Drones falling from the sky.

Sigurd Olivier · May 15, 2017

Having written off my Typhoon Q500 4K drone when it failed to respond to the controls and fell from the sky (mayber because I was too close to tall buildings) I am considering buying a new one. Reading many posts on forums and watching the many crash videos on YouTube, I am nervous about losing a second drone - a heavy loss for someone on a minimum persion.

Could someone please help me get the whole business in perspective? What percentage of drones come falling out of the sky? Am I worrying unnecesserily?

I am reminded of my skydiving career: the man in the street “knows” that skydiving is about the most dangerous thing you can do, yet I read somewhere that more skydivers are involved in accidents on the road, than while skydiving. And that 90 percent of accidents are due to human error and only 10 per cent are due to equipment failure.

airborne · May 15, 2017

Sigurd Olivier said:
Having written off my Typhoon Q500 4K drone when it failed to respond to the controls and fell from the sky (mayber because I was too close to tall buildings) I am considering buying a new one. Reading many posts on forums and watching the many crash videos on YouTube, I am nervous about losing a second drone - a heavy loss for someone on a minimum persion.

Could someone please help me get the whole business in perspective? What percentage of drones come falling out of the sky? Am I worrying unnecesserily?

I am reminded of my skydiving career: the man in the street “knows” that skydiving is about the most dangerous thing you can do, yet I read somewhere that more skydivers are involved in accidents on the road, than while skydiving. And that 90 percent of accidents are due to human error and only 10 per cent are due to equipment failure.

Hi,
Now I am in my third year of flying drones. In my zoo there live a breeze 4k, three blade nano 3d, one blade pico qx, two blade 200 qx and a revell nano. Net acquisition costs were a little under 1000 Euro.
In these years I lost one blade 200 qx and three blade nano qx through flyaways or crashes beyond repair. So we speak about roughly 400 Euro. Another 400 Euro went into spares and batteries. But remember I fly the less expensive birds - I am on a small pension too.
Speaking about multicopters in the four figure range I would act on the cautious (cowardly) side. Keep in mind that most losses are due to pilot error. No serious manufacturer would remain in business if he were selling copters that fall out of the sky for no reason. It is mostly by human error - period. What is true for FSAC applies to drones likewise.
HTH

Jafo · May 15, 2017

I don't think Yuneec has a failure rate any higher than any other maker in general. All makers have flyaways and drones that fail and fall from the sky from time to time.
If it's signal loss your concerned with, you might consider doing the Q radio mods to help.
I purchased the Q's for a couple of reasons.
One... I like the look over the usual DJI platform and second...because all my buddies fly DJI. I'm the only with a Yunnec in our group and coincidentally, I get asked the most questions from spectators.

TheBeastUSA · May 15, 2017

Jafo said:
I don't think Yuneec has a failure rate any higher than any other maker in general. All makers have flyaways and drones that fail and fall from the sky from time to time.
If it's signal loss your concerned with, you might consider doing the Q radio mods to help.
I purchased the Q's for a couple of reasons.
One... I like the look over the usual DJI platform and second...because all my buddies fly DJI. I'm the only with a Yunnec in our group and coincidentally, I get asked the most questions from spectators.

Same here. The Q500 platform is so sleek looking.

Sigurd Olivier · May 16, 2017

Thanks for the response folks. Could you please explain what you mean by "doing the Q radio mods"? I'm a 77-year-old backwoodsman so I could use some help.