This story starts back in January 2018 when I fell through the ice.  I was carrying my old drone on my back when I went into the water. The batteries took on a lot of water and haven't worked exactly right ever since. 

I figured after 2 years with the old drone, given the crazy advancements in safety, size and performance and the fact that my Old 3DR Solo drone was no longer supported by the company and the software was getting buggier with every OS Release, it was time to make the switch to DJI.

I picked up a DJI Mavic Air and what a difference. It's so small.  The app is amazing, the sensors work great and it's quieter. Anyone who complains about drones now being "loud" haven't had a drone 2 years ago from a different company.

Well, I was out in South Dakota recently and was standing way up on top of one of the Needles in the Needles District. It was hard enough to keep my balance, let alone fly my drone.  The one thing I keep forgetting about my Mavic Air is that there are no sensors on the side of it. The front, back and bottom sensors work so well that I just assume it will be able to save itself from all of my bad flying.

Well, due to my concetration on maintaining my balance, I wasn't able to "get into the direction" the drone was flying and pressed the stick the wrong way on several instances until I actually slammed it into a rock.  

The drone tried to save itself (it's done it before when I ran into a tree), but wasn't able to and it fell about 50 feet.  The damage was pretty extreme, breaking an entire leg in half.  Fortunately, I had sprung for the DJI Refresh Care insurance. 

With the Refresh Care, you get 2 claims in the first year paying $69 for the first claim and $99 for the second one.  After the second claim, you're out of luck. If you don't use both claims in the first year, you can pay to extend that claim one more year.

The funny thing is, then sent me a different drone that had the opposite side repaired on it.  I damaged the left side and they sent me a drone with repair stickers on the right side on the same parts. Funny coincidence I guess. 

Check out the video for the crash and a test montage video at the end.