R.I.P 380 23/02/16

My 380 just fell out of the sky today whilst I was trying out some sets of props.
It was a bad one as well...I was taking it up high so I could determine from the video which props gave least vibration. While hovering at probably 300' it just seemed to cut out, flipped upside down, and dropped like a brick.
I have a feeling one of the props detached. Although when i 1st picked it up i thought all props were still on it. when i got back to my setup point one was missing. I cant see how the nut came off, i used the a spanner to make sure they were all on good.
It was that or a motor failed.

Damage?

Camera catapulted somewhere back to the future.
Gimbal is a mess with all arms bent, and mounting plate bent at 90o
Even though it landed flat on its back and didnt bounce as it was sticky mud, 2 broken legs? all 4 motors are packed solid with mud.
Not opened it yet to check inside but the battery has a big grove dented into it. Im sure there will be more inside, just waiting for the mud to dry out so i can get it off easier.

It might end up be broken up for spares.

Oh no......how long you been flying this one ?

Go to admit my heart skips a beat everytime i fly mine high with all these stories, hate the insecurity of it all....not good at my age !

Whats the plan buy another ? or a different brand ?

I've not had mine out of the box yet,I'm seeing way too many of these comments :-(,received my copper foil yesterday so gonna do the gps shield before trying it out..

wazza99 wrote:Oh no......how long you been flying this one ?

Go to admit my heart skips a beat everytime i fly mine high with all these stories, hate the insecurity of it all....not good at my age !

Whats the plan buy another ? or a different brand ?

I have been pretty lucky with this crash. Took it all apart today and I have too replace 2 legs and a GPS module.
Have taken off the GPS and connected battery with the top shell off and now its cleaned, all the motors spin up and run ok. The FC board is ok and flickering its blue led, and the RX is showing constant red led which means that is working.
The gimbal was a mess but I have managed to straighten out most of it and sure I will get that working again.
Pitty I cant find the cam but i was thinking of upgrading to a 4K 24fps gyro stabalized jobby before losing the old one. So have just ordered an original SJ5000X(elite) which has some nice features on it.
http://www.gearbest.com/action-cameras/pp_243426.html

The broken bits


The Test if all else was ok.


And the nearly there..gimbal.


I think when you decide to try this as a hobby you have to know that at some point your going to crash and have to work out whats broke and replace it. Much like RC aircraft.

BTW I'm pretty sure that a prop nut came off and the prop followed.

So it was down to me and not the 380.
When you free it from the mud and a prop is missing, thats all thats left to blame...The silly sod that didnt tighten them up properly.

Funny thing is I found the missing prop 150m from the crash site and 5m from the take off point
So my guess is it flew for around 8 mins with only 3 props on it.....dont ask me how.

Time to move to self tightening props

wazza99 wrote:Time to move to self tightening props

Yeh but I had these cheap carbon fiber props(gemfan's)...And when I took off I could tell from the low noise that they were producing much less vibration than all the others that i have tried out.

Just have to remember to tighten them up good and not just a tweak with the spanner.

Hi my x380 nuts tighten up when motors turn will I still need to tighten them, I heard the new x380 was self tighten got mine in December and tried them without props on and they screwed on when motors turn.

Dave

They are supposed to tighten against the rotation of the motor, and when you test it they do just that.
But when on they can unscrew.
Not to make myself look foolish or anything, but its not the first time it has happened to me either.
The first time (due to using self tightening props for a while) i barely did them finger tight, and one popped off after 10 seconds in the air. I got it down that time before the prop came off, and the opposite prop nut had done the same but not all the way.
So it was 'Lesson learned'.
This time I got the spanner out and was pretty sure I tightened them all.

So if I were you, I would tighten them very well before flight.

I'm just waiting on a motor now as one was making a 'knock' sound each turn so I wont fly until I get it changed

By the sound of it may live again then

Yeh it's not going to die that easily. It would be flying now, minus GPS if it wasnt for that knocking motor.

Still I have something to keep me amused in the meantime.

Got the GPS replacement yesterday and fitted it so one step closer to flying again. Was just wondering how long the replacement motor was going to take, and it arrives this morning with a few spares to avoid any waiting when I need another.
Knowing me that wont be long

It lives.....

great news,well done,hopefully saves me from learning the same lesson.

great news,well done,hopefully saves me from learning the same lesson.

nice one well done