It only shows Airdata’s summary but doesn’t allow access to the original data which is a spreadsheet showing what was happening every second of the flight.
The pitch, roll and yaw data for the end of the flight would probably show pretty clearly if there was a collision in the air.
In Airdata, you need to tick a box labelled Share to make the data accessible and then the summary report will have this extra line underneath the image.
Either that or post the .txt file you uploaded to Airdata and I can check from there.
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Their shells are quite robust enough but some batches are made with sub-standard raw material and subject to cracking.
Flying at top speed is not the problem.
Flight environments have quite a bit to do with it as well. The material is hard enough that in cooler temperatures it can become somewhat brittle. Extreme swings in temperature causing swell and shrink will eventually make it fail. Notice how they normally crack near the motors. Mine cracked in the same place down to the vent.
See if the links work here
Thanks … that’s good.
Here’s the story that the data shows.
The data from this flight shows the drone in smooth, stable flight as it makes the last turn to the west and accelerates to normal mission speed of 27-29 mph on a heading of 271°.
But at 338.0 secs the drone starts to show problems holding the heading.
Initially drifting off by +7°, correcting, drifting +37°, correcting, drifting approx +30° and correcting again and again.
While this is happening the speed and altitude are still holding at normal values.
But at around 355.5 sec the speed and altitude hold become unstable.
The drone slows and begins to lose height while spinning rapidly in a clockwise direction, and the drone goes down.
If the incident was the result of a collision or bird strike, you would see a sudden large change in speed, pitch, roll and yaw data, followed by loss of altitude soon after.
But this incident shows a gradual loss of heading stability while maintaining the other flight parameters for 17 seconds before other things start to come apart.
It looks like the cause of this incident was a hardware problem, probably a progressive failure of either a single motor or the ESC driving it.
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Yes, it looks progressive. Like the motor was failing, or the arm was slowly being torn apart.
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Thanks so much! I tried to decipher that data but got lost haha. That’s exactly what happened then. I assumed bird strike just based on what I could hear with the sudden change in pitch as it spiraled down. Unfortunately the sun ruined my views. Makes me feel better that it was a failure and there wasn’t anything I could do different since the drone showed no signs of damage or failure beforehand.
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So I inspected my bird (P4P ver 2) today and found a crack underneath one of the prop motors in the middle frame. It has less than 10K acres mapped under its belt. The majority of its flights were at 400’ and of long duration, which meant a lot of battery swaps. Funny thing, my older P4P Pro, which has quite a bit more mileage, doesn’t seem to have any stress effect cracks (similar flight plans). Could it be poorer quality plastics with the newer model, or perhaps the “low-noise” props that induce more stress?
That being said, does anyone have any recommendations on a quick fix for the crack so I might be able to use it for a short photo shoot this weekend (as a backup)? I have some pretty good duct tape that would probably hold. Temps will be in the 20s to low 30s during the mission.
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Gorilla Super Glue Gel. If there is truly a visible crack drill a pin-sized hole to head it off and then glue it. The gel will keep it from running where it shouldn’t.
Thank you Michael. I do have the Gorilla glue gel. Unfortunately, the crack is fairly large as it runs from the top of the case to the light casing. I could though force (carefully) a tiny bit of glue into the crack and bind it with tape. Hopefully that will suffice until a more permanent fix.
Appreciate your help and expertise.
Doug
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Here the photos from the DJI repair shop. $250 for repairs. Hopefully she’s got a few more flights in her. Should receiver the drone next week. DJI was really quick in the repair process and return shipping, all done in one day.
Wait a second… your running an Phantom 4 Standard?
Yes. Been running it since 2018.
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