Went flying and Mavic Pro returned with…

[Paulis]

So I wanted to catch an incoming storm with my Mavic Pro. After landing I noticed a burnt chunk taken out of the right front leg. The flight was a quick 7 minute flight for a panorama. While returning a rather close sharp rumble of thunder meant the flight was over. Visible lightning in the distance, but I understand that means nothing. What are your thoughts on this damage? New landing legs are inbound. No battery issues and she still flies well.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Could well be a lightning. Turboprop aircraft propellers create static and can attract lightning when near storms when the air is highly charged.

I was on a flight from Dublin to the East Midlands when lightning hit the engine cowling right by my seat. Some worrying sounds followed by the smell of smoke. I got minor flash burns on the side of my face but the aircraft electrics were severely damaged. The First Officer made a perfectly smooth landing after passing over the control tower to confirm landing gear was down. Everyone was escorted to a coach while the fire crew checked the aircraft. The first officer joined us and explained two-days previously he had been in the simulator for this same situation of electrical failure. He said the turboprop aircraft can expect between 1 and three minor lightning strikes on this route at this time of year but damage is rare.

The flight incident was on the evening news and in the papers. It turned out the strike had caused considerable wiring damage with a loss of many of the flight deck instruments including radio.

Although the drone is very significantly smaller it can still create static with the right level of humidity, which often precedes a storm front.

For anyone who has been within a few metres of a lightning bolt and survived they’ll never forget the brilliant, blinding white and purple flash with the deafening, instantaneous crack of the thunder.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I dont have a clue, but this is the second one posted this week that is similar to this and in the exact same spot.
I will watch the thread to see what comes up.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic Pro in the Rain.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Wow, that does look partially burned / melted in places, and simply shattered in other areas of the missing edge.

This is one flight that has no use posting the flight log, unless it shows a high voltage spike somewhere !! ?

Getting a replacement leg, or just some 2 pack glue (araldite / epoxy etc) to fill the damage ?

 

[SkyeHigh]

Wow, that does look partially burned / melted in places, and simply shattered in other areas of the missing edge.

This is one flight that has no use posting the flight log, unless it shows a high voltage spike somewhere !! [emoji23]

Getting a replacement leg, or just some 2 pack glue (araldite / epoxy etc) to fill the damage ?

It might be interesting to see the logs for any sudden changes from the accelerometers. There’s nothing in the Mavic Pro front legs for an internal electrical fault (other than the PCB antenna) to cause that. Unlike the Mavic 2 Pro the LEDs are mounted in the base of the motor housing.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Wow, that does look partially burned / melted in places, and simply shattered in other areas of the missing edge.

This is one flight that has no use posting the flight log, unless it shows a high voltage spike somewhere !! ?

Getting a replacement leg, or just some 2 pack glue (araldite / epoxy etc) to fill the damage ?

When i think of Lightning I think of the strength of Zeus and that the drone would implode in it totality.
but this is so puzzling , would be great to see if there were spikes in the flight data.

Than again here I am trying for years to have my drone hit by lightning.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[SkyeHigh]

You’d be surprised how little damage lightning can do. In my telecoms days we maintained several microwave repeater stations. After a large storm we got a remote alarm to say one of the aircraft warning lights had failed. On close inspection there was a tiny hole in the top of the Perspex dome and the cable gland had partially melted.

None of the radio systems sustained any damage but a brief drop in voltage triggered the generator into action.

Most of the energy would have gone through the lightning conductor.

 

[old man mavic]

there would be no path to earth so that limits the amount of damage from a strike while the drone is airborne the intense heat is what melted the plastic as the charge passed through the antenna leg you were just unlucky to be in its path

 

[Yeunglings]

That definitely looks like burn marks to me so given that you made it back otherwise in one piece I'd suggest some 2 part epoxy to cover the hole and strengthen the leg followed by getting yourself a lotto ticket using the date of strike as your numbers.

 

[JoelP]

Thanks for sharing this. We rarely get lightning and thunder where I fly.

If you use a 2-part epoxy use one that cures slower since the quick cure versions dry a bit tacky. Better yet, use a 2-part auto body filler like Bondo which can be nicely sanded to match the shape of the rest of the leg.

 

[Zeprider]

Egads! Perhaps a lightening tendril caught you. Might as well be a testament to the durability of a Mavic.

 

[spsphotos]

I remember a lightning strike when I was a kid near Albany, NY. Was on the NYS Thruway on way home from a concert with my brother. I was looking out the window at the side of the road bored when there was a huge bright flash and crack...it hit like 100' from the side of the car in a parking lot. Scared the heck out of me. LOL.

 

[bcfd29]

Congrats on what appears to be a successful encounter with cloud to cloud lightning! You literally caught a piece of the storm...

I would keep that charred part as it is a great story.

 

[sar104]

Fascinating. That's interesting damage, and if it was caused by lightning then it was an unusual event. The current in a lightning strike flows via an electrically conductive plasma channel that is formed when the electrical field strength locally exceeds the breakdown strength of air. The plastic leg is not conductive and so it is not going to be a preferential current path. Conceivably the leg could get close enough to a discharging plasma channel to be heated by the plasma, but then I would have expected that the current flow in that channel would have been high enough to cause significant damage to the electrical components in the aircraft.

The flight logs may shed more light on this.

 

[Trackerputnam]

Ok, although this is does not look as much like a object strike as the other one, a while back, I still vote pellet of some kind. .22 maybe. The velocity of the projectile would melt some plastic before breaking the plastic. I have hit big raptors, rather they hit me, and no damage to my mavic. I have hit three humming birds and no damage. Just clean the blood. But I have hit coins with my .22. It will sometimes break the coin but I have seen the coin look like it melted some. Hitting something flying is hard but it can bet done.

Do you have an angry neighbor?

 

[NDWildBill]

Interesting to note the difference in the response on this forum vs the response on Facebook to the same post. Majority of the folks who replied on Facebook were convinced that someone had been shooting at the drone with everything from a small caliber rifle to buckshot. Much more intelligence in this group than on Facebook.

 

[sar104]

Ok, although this is does not look as much like a object strike as the other one, a while back, I still vote pellet of some kind. .22 maybe. The velocity of the projectile would melt some plastic before breaking the plastic. I have hit big raptors, rather they hit me, and no damage to my mavic. I have hit three humming birds and no damage. Just clean the blood. But I have hit coins with my .22. It will sometimes break the coin but I have seen the coin look like it melted some. Hitting something flying is hard but it can bet done.

Do you have an angry neighbor?

Having spent a lot of time studying terminal ballistics on plastic targets, I can guarantee that wasn't impact damage.

 

[Paludo]

Having spent a lot of time studying terminal ballistics on plastic targets, I can guarantee that wasn't impact damage.

As a retired helicopter pilot, I have seen the St. Elmo's Fire (Google it) from the carbon fiber blades, even in the absence of a storm, and more spectacular in the charged air near a storm. And it can and does affect the blades. I'm betting this was an electrical event. It is amazing what mother nature can do when you least expect it.

 

[Trackerputnam]

Having spent a lot of time studying terminal ballistics on plastic targets, I can guarantee that wasn't impact damage.

Enlighten us!

 

[GFields]

Thanks for sharing!