Caught in the rain on a Litchi mission :-(

[Kwaka Pants]

Yep, what a nightmare.
Been practicing with Litchi for a few weeks now, building up my trust in it to do what it says.
So finally plucked up courage to send it off on a little trip.
However, things don't always go to plan as the youtube clip shows...
No fault of Litchi, or the P3S, so that just leaves bad luck and poor weather perception. Saw it creeping over the hills in the distance, but poor timing, appeared just as the P3 reached the furthest distance.

 

[ArMen56k]

I thought it would crash... Great vidéo of the coming rain

 

[Cobs]

Looks a great place for flying too, use this site - its the most accurate i find, ive shower dodged for yrs using it ... BBC Weather

 

[Kwaka Pants]

Yeah, the good old beeb, never wrong lol, just ask Michael Fish
There were showers on and off, was clear as a bell when I set it off. Doh!

 

[Mark The Droner]

Is that Scotland?

 

[Kwaka Pants]

Is that Scotland?

Nope, bit further south, England!

 

[Mark The Droner]

Roger that

Thanks for posting

 

[Rodcast]

I hate to see you ran into rain but the footage was amazing!


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[hummingbirdaerialstudio]

Beautiful video. What was the outcome to your aircraft? Does Litchi allow you to fly preprogrammed beyond typical operating ranges?


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots

 

[OrlyP]

Wow! First time I've seen a Phantom flying through rain, much less getting a decent footage of it.

I hope it didn't cause damage.

 

[Smurdley]

Here is my foray into inclement weather. This was an autonomous Litchi waypoint flight. No way to recall it.

 

[CrispyClaret]

Typical Pennines weather, from glorious to rubbish in minutes but it makes for such gorgeous landscapes and I miss it. Moving from Burnley to scarily flat Lincs is not good for the artistic soul, although weather is drier a bit.
Poor Michael Fish, I was living on the south coast at the time and still have photos of the carnage, 5 mile detour to work because of fallen trees.

 

[Kwaka Pants]

Yes, I remember it too, nearly took the roof off the place I worked at at the time! Love the hills around here, great scenery.
Litchi, yes, allows you to fly out of transmitter range, and will just carry on and complete the mission. Obviously you need to be extremely careful in the knowledge of where you're sending it to as regards altitudes and obstacles. And the weather pmsl!
So far, it seems to be ok, but the next flights will have to be close in and careful. Thanks for the praise guys.

 

[CrispyClaret]

Now you have successfully done all weather testing, an early morning Litchi mission around Bolton Abbey would be fairly cool, a flight down the Strid would be interesting as well if the steep valley and trees dont mess up the gps. Brimham rocks are another possibility.

 

[Kwaka Pants]

I'll see what I can do, at least they're all in my area
Doubt litchi on gps would work under the trees by the strid, so a bit of atti flying would be required...

 

[CrispyClaret]

Watch the moss, those rocks are dangerously slippy and you cant exactly swim out of the Strid.
For anyone not in the know, the Strid is a narrow rushing torrent of water near Bolton Abbey. It looks just about wide enough to jump across, but one side is higher than the other so you won't make the return jump and the water is a turbulent little whirlpool. Go in and you don't pop out. An interesting feature are all these little bowl shape depressions in the rocks caused by pebbles being spun round in the water.

 

[Kwaka Pants]

Here is my foray into inclement weather. This was an autonomous Litchi waypoint flight. No way to recall it.

Great editing and music! Did you suffer any lasting damage, and what did you do to dry it out afterwards?
Cheers!

 

[Smurdley]

Great editing and music! Did you suffer any lasting damage, and what did you do to dry it out afterwards?
Cheers!

Thanks! I'm pleased to report there was no damage at all even with the hard landing. I had no idea it had survived the flight until I saw it about 10' off the ground, just before impact.
After removing the battery, I shook out as much water as I could. Then I blew compressed air into the motors and various vents. Last step was to use a hair dryer on low heat blowing into the battery compartment for about 15 minutes. The next morning I cleaned the camera lens, calibrated the RC, IMU, compass, and gimbal, crossed my fingers and did an auto-takeoff. I let it hover for about 10 minutes and everything has worked great ever since.
I know I was lucky. These things are not designed for rain.

 

[Kwaka Pants]

Mine seems ok so far, but not flown it yet, dried it off as best I could then keeping somewhere warm. Was lucky that it avoided most of the downpour, where I was it'd been raining 5 minutes, but the quad came into it from the side, probably only a couple of minutes at most in the worst of it.