Complete Failure of INSPIRE 1 during flight - Dropped from 400 feet

[James Waugh]

My INSPIRE also had a complete failure yesterday... Dropped from 400 feet!. With no warning it just dropped from the sky. The battery was over 60% at the time of the incident. I happened to be doing a shot the required me going straight up from my location. I have tried to create a new thread about my failure but for some reason I am no being allowed. I have flown 177 flights, traveled a distance of 945,364 feet, for a total of 21 hours with this Inspire 1 all with the latest updates I say this because this was not operator error. I immediately emailed DJI support. I have not heard anything yet but will keep you posted. I noticed that the DJI forum also showed thread for the exact same thing happening. DJI Forum|Inspire1 Completely Died and Fell From the Sky! I tried to post and comment about my failure but I DJI will not allow me to post. Interestingly my flight data recorder stopped logging information just as the failure happened. I was recording at the time but my file is damaged. I was able to export the proxy file from my iPhone. You can see this failure happen for yourself here:

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[The Editor]

My INSPIRE also had a complete failure yesterday... Dropped from 400 feet!. With no warning it just dropped from the sky. The battery was over 60% at the time of the incident. I happened to be doing a shot the required me going straight up from my location. I have tried to create a new thread about my failure but for some reason I am no being allowed. I have flown 177 flights, traveled a distance of 945,364 feet, for a total of 21 hours with this Inspire 1 all with the latest updates I say this because this was not operator error. I immediately emailed DJI support. I have not heard anything yet but will keep you posted. I noticed that the DJI forum also showed thread for the exact same thing happening. DJI Forum|Inspire1 Completely Died and Fell From the Sky! I tried to post and comment about my failure but I DJI will not allow me to post. Interestingly my flight data recorder stopped logging information just as the failure happened. I was recording at the time but my file is damaged. I was able to export the proxy file from my iPhone. You can see this failure happen for yourself here:

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Hmmm... That's not dropping like a stone - You still have power to your rotors and obviously power to the gimbal as it is correcting itself on the way down.
The aircraft is in an uncontrollable yaw which implies to me prop failure or possibly esc failure.

Were all your props attached when you recovered it?

 

[James Waugh]

Yes. All the props were attached. Two were broken. It crashed extremely hard into a lawn. I'm assuming the props broke at that point. The data in my flight library ends during mid flight which I thought was interesting.

 

[SanCap]

Did you find the other piece of the front left prop at the crash site?

 

[James Waugh]

That's a good call obviously. I did not look hard for small pieces. I go back to the crash site and see if it's there.

 

[SanCap]

Maybe that front left prop departed in flight??

 

[James Waugh]

At the crash site I did locate the broken prop.

 

[The Editor]

Maybe that front left prop departed in flight??

That's what I'm thinking - certainly the flight characteristics would suggest that.
When was the last time you did a prop inspection for stress cracks etc? Is that in your maintenance schedule?

 

[SanCap]

At the crash site I did locate the broken prop.

It would be highly unlikely that if the prop departed in flight that it would have made it to the exact crash site.

 

[James Waugh]

It would be highly unlikely that if the prop departed in flight that it would have made it to the exact crash site.

I agree. The broken prop was less than two feet from the crash site.

 

[The Editor]

I agree. The broken prop was less than two feet from the crash site.

Agreed - in that case I'm thinking possible esc failure. Will your Inspire power up?

 

[Figbar]

Agreed - in that case I'm thinking possible esc failure. Will your Inspire power up?

Sorry to be ignorant...what is esc failure? Speaking of props, when is it a good time to trade out props? I'm using self-tightening props with the locks. I bought a couple extra sets from DJI and have them available, but the props I have now seem to be OK, but this kind of stuff makes me nervous. I've had my current set on for about 4 months now...I'm not flying much now with crummy weather, no leaves, etc. Any recommendations? Don't mean to go off on a tangent, but seems like this prop issue is somewhat related. Thanks.

 

[Outta Control]

Agreed - in that case I'm thinking possible esc failure. Will your Inspire power up?

I suspect that you maybe right as a ESC failure.

 

[Scotflieger]

My INSPIRE also had a complete failure yesterday... Dropped from 400 feet!. With no warning it just dropped from the sky. The battery was over 60% at the time of the incident. I happened to be doing a shot the required me going straight up from my location. I have tried to create a new thread about my failure but for some reason I am no being allowed. I have flown 177 flights, traveled a distance of 945,364 feet, for a total of 21 hours with this Inspire 1 all with the latest updates I say this because this was not operator error. I immediately emailed DJI support. I have not heard anything yet but will keep you posted. I noticed that the DJI forum also showed thread for the exact same thing happening. DJI Forum|Inspire1 Completely Died and Fell From the Sky! I tried to post and comment about my failure but I DJI will not allow me to post. Interestingly my flight data recorder stopped logging information just as the failure happened. I was recording at the time but my file is damaged. I was able to export the proxy file from my iPhone. You can see this failure happen for yourself here:

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Sorry to hear about your loss. Are you able to power up the aircraft? It would be very useful when dealing with DJI on any warranty claim if you could extract the FLYxxxx.DAT for the flight via the aircraft USB port. This will enable DJI to determine the likely cause.

 

[Scotflieger]

Sorry to be ignorant...what is esc failure? Speaking of props, when is it a good time to trade out props? I'm using self-tightening props with the locks. I bought a couple extra sets from DJI and have them available, but the props I have now seem to be OK, but this kind of stuff makes me nervous. I've had my current set on for about 4 months now...I'm not flying much now with crummy weather, no leaves, etc. Any recommendations? Don't mean to go off on a tangent, but seems like this prop issue is somewhat related. Thanks.

The ESC (electronic speed controller) is attached to each motor to control its speed and braking. If one of these fails the aircraft falls out of the sky. I and others still use the self-locking props with locks rather than the quick release versions. However, they should be examined after and before flight for any damage or cracking and their security of attachment. A deeper examination could be carried after, say, 20 flights.

 

[ringolong]

Try powering it up to see if all of the motors spin. This will show you if it could potentially be an esc/motor failure.

 

[LAP]

is there anything in the telemetry logs that show amp draw on the motors? Looked like an aggressive use of collective to upon take off, which puts a huge stain on things.

 

[James Waugh]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Are you able to power up the aircraft? It would be very useful when dealing with DJI on any warranty claim if you could extract the FLYxxxx.DAT for the flight via the aircraft USB port. This will enable DJI to determine the likely cause.

I just tried powering it up. It does turn on although I get a new deeper tone that repeats every second. When I try to power up the props I do get an ESC error on my display screen. I am not familiar with extracting the flight.dat but is seems like I will be able to get that. It's very concerning... it crash landed just 10 meters from people. Hopefully I'll hear from DJI soon. I reported this 30 hours ago and have not heard anything except for an automatic confirmation that they received my message.

 

[Jimmykjimmy]

The ESC (electronic speed controller) is attached to each motor to control its speed and braking. If one of these fails the aircraft falls out of the sky. I and others still use the self-locking props with locks rather than the quick release versions. However, they should be examined after and before flight for any damage or cracking and their security of attachment. A deeper examination could be carried after, say, 20 flights.

Is there a relationship between the esc failure and a bad prop? Not sure if your saying that, or just that people are using the self locking props.So does having self locking props minimize the risk of esc failure, guess that's what I'm asking.

 

[ringolong]

I do not believe that the self locking props would cause an esc to fail unless they were somehow overloading the motor and esc.