Anafi drops out of the sky, twice

AnafiPilot · Jul 24, 2019

Miss Anafi was hand launched with a full battery on the afternoon of 6/20/19. After stabilizing, she just quit, tumbling into some grassy dirt. One foot came loose, but otherwise nothing major. I initiated a case with Parrot. They requested info and photos, which I sent. Then requested more info, and 24 Internet connection. I had trouble with the latter, being in a remote location with spotty coverage. I made several successful flights in the mean time, including two for a construction progress job (the contractor was highly satisfied with the stills and video).

Then, mid-morning on 7/20/19, returning home was initiated, and at 3% battery, she dropped out of the sky at around 50' up, breaking a leg.

So I finally got the paperwork in this morning and await Parrot's reply.

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 24, 2019

Returning home at 3% battery in my opinion was not a smart thing to do. Yes it said 3% but can we actually hope that is the correct percentage?

AnafiPilot · Jul 24, 2019

I updated to better clarify. The RTH was initiated earlier, but on the way back, she just dropped, and the last battery level I saw was 3%.

Rocky the FS · Jul 24, 2019

Yes, RTH should be initiated sooner, around 15% at the least, but the Anafi is supposed to land, not drop out of the sky from 50 feet. The battery percentage is not the most accurate thing in the world, so more margin is needed. Your first experience should not have happened either, so you have a good case. Odd that it flew several times in the interim with no problems.

Jagerbomb52 · Jul 24, 2019

OK, I guess what I was trying to say is you need a good percentage to get back so maybe plan for return flights a little sooner. A lot of people get screwed on this with Flight Plan

CraigCam · Jul 25, 2019

Unfortunately it does not always make that safe landing. It will just stop at those low percentage levels as it’s an approximation and could really be 1 percent and it just runs out of power. I experienced this problem a couple of times as well and I now want to be on the ground by 15 percent and for sure don’t want to have any higher then my head altitude after 10 percent. LiPo batteries are all different in behavior and flight specs are like avg mpg with cars. All you need is the “actual performance may vary depending on driving conditions” to effectively lie legally. Substitute flight for driving in this example and think how you would never push your gas tank so low as to run out and get stranded. The solution is realistic time based flight planning and extra batteries unfortunately. Sorry to hear of your crash. For what it’s worth, I have crashed one from this same problem which created one bad motor that I can offer parts from if you have to repair yourself. I believe Anafi parts are still difficult to find here in the US.

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