying is that like small manned aircraft (I'm an airplane pilot as well) the number one cause of a crash is pilot error.

my $0.02

Spot on post. It is one of the things that worry me about the future of the drone hobby. It why we are losing places to fly. It is why the US NPS bans drones in National Parks. What your post points to is that before the technology came into play, there were significant barriers to entry.... it took lots of practice. Now, anyone can pick up a drone and feel they can fly anywhere at almost anytime. Probably not popular to say, but I think the “practice” barrier to entry needs to be replaced with education and some basic knowledge testing. For what it’s worth, I do practice what I preach and studied and passed the 107 when I got my first drone, not because I wanted to do anything commercial, but rather as part of my attempt to learn as much as I could about flying drones.

 

[SteveCA]

I flew today and again, no issues. In fact I’ve flown my Mavic 2 over 225 flights since late August and there have been no issues. My Mavic Pro and Phantom 4 before that had over 600 flights and you guessed it... no issues.

But I learned to fly RC helicopters 15 years ago and yes I crashed, multiple times. There was zero assistance so it went wherever it leaned and it was 100% up to the pilot to correct it or lose it.

I’m not sure how anyone really learns to fly these days with self stabilized, GPS, compass, no atti mode drones that pretty much fly themselves.

 

[ColinF]

I flew today and again, no issues. In fact I’ve flown my Mavic 2 over 225 flights since late August and there have been no issues. My Mavic Pro and Phantom 4 before that had over 600 flights and you guessed it... no issues.

But I learned to fly RC helicopters 15 years ago and yes I crashed, multiple times. There was zero assistance so it went wherever it leaned and it was 100% up to the pilot to correct it or lose it.

I’m not sure how anyone really learns to fly these days with self stabilized, GPS, compass, no atti mode drones that pretty much fly themselves.

I went thru quite a few cheap ones... crashing, losing them in trees, etc before I got my first DJI. The worst was when RVing, I had one that was more than $100. Well I flew that one high into a tree. The battery kept the lights flashing all night into the RV window... like it was mocking me. [emoji3]

 

[ColinF]

I flew today and again, no issues. In fact I’ve flown my Mavic 2 over 225 flights since late August and there have been no issues. My Mavic Pro and Phantom 4 before that had over 600 flights and you guessed it... no issues.

But I learned to fly RC helicopters 15 years ago and yes I crashed, multiple times. There was zero assistance so it went wherever it leaned and it was 100% up to the pilot to correct it or lose it.

I’m not sure how anyone really learns to fly these days with self stabilized, GPS, compass, no atti mode drones that pretty much fly themselves.

I wish I had the time and the weather to fly that often!! Another 6 years before I get real freedom. I’ll be flying the Mavic 7 Excalibur by then.

 

[Bigbird48]

I flew my mav air today oops I crashed LOL entirely my fault, got to close to the railing on my deck and a prop hit it and down she went. Luckily just broke a prop, replaced and was back in the air.

 

[DanMan32]

My M2 crashed last September. Front obstruction avoidance didn't detect power wire while APAS was maneuvering over a roof. I blame DJI.

It's also DJI's fault for making the flymore case so small, I couldn't see it over my bumper that I backed over it.

J/K

 

[Mike_Flys]

What I'm really talking about is seeing the ones where people say they launch ,,, and then seconds or even many minutes later they claim the drones just take the **** off in some erratic manner and wiping out the drone .... what's the deal when that happens and gets hung up on the forehead of some political figure out taking a stroll with his or worse yet her grandkids ... and they decide the fate of our hobby based off of that 1 incident ... I'm feeling the comments haven't been acknowledging that part of the original post ..... it's those that concern me more than an actual pilot error .... is the mother company doing there part to take responsibility when if in fact it is a glitch in the software that is the cause ?? ... maybe I'm speculating

Besides what has already been replied to this comment. waiting a minute after powering up your drone to insure it has a great GPS signal is a step in preventing this... Once again pilot responsibility.


IMO Legitimate non-pilot induced fly aways are very very rare. I have been flying computer assisted drones as long as they have been available to the public. I have hundreds of hours, and have owned several including Yuneec, DJI, Blade,...
I have literally dozens of friends that fly drones and have yet to see or hear a first person example of a drone flying away uncontrollably.
I'm not saying it hasn't or can't happen, I'm just saying that if the pilot does his job maintains the drone, does a proper pre-flight, insures he has a strong GPS signal before take off and knows how to fly the drone without GPS or VPS the odds of this happening are pretty slim.

Basically it doesn't happen as often as you think, and when it does most of the time it is pilot induced.

 

[kidroc]

I have been flying RC helicopters for decades. When I started out I was trained by/practiced my *** off under the supervision of more experienced RC heli pilots. My concern since the Phantom one (I still own mine) has been that as easy are drones are to fly the operators don't have to fly hours of practice maneuvers just to feel comfortable flying it.
The lack of properly learned muscle memory means mistakes are more likely when situations arise that require instant control inputs and split second decisions.

I'm the first to admit flying boxes and figure 8s can get old so I think the best thing you can do to improve your drone flying skills is to practice flying a drone without a GPS.
Buy a Blade Inductrix (Tiny Whoop) or something similar, they are cheap, hard to break, hard to fly (relatively speaking) and a ton of fun. They are tiny so you can fly them in your house.
I own a couple drones that do not have GPS including an inductrix and try to fly them often to keep my skills sharp.

Have I crashed RC copters/drones?.. you bet I have. And I can tell you what I did wrong in every case to cause the crash, including the one time I had a component fail.

There are many things that can cause a drone to crash, including a poor pre-flight inspection, or the unlikely component failure (might have been caught in the pre-flight). all I'm saying is that like small manned aircraft (I'm an airplane pilot as well) the number one cause of a crash is pilot error.

my $0.02

Exactly what the problem is. anyone can put one up in the air !!!it's getting it back that a problem for them..

 

[m0j0]

. But it is just a bit troubling to see so much about crashes .... was just wondering if it's inevitable by design ... or just a bunch of flukes

It isn't inevitable by design. Understand the limitations of your UAS. Understand your abilities. Set up fly, no fly scenarios. Understand the possible inflight emergencies. Practice for those instances. Fly it..understanding that you have the best chance to retrieve it on every flight. If your spider sense starts tingling return to base and reassess.