See that little black “X” mark on the batter? I hadn’t put it there. And the little lip surrounding the release button is cracked. The battery (part one) Look closely, there’s a crack in the plastic above the LED closest to the power button… Again, an indicator the battery may be unsafe. Once I started going over the P4P with a fine-toothed comb, some other issues came to my attention. I was a bit rankled, but c’est la vie.īut when I took a closer look at the P4P, some other issues came to light: Always look closelyĪnd again, the operative words with inspections are: Look closely. I didn’t realize until he came back, and discovered an FAA registration in the drone, that it had been taken to the US. He had asked at one point to borrow my P4P. In the case of the Phantom, I had loaned it to a good friend – who is both an excellent drone pilot and a tech geek. But it reminded me of an incident that had occurred with my Phantom 4 Professional. And so - sigh - I will be safely disposing of this one. It’s not worth flying – let alone charging inside your home – a battery that might have an issue. But I do know this: Don’t mess around with LiPos. I’m not holding myself out as a battery expert. But it was also very much there: It wasn’t readily apparent, but there it was. And, based on the fact that part of the casing seemed to be lifting, it was a possible bulge from a battery problem. But now, upon closer inspection, a fault was revealing itself: A tiny but significant crack in the casing. You’d never see it if you just glanced at it. I realized I was looking at a small jagged line of a shadow, tracing irregularly across the top of the fully charged battery in the machine. It was the kind of light that really highlights shadows. The drone was sitting in my back sunroom at the time, with early morning light spilling at an angle across the top of the Mavic Pro. I plunked one of the charged batteries back in the body. And so, one after the other, they were attached to the charger. And it had been many, many months since I’d charged all three of its batteries. I hadn’t flown the Mavic Pro in quite some time – certainly not since pre-pandemic. Plus, I wanted to finally get a loaner Mavic Air 2 up for some extended time. It had been sitting in its case for a bit, but an opportunity had come up to go flying with a friend. Literally a few days ago, I went to charge the batteries on my trusty but dusty Mavic Pro. And that’s where a little lesson we were recently exposed to comes to mind. For those who took a bona fide training course, the practice of a pre-flight checklist would have or should have been burned in. Commercial pilots and service providers all tend to have training and licensing like the FAA’s Part 107. What about drones?įor some drone pilots, particularly occasional recreational flyers, the pre-flight check is minimal: Battery charged and props on. When it comes to manned aviation, there are very specific reasons why each and every checklist item is there. But some of those checklist items have, as they say, been “Written in Blood.” That means the protocol for that particular check was likely a recommendation resulting from a preventable accident. Those, of course, are just the very basics. There’s also a fuel check: Does this aircraft have enough fuel on board for the planned flight, along with some pad? How much is the weight of fuel, cargo, and passengers combined? Does it exceed our maximum takeoff weight? What about the weather? Might this flight run into poor conditions between now and the destination? The checklists vary between aircraft, but there are some common themes: A walk around the aircraft with a thorough visual inspection, looking for any signs of damage, wear or tear, loose connectors, etc. Pilots of manned aircraft - whether it’s a Cessna or a Boeing 787 Dreamliner - go through detailed, specific checklists before every single flight.
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