First 3 significant crashes, what were they?

Discussion in 'Drone Beginners Corner' started by Benji350, Dec 19, 2015.

  1. Benji350

    Benji350 New Member

    Dec 12, 2015
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    #1 Benji350, Dec 19, 2015
    All new to this, after about 4 total hours fly time now quite confident with my Hubsan x4(still a bit of refinement needed) but have now got the hang of flying in all directions and can land without crashing and have got used to turning the craft without flying the wrong way and hitting walls or (tree) as I did the other day.

    Worst 3 novice crashes and how ?
     
  2. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    Aug 31, 2013
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    #2 Jonathan, Dec 20, 2015
    My worst disaster was losing a first gen xaircraft in a lake. I was so nervous flying it, then the wind took hold of it and I lost orientation so it just sort of drifted away before I could sort myself out. Then, losing signal from the controller, it went into auto-land right into the lake. About $1500 gone in a few minutes. This was a long time ago, like 5 years. They were a lot less sophisticated then. This one had no video feed, gps, or height hold even.
    Stupid thing is I went and bought another one with a new at the time gps module, thinking it would come home if it happened again. It didn't, I lost that one as well. I did have a video feed on it, actually saw it flip over before it disappeared over some trees. Spent 2 days looking for it, never got it back.
    I bought Mikrokopter hexa after that, which at the time was the best thing you could get. It was a lot better, a world apart. King of the drone world until DJI came along and changed everything.
    I did crash that once, but on purpose to save it. Just had to replace a couple of the arms and props.
     
  3. Benji350

    Benji350 New Member

    Dec 12, 2015
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    #3 Benji350, Dec 20, 2015
    Ouch, that sounds quite painful :( my crashes don't come close then :eek: was that just after you got your first drone? must have been really gutted!!

    I can imagine how easy it was to crash in that way though being a newbie. I took my x4 outdoors last weekend for the first time... The flight went ok.. Until I made two following mistakes; I was not completely confident with the orientation of forward vs where I was standing and thought lets see how high I can go and try to do a flip it should be ok enough space for an error........ well Lets say I went out of range.. Lost control.... regained control and went full throttle towards the ground (got confused between front and back) then tried to regain control got confused failed but luckily managed to stop throttle and somehow luckily landed on the thickest bit of grass possible :) how it survived I do not know ... No 2 Wind hit drone and went straight into a tree all on the same day. Lesson learned was go slower outdoors is different..... and no 3.... Went to my parents, (after becoming a bit more confident) flew the drone into my Mothers hair accidentally whilst trying to demonstrate how nimble the drone is. oooops.... it was laughed off though and everyone was in tears and Mum got a new type of perm :). Lesson learned never fly next to people.

    Now pleased to say indoors flying has improved. Can't wait to get some more outdoors in though :) are the hexacopters more stable? than the quads then?
     
  4. Jonathan

    Jonathan Drone Expert
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    #4 Jonathan, Dec 21, 2015
    I wouldn't say hexacopters are more stable as such, not these days anyway compared to DJI and Yuneec etc. They do have a level of redundancy, if one of the motors fails they can still fly - however, there are more motors to fail so bit of a catch 22 situation. :)
    Those were my first relatively expensive drones. I had some cheaper stuff as well. They were totally different back then though, your Hubsan X4 is more sophisticated than they were - i.e. flies better and has more modern gyros etc.
     
  5. DukeM

    DukeM Member

    Jul 21, 2015
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    #5 DukeM, Dec 21, 2015
    I have not had any big crashes. A few hard landings but nothing destructive. I am flying Yuneec Q500, my first drone, and it is very easy to fly.
     
  6. The frozen photog

    The frozen photog Member

    Nov 15, 2015
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    #6 The frozen photog, Dec 24, 2015
    Not too many crashes with my Q500, but there are two that come to mind. The first one is when I was flying over a small creek right next to the parking lot at work. The creek has trees around it that kind of make a small canopy. as I was flying, I saw I was getting close to some branches so I corrected the flight path. UNFORTUNATELY I OVER corrected and a rotor caught another branch and crashed to the ground luckily avoiding the creek. At first I just thought it was a hard landing, but then when I started it up, one rotor was not moving very fast. Appon looking at it more, I found out a burned out a motor.
    The second one was when I was showing my friend my drone. As I lifted off the ground I didn't notice my controls got bumped into "smart mode" (ironic, I know). So when I went to fly, my controls were reversed unknown to me. I hit the sticks to what I thought would make it go forward actually made it reverse...right into a tree. As I helplessly watched, my Q500 tumbled down the tree smashing into the ground at a weird angle breaking off the camera.
    Here is a clip of a VERY close call I had. Glad I actually didn't crash, cuz who KNOWS what would've happened!
     
  7. Benji350

    Benji350 New Member

    Dec 12, 2015
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    #7 Benji350, Dec 26, 2015
    Yeah now thinking of a small hexacopter too just too see what they are like. Persuaded my sister to get a drone too, spent most of yesterday playing with our drones mainly indoors and did a lot of crashing and into each other!!!! and destroyed a few propellers. Took them outdoors today and also managed my first flip in expert mode. Am amazed at how well they handle considering the amount of wind there has been, getting better with it now, time for some recording I think :S.

    Btw awesome video. Bet your heart was pounding after that. What are the Q500's like in general many issues with them? quite a nice looking craft!! do you do a lot of photography with it? I also had another crash a couple of hours ago... Went into the dogs bowl full of water oops ..... Don't think it was submerged long enough to damage anything as removed battery straight away though.....
     
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  8. The frozen photog

    The frozen photog Member

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    #8 The frozen photog, Dec 26, 2015
    LOVE Everything about the Q500! I've been actually wanting to upgrade to the 4K version soon. No issues (other than pilot error...) with them. And yes my heart WAS pounding after that! I actually heard the prop wash on the roof. then I got SUPER excited when I realized it was recording.
     
  9. Benji350

    Benji350 New Member

    Dec 12, 2015
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    #9 Benji350, Jan 1, 2016
    Yeah looks like a good drone :D, My Drone is still working absolutely fine after the Dog bowl incident thank god. Left it out on kitchen roll on the radiator to make sure it dried thoroughly :D. Had lots of practice over Xmas. Spent some time I admit looking for bits to build my next drone having some good video footage such as the footage you posted looks quite appealing. Could do some good shots on the South West coast here.
     
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  10. Photoworx

    Photoworx Guest

    #10 Photoworx, Jan 15, 2016
    Hi. I can't offer three because I have had only 2 in the first 8 months of flying. I fly a DJI Phantom 3 and my first was when I was flying too close to a tree line and clipped the underside of some limbs. The drone fell to the ground from only 3-4 feet with no damage. The next time was flying very low over a sage field. The landing gear was just touching the top of the sage and I got so into flying I wasn't watching where I was going and hit some limbs on a tree and experienced no damage. I have not had any flyaway issues or loss of signal issues while flying. I did experience the effect of the cold weather on my batteries and the fact they must be warm to even start the quad. Just wanted to contribute.
     

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