Skydio 2 Crash - ITS DEAD! Whats it gonna cost??

Wanna save $50 off your Skydio purchase?
Code: LifeOfAccro or AccroBrandon at checkout.

Well....it finally happened.. the day you hope never comes but possibly could =/
Is it covered? What happened? What do repairs cost if it isnt??

A recap of what happened and where things went wrong. I love my skydio 2 and whats its been capable of up to this point so living without one isnt an option.

I took it out for a nice fall day ride on the electric skateboard to get some cinematic shots earlier in the day and play with the controller and decided to ride out my last battery, i should have just gone home and we wouldnt be here, today.

Post repair video here:

Skydio 2 Beacon Holder:

pev, eskate, ebike, euc, drone, dji, mavic pro, autonomy

[Wracker]

Thanks for the shares. I have a skydio problem with the drone broken upfront camera. It amazing drone love it!

[ddrones]

Similar issue. Mine hit a high branch in a relatively treeless area. They say of course not covered by warranty. Have to buy a new one. Nice. Worse case 850 excately might as well buy a new one.

[indianagrenoble]

An french Friend's buy a Skydio 2, crash it with a small branch in last winter, and Skydio compagny says no waranty cause it's fly and crashed in France...

[UltraTrailSteven]

I just put my name on the reserve list. Good to know about the warranty!

[mattevans]

Sorry to see that. If that's not a complete total loss, I'd be really surprised.

[keithsavageone]

Wires is the death of most Skydios I see! You were still too low (in hindsight) So I'll not do it on my end. Thanks for video.

[DangerousDaveKincaid]

Bummer.. I don't think I would had been flying also in this kind of setting, to many power lines... Thank goodness it did not crash into a car below... Good luck..

[TheHelicapt]

Terms and conditions get you every time

[ernestgonzales]

I wonder what the FAA would say about flying close to powerlines?

[lifeisfuneh]

I like that you took responsibility 👍 The range of the S2 is poor and they just simply lie about the range when advertising the drone. Always make sure that the beacon or controller have direct line of sight with the drone.

[RXZ]

I admire your composure and how you handled this situation. This was my problem too, it seems with all the limitations of the Skydio 2 there aren't a lot of areas or situations you can fly this drone (public roads, power lines, trees, around people etc) unless you're really out in a wilderness, desert, secluded area which is rare at least for me. I bought the Skydio 2 thinking it is impossible to crash, now I'm thinking otherwise. Thanks for sharing and wishing you best of luck on your Skydio2 replacement.

[williambaker]

Just went through the same process, and my warranty was denied. cost me $300 to get it refurbished!

[djchesterchomp]

Hi Accro, Their safety terms also say not to fly with batteries that are damaged, dented, etc. If you spend another $850 or $1, 000 for another one, I would get Skydio to agree that your old battery is still OK to fly before using it. Otherwise if you have problems with the new drone they could accuse you of violating the safety rules and void the warranty again because of the damaged battery. Thanks for sharing your experience. I just got mine and am trying to learn as much as I can from others. -Chomp

[rogerlikes]

Sorry about your drone, I dumped my spot on the preorder list to get the mavic air 2, I am very happy with it, but I don't use it to follow my self.

[dmchorgh]

Balls. The cable was thicker than 1/4”. That’s also in the overbearing rules and regulations for the Skydio 2.

[IdahoMthman]

Sorry to hear man. I hope my mountain bike neighbor brings mine back alive. Hope you get back in the air soon

[MotoFamMayhem]

That environment was soooo not drone friendly.... I kinda felt bad for it while it was stuck in the tree 😕
#BriannaLynn24

[kensteele]

thanks for making the video. from what i can tell, those power lines are a huge problem and for that reason alone, i try not to fly anywhere near them. tree branches and such seem to still be ok but i don't trust the power lines. like you, can't see how i can live without skydio 2 but it sucks you had a crash from something that should be un-crashable,

[Canyon]

I agree that perhaps you should not have been flying in a dense "wire" environment but to be fair, many of Skydio's own marketing, while not specifically in suburban areas shows the drone avoiding small branches. And MANY, if not countless, Youtubers have shown that the Skydio 2 does great in environments with small branches and even wires. But I have seen videos where the Skydio 2 crashes after hitting wires and in one or two cases small branches.

One thing I have noticed is that the Skydio 2 does seem to basically do what it wants to do and flies low, high and right and left despite where you tell it to fly. I understand that part of this is due to it "intelligently" avoiding obstacles and finding the best path to get back to the position where you wanted it but it would be nice if it was even a little more intelligent and actually knew to fly UP and away from all obstacles so as to avoid such crashes. It seems like this would be an easy fix in theory but I don't know. I think there should (actually there NEEDS to) more options to tell the Skydio 2 what, where and how to fly. Even in wide open desert environments I have seen the Skydio 2 fly to opposite sides, behind and what not despite what was desired by the user.

I have also seen many users as well as Skydio's own team use the "manual" controller to fly the drone straight through storage sheds, warehouses and other indoor environments where there are many obstacles and tight spaces.

One thing I think people need to realize is that the manual controller doesn't really tell the Skydio where to fly. It tells the Skydio that you "would like" it to fly a certain direction. Basically, whether it's the phone, the Beacon on the manual joystick controller, you are essentially telling the drone where and how you "would like" it to fly and it takes those "instructions" into "advisement" and it's A.I. determines the best course of action to take to achieve those "instructions" as closely as possible. So in a way, you really never are flying the Skydio 2. You are just telling it what you would like it to do. There are an increasing number of videos coming out that seem show concern about how the Skydio 2 even fits into the Part 107 or hobby rules for that matter. Since it is essentially always autonomous.

According to Skydio's website, a battery costs $115. So if you didn't need a battery and the cost of repairs does end up being a full $850, then it might be better for you to try to get just a new drone with everything else, because 999-115 is 884. I don't think a set of extra propellers, the case, the charging data cable, and the wall adapter that all come with the "starter" kit is really only $34.00! But I'm wondering if Skydio would even consider that option. I hope they would!

When did you get your Skydio? I feel like your turn around time is very optimistic considering how long it takes to get them to send you a new drone from the start.

I will be interested in knowing the outcome.

[KingKromah]

how long does it take for them to reply