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Whatever else, land by 10%

AnafiPilot

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Joined
Jul 6, 2018
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Crested Butte, CO
So, being the inveterate battery limit pusher, I crashed my Anafi as it showed 5% battery. It prolly dropped from 300' or so, and bounced a couple feet in the air when it hit. I taped the two damaged legs together, and began replacing the props, but one screw was bent, so that the prop did not spin freely, so it's grounded. Found a replacement on eBay for $432 shipped.

So, learn from my tale and don't be caught in the air with less than 10% battery showing. At least that's my new policy. This happened back in July, and was covered under warranty, but the warranty is up, so the learning curve is more painful.

It was beautiful weather, and my client is going to get their shots over a week late, which is not good. All because I wanted to squeeze a bit more footage out of the battery!
 
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Yep, don't fly under 10%. I wrecked my first Anafi pushing the battery too far. with about 5% battery left while landing it completely cut out at 100 ft. I now do not let the batteries on my second Anafi get below 20% and usually land with them at about 40%.
 
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I suppose if you really wanted to push the battery limit, you could slow it way down and drop to 5 feet above the ground, but what is the fun in that? :)
 
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20% is my limit unless the drone is within 20 feet at no more than 5 feet above ground and over a soft surface like grass. Besides, the battery will last longer if not taken below 15-20%. I try to learn from others mistakes instead of repeating them, and there are dozens of posts here that indicate that 20% is a value that makes good sense not to go below, even though many have done it repeatedly.
 
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Sounds familiar, mine crashed and broke a leg at 5% battery, not far from me, I was trying to get "one more" still shot. I am very fortunate, as a few months earlier I was flying at Red Rocks NV and failed to confirm the GPS lock when launching, the only time Anafi failed to auto RTH.
Well I ran back up to the parking lot for better line of site signal, received a 5% battery warning, still could not gain control of the drone, and received a 1 minute to auto landing warning so in desperation pulled the cable out of my iPhone
and reinserted it after 3 seconds, and was then able to fly the drone back and land just in time.
 
If I know battery failure will result in a completely unrecoverable Anafi (e.g., flying off mountain / sea cliffs) then 30% would be my absolute minimum, and I will raise this to 50% as the battery ages. Replacing the battery every two years (and your props) will probably go a long way to saving you some grief.
 

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