And everything was going so well.....

[rpg67]

My sexy Santa brought me a P3pro.
Spent about 7 days reading, watching vids and many many informative posts here.
Flew on my property in beginner mode about 10x all went extremely well.
About another 5-7 flights out of beginner mode all well.
Would have more flights but temps have been in single digits here lately.

And then this.

Took the drone to a friends business to get some photos for him.
Went up 400 ft to got some awesome shots of the mountains, all went well.

Now down to 150 ft taking pictures of friends business and all goes well.
Decide one last shot, want to get better angle come down to 95 ft.
Now I back up a little and need to rotate left to frame the shot ( the drone is facing me)
I know I am in an opening about 80 ft wide with trees behind, to the right and left .
I mistakenly hit right control stick moving the drone to it's right, my left instead of left stick for rotation.
basically flying by camera view even though the drone is line of sight ( my mistake)
I hear the props chopping branches (gut wrenching sound if you have never heard this) look up and have landed the drone into the tip top of a 100 ft pine tree.
I execute CSC shutting down the motors.

Now after the initial shock of my stupidity wears off what to do next.

-I figured I'll attempt to fly it out even if it falls. No Go props won't start Motor obstruction and unlevel warnings.
-I have a friend with a bucket truck!! No Go it only goes 80' working height and did I mention the power line between pavement and tree?
- My friend who owns the property says he know a guy who is a profession tree climber for a tree removal company!!

Said friend calls his buddy who is busy but will come by with his gear that afternoon.
We all meet there at 3:30pm will be dark in 40mins and the next day heavy rain is forecast.
At this point I believe the drone will be chalked up as a loss.

The tree guy is young,full of piss and vinegar and wants to do it now he has a headlight all kinds of climbing gear but is not sure he can get all the way to the top because the tree gets very thin.
All sorts of suggestions are made. shaking the tree as far up as he gets. but he says " I can top the tree but I would think it will wreck the drone on the way down"
I agree to what ever action can be taken a broken drone is better than no drone right?

He heads up the tree chainsaw clipped to his belt
It's now dark btw and we can see his progress by his headlight

He gets to about 85 ft and can go no farther "Want me to top the tree?"

Sure I say

The chain saw starts and here comes my drone and the tree top to the crashing to the ground.

"You OK up there???"

"Yeah I am ok but what about the drone?"

We head to the crash site trudging through snow flashlights a blaring. There she is I pick it up camera and gimbal hanging limp by a cable, prop gaurds and props busted.

Tree guy rapells down and says " I'm sorry I tried, I really have to go suppose to be at a dinner with my girlfiend"
" What do I owe you?" I say
"How does $50.00 sound? I really did'nt save it" He says.
I hand him a $100.00 bill and he says "Thanks" I say "No, Thank You!"

Now homeward with broken drone in tow

How Lucky can one idiot be?

The Only parts that are really damaged are
2-Props
2-Prop Guards
1- Gimbal mounting plate

I ordered the mounting plate new guards and new spare props.

Installed the new parts calibrated everything and to my surprise the drone works fine!!

I am posting this for your entertainment.
I am not posting this to be scolded, lectured nor told that I am an idiot I already know that

 

[probonic]

That's lucky. To my mind, your story does not make you an idiot. An idiot is someone who flies recklessly and does things knowing it's dangerous. You simply had what we will all experience (if we haven't already) - an unfortunate incident. Lesson learned.

Anyway, it's good to hear everything's working again now

 

[Kenwae]

Some good luck there. I've had a few crashes into trees, no damage like that, but was pleasantly surprised as to the sturdiness of the drone.

 

[royster]

Well, glad you got her back & hope nothing seriously wrong with her. I had the exact same scenario happen to me on , oh about flight # 3. I'd decided that after 2 flights I had mastered all one has to know to fly my P3A & went over a small forest looking for a Syma X5C, I'd "parked" at the very top of a 60's conifer. Looking at my monitor I did notice the tops of the trees, waving from my prop. wash, You think I would have realized I;m to low, but I didn't until I heard that dreaded ESC screaming, did the CSC & parked my brand new, P3A next to the previously parked Syma! 2 days later I;ve found a Cliff climber that will scale anything for $100.00
Walking under the thick forest (an old reforestation site, tress planted approx. 24" apart, so you cannot even see tree tops) he spotted my battery first & then I saw her- Laying upside down on the forest floor.
I guess because of the bedding of dead conifer needles, which had to be 2-3' thick, softening the fall there was not a mark on my bird or battery, like not a smudge!
Lesson learned, when I doubt, go for altitude!
Again, so glad you got her with hopefully minimal damage!

 

[Suhail78]

reminds me of the time i almost dunked my drone into a lake b/c i hit down on the wrong stick! lol

I was flying out over the lake one day, and was cruising the shoreline...wanted to fly backwards towards me to get some great footage of the water breaking onto the shore, so i line up my bird just right, center the shoreline in the frame, and then instead of hitting the right stick down, i hit the left stick down and almost put the drone right into the water....Thankfully i caught myself inches above the drink! That was definitely an OH **** moment, so i can totally relate when you hit the wrong stick by mistake! Glad you got her back and patched her up!!

 

[DavidRumbles]

Wow that is lucky! My stomach was turning half way through that story! We all learn from our mistakes!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[Digdat0]

should have gotten video of the tree topping! sucks, heres to getting it all fixed!

 

[rpg67]

Thanks everyone for being cool.
The drone after replacing a couple parts is fine.
I did take a picture and vid from the tree top, here is a pic , the vid is way too embarrassing it shows me walking around crying like a child who broke his toy.

 

[schlepprock]

Thanks everyone for being cool.
The drone after replacing a couple parts is fine.
I did take a picture and vid from the tree top, here is a pic , the vid is way too embarrassing it shows me walking around crying like a child who broke his toy.

Correction.. You were crying like a kid who broke a very expensive toy.

 

[Tarpon6]

YOU IDIOT!!! Just kidding of course. That's the sort of thing that could happen to anyone. The best part is that the drone survived with relatively minor damage. When you said he was topping the tree I was sure it was going to be total loss. Nice to read some happy endings now and then.

 

[Smallz]

The only stupid, snapper head thing you did was not getting the tree climbing guy topping the tree and teasing all of us with no video. Great news that you got everything fixed and running again, couldn't have a better ending


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