Anafi fell from the sky

[Sfromd]

First post
Hello. I’ve had done pilot about 6 years. Recently bought a new Anafi. Had 43 successful flights, zero crashes. Software on drone, controller, and batteries fully updated from day 1. Drone was fully calibrated. Batteries always charged 100% before every flight. Had zero problems until July 25th 2020.

The sky was clear, temp 85F, near zero wind. Signal strong from controller to drone. GPS signal near 100% line of sight from controller to drone approximately 100 feet. Zero obstacles. Battery was firmly snapped in place, not lose. Drone flew fine and was in a hover with 44% battery remaining, then without warning, it lost all power and fell 100feet.

one leg of the drone snapped. The drone will not power on now, and there is no recorded flight of this incident in the flight logs. The drone did not record this flight. I’ve requested flight logs from parrot, downloaded them as well and no record of this flight.
Parrot is requesting the flight log but it doesn’t exist.

I flew a generation 1 bebop for years with zero problems. The Anafi had performed perfectly until this crash. Online, I’ve read that others were having this issue. Anyone know why... no answers received from Parrot and no drone replacement as of yet. Drone was only 8 weeks old.

 

[AnafiPilot1]

Sorry to hear! Power up will probably be just the ribbon from the motor to the main board has disconnected.

Re-attaching and powering up should at least get you the last flight log.

Also make sure you save the FDR data files from the SD card.

 

[DaveN]

Did the screen on your phone go to static just before the fall from the sky? Your case sounds almost identical to mine except that mine fell into the water on April 1st. Lucky you that your drone is in warranty. Mine wasn't so I was denied service. I posted my incident report in this forum topic. From what I've seen in other incidents, you will likely get an in-warranty replacement.

 

[Ana789]

There is somewhere a link in here to the service.pdf (I thinkl), where stands that the folder on the SD card, with the .bin files, is enough proof.
There IS the last flight inside.

Edit:

Anafi Parrot dropping out of the sky.

Didn't know that, thanks about that, just checked it, for my 3 batteries, I have 96% with the one I crashed, second 92% and third 89%. But as I read after a new reload the value can change?... Yes it fluctuates. I do not fly 3 batteries which are no longer at 100%. I only have one battery...

parrotpilots.com

 

[d95gas]

What do I do if my ANAFI has sustained a crash and it is visibly damaged?

NEVER TRY TO REPAIR YOUR ANAFI YOURSELF, AS ANY ATTEMPT AT A REPAIR WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!

1. Save the full contents of your ANAFI’s microSD card “FDR” folder and be ready to send it to Parrot Support.

 

[BRC]

Another piece of sound advice that was passed on to myself -
If possible set up screen recording on your smart device during flights
It may help prove a warranty claim in case the flight log did not register or in case of a fly away or lost drone

btw...
usually the first things I do after a fall or lost drone is: curse, followed by anger and disbelief, topped of with some tears
The worst part is explaining to my wife why I need another drone

FYI... Parrot has been good to me and replaced two drones - took some effort on my part but they still came through

 

[900Sport]

I too have unfortunately joined this now not too exclusive club. I was flying my Anafi back when at approx 160 meters away at a height of roughly 50ft the screen on my iPhone 6+ froze (on Skycontroller 3) and then changed to white noise and I heard what sounded like a crash. I found the drone in the middle of the fairway (I was photographing a Golf Course) and the front left arm smashed. Everything else props etc. were unharmed. It was bought in July 2018 and has had an unblemished record over 100 flights. The weather conditions were perfect, clear sky, calm and about 16c. The battery (not the original) was 100% at the beginning of the flight and was showing 20% seconds before the dreaded occurrence. The battery had been updated with the recent updates as had both the drone and controller. I was going to purchase another Anafi but now I'm considering different options!

 

[BRC]

I too have unfortunately joined this now not too exclusive club. I was flying my Anafi back when at approx 160 meters away at a height of roughly 50ft the screen on my iPhone 6+ froze (on Skycontroller 3) and then changed to white noise and I heard what sounded like a crash. I found the drone in the middle of the fairway (I was photographing a Golf Course) and the front left arm smashed. Everything else props etc. were unharmed. It was bought in July 2018 and has had an unblemished record over 100 flights. The weather conditions were perfect, clear sky, calm and about 16c. The battery (not the original) was 100% at the beginning of the flight and was showing 20% seconds before the dreaded occurrence. The battery had been updated with the recent updates as had both the drone and controller. I was going to purchase another Anafi but now I'm considering different options!

Hi 900Sport-
How old was the battery you were flying with - could it still be under warranty?
If so and probably a very long shot but you could try submitting a warranty claim that battery caused failure and damaged drone
Would help if you recovered flight log - Just a thought
Sorry to hear this happened

 

[900Sport]

Not sure of the age of the battery probably over a year though. I'll have to check that out with my business partner as it was one that came with our other Anafi work. I've emailed support to try and get their thoughts and I'm awaiting the reply. I have the sim card with the .bin files and have just received the json.gz files from Parrot but don't know what App to use to access the data on them. Any thoughts or input on that would be gratefully accepted.

 

[BRC]

Not sure of the age of the battery probably over a year though. I'll have to check that out with my business partner as it was one that came with our other Anafi work. I've emailed support to try and get their thoughts and I'm awaiting the reply. I have the sim card with the .bin files and have just received the json.gz files from Parrot but don't know what App to use to access the data on them. Any thoughts or input on that would be gratefully accepted.

json files (flight logs) can be opened with program call Show Anafi Log, thread on this topic below. Keep in mind json files from Parrot servers are double compressed so you need to unzip twice. There really is not a program available for us to open or read fight data from .bin files
Another consideration is that flight logs or json files are not created until drone has successfully completed its flight and or is powered back on
In your case sounds like that did not happen? If not I don't think you will find on Parrots server or on your smart device
To check to see if you have flight data on your smart device in FF6, it's listed under My.Parrot then My Flights
If so you can email the json log to yourself

If you cannot find the ill fated flight and you are able to power Anafi back on it may upload flight data to to your smart device
Prior to doing anything I would backup the files on your sd card

Show Anafi Log Project

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

I too have unfortunately joined this now not too exclusive club. I was flying my Anafi back when at approx 160 meters away at a height of roughly 50ft the screen on my iPhone 6+ froze (on Skycontroller 3) and then changed to white noise and I heard what sounded like a crash. I found the drone in the middle of the fairway (I was photographing a Golf Course) and the front left arm smashed. Everything else props etc. were unharmed. It was bought in July 2018 and has had an unblemished record over 100 flights. The weather conditions were perfect, clear sky, calm and about 16c. The battery (not the original) was 100% at the beginning of the flight and was showing 20% seconds before the dreaded occurrence. The battery had been updated with the recent updates as had both the drone and controller. I was going to purchase another Anafi but now I'm considering different options!

What do you have in common between your fall and the creator of the post?
The updated battery!
Many people have dropped around 20% of their battery since the battery was updated ...

 

[Ana789]

What do you have in common between your fall and the creator of the post?
The updated battery!
Many people have dropped around 20% of their battery since the battery was updated ...

Not wanna make it more confusing, but:
Mine wasn't updated, all still "2019", but dropped also with 20%

Just one thing:
If it would have been on 15m, instead of 30, it may not have dropped at all!
Just saying, because I also had/did hovering flights till battery in the one digits, just before.
Only this hover flights are mostly not on higher altitudes!
In case the fw is miscalculating battery stats, that is not so much of concern then, I think!

 

[900Sport]

An update the damage which I initially reported.

The damage was considerably more than my preliminary inspection. As well as the broken Front Left Arm the Front and rear right arms are both unserviceable due to breaks:
When I retrieved the drone there was a warning that there was no SD card installed. Fortunately this was not the case as all the flight data was intact although the final 10mins of video did not finalise, the .mpv4 file was there but will not play . However the error no SD card inserted remains, even though I have inserted a different SD card. The following pics show 2 pieces if internal damage which were trapped in the body work. One is of a fragment of circuit board(?) which may explain the SD card error and the other, a broken section of the right hand hinge assembly.

As well as the damage to the drone itself, the Battery suffered severe internal damage causing a malfunction of the on / off switch and just holding the battery will cause it to start or die or set the LED's flashing Green or Red.

All data and info is under investigation by Parrot

 

[Jagerbomb52]

My advice is this. Salvage the good parts that you can as spares. If you really like the Anafi pick one up used or try and find a good deal on a new one. If not sell the parts as there is always someone looking for Anafi parts. Then look into a different brand that you might like.