My Crash - A Cautionary Tale

[james tulloch]

Edit: see the video below for a serious warning.

TLDR version: CSC the aircraft immediately if you crash.

Like others have said on this forum: I thought it would never happen to me. But it did. I crashed yesterday.

Let me start by saying that my Inspire 1 has been rock solid, with the exception of a few signal loss errors that seemed to clear up with an earlier version of firmware update. Perhaps my growing confidence in the aircraft and my perceived control of it led to my consequential mistake yesterday. I haven't yet reviewed the telemetry to determine if there was any other mitigating circumstance though.

I was at the beach to film some low level, high speed footage over the water, which was requested by a friend. After one run out over the water, I turned back around and made a pass back towards the beach. I planned to snap the bird back before arriving at the sand dunes, but when I expected to see it reversing thrust in the air, I saw nothing. I was flying only 100 yards away or so, and when I looked back down at my monitor that's when I confirmed the gut wrenching bad news: I had crashed!

As I began to run over to the sand dune crash site (as best as one can "run" with a controller mounted to an iPad Air 2), my first thought was to stop the recording. I envisioned that I had probably damaged some props and perhaps even the gimbal.

My second major mistake of the day had already occurred: I did not think to immediately power down the motors.

As I neared the wreck, I was greeted by the smell of burning plastic. Though I was wrong about the props (all 4 seemed unscathed), I was right about the gimbal. It's lower arm was snapped in two and it was hanging by the connector ribbon. The fan in the back of the camera had sustained damage, probably from the nose of the Inspire.

The other major damage visible is that one of the motor mounts melted. Not sure if the motors themselves were damaged or not.

I don't know for sure if the motor mount damage would have occurred if I had immediately CSC'ed, but there's a good chance that a gimbal replacement might have been the extent of the damage if I had done so in time.

I requested RMA info from DJI support this morning, though I have not heard back yet. From reading other posts, sounds like I should expect to be grounded for 6-8 weeks.

For me, the timing (though never good) is especially awful, as I was really anticipating @Autoflight Logic 's beta release for the Inspire.

Key point: power down the motors if you crash. Seems like common sense now, but it obviously wasn't top of mind for me during my panic. Oh, and please don't feel inclined to give me a lecture about being responsible with this expensive flying camera. I take ownership for this mistake (both of them actually), and I consider this to be an expensive lesson.

PS If anyone has advice/expectations that they can share about the RMA process, please send me a conversation message.

Cheers,

Mike/Ascender

View attachment 2746 View attachment 2747

Video to follow soon.

I sent my i1 in for a check as it was looking like one mother was running out of sync with the other three the rear left matter dropping down when flying sent data to dji two hours later got told to sen machine in from me posting to receiving back was two weeks can't fault them on turnaround.still don't know the problem waiting to hear

 

[Buck Ames]

I have very similar damages as you do. I sent it out about 10days ago. My bird has been checked in. The good news is that their repair center just moved to a new facility (last SAT) and according to Tahoe Ed, the size of the new facility is 9 times bigger than previous and they hired a lot more staffs. I expect the turn around is going to be much shorter than 6 wks. You may want to call them for RMA and asked for a shipping label. If you don't ask, they won't offer. Note that the call center would be closed on Monday due to the move to the new facility.

Hope the new repair facility makes a difference ... sounds positive. My I1 crashed and I have tried to contact DJI since 7/16. Emails and phone calls ... probably called the 1-818 number 25 times as I was finally told to do just today. The response is "We are having high call volume, please call later" and then today 7/22 busy/dial tone. Not even ... please leave your number and we will return your call ... or what ever. Understand the challenge of moving but important to have your line of communication operational. I learned in the computer industry that technical support is probably 90% communications and 10% tech. Keeping positive that I will get a productive response soon.

 

[turbodronepilot]

Hope the new repair facility makes a difference ... sounds positive. My I1 crashed and I have tried to contact DJI since 7/16. Emails and phone calls ... probably called the 1-818 number 25 times as I was finally told to do just today. The response is "We are having high call volume, please call later" and then today 7/22 busy/dial tone. Not even ... please leave your number and we will return your call ... or what ever. Understand the challenge of moving but important to have your line of communication operational. I learned in the computer industry that technical support is probably 90% communications and 10% tech. Keeping positive that I will get a productive response soon.

Hang in there Buck!!
It is what it is ...

 

[Ascender]

I called last Tuesday about 20 times- sometimes I got a busy signal, sometimes I was told to call back during normal business hours (though it was), and sometimes I held for 15 minutes before being told to call back.

Finally I reached someone. Got an RMA and shipped out on Wednesday. It was signed for on Friday, and I got my DJI check in notice today. Compared to prior queues, doesn't seem too bad. Hopefully the new facility will be impactful to repair times.

Keep calling and be persistent. That bird is worth it.

Hope the new repair facility makes a difference ... sounds positive. My I1 crashed and I have tried to contact DJI since 7/16. Emails and phone calls ... probably called the 1-818 number 25 times as I was finally told to do just today. The response is "We are having high call volume, please call later" and then today 7/22 busy/dial tone. Not even ... please leave your number and we will return your call ... or what ever. Understand the challenge of moving but important to have your line of communication operational. I learned in the computer industry that technical support is probably 90% communications and 10% tech. Keeping positive that I will get a productive response soon.