crashed in river, went swimming in -1 degree C

[oldcollier]

Hi all.
I don't post much but occasionally look on forums for tips and experience of others so thought worth sharing my experience which some may also find amusing.
Was flying along a pretty river in Germany at night when I stupidly collided with some branches.
Tried to pull out and climb but no luck, dropped into river!!
Made a note of where it landed, now had to work out how to get to the river from the town!
15 mins later, managed to get to where I thought it crashed so walked near edge and low and behold saw some flashing light about 10' in.
So this is in centre of a town, park area, lots of people walking through on other side, and I am under a big light and its almost freezing point.
Bit the bullet, stripped to pants, put clothes close to edge ready to get warm and took the plunge. The drone was about 5' down so had to dive down to it.
Got it out, got to river edge and removed battery, then wipded down and got dressed fast before anyone could film me, maybe they thought I was a street entertainer under the light lol
Anyway, got back to room, recovered images and film ok, thanks to software downloaded from a link on here.
No how to recover, many stories on here so worth a go.
Emptied water out, no tools here so just dried with hair drier and left to dry in warm place.
24 hours on thought would give it a go, had couple of esc errors and altitude fluctuating so witched off.
More hair drier and left another day.
Turned on all looked ok.
Started up and left running until battery run out, letting props get more air in and give electronics chance to warm up.
Swapped for another battery, flew indoors no gps with me holding it gently incase it decided to fly off.
All ok, tried up and down forward and back while holding, all ok.
Took lens cover off to clean.
Today went to a bigggg field to test it fully all functions and full speed all directions.
Everything worked perfect, in fact less compass error so maybe water cleaned out some dust lol.
Hopefully it will remain like this as it was in fresh water, just lost 1 battery.
More time to save for a pro4 at least.
Hopefully the pics upload

 

[Gtarman52]

Good for you ! I lost one in the Ohio river in the middle. Never was found. Happy for you !!

 

[solentlife]

You are one real lucky guy ...

My P3S went into a river ... rescued and totally ********'d..... battery an all.

It only takes a small amount of contamination in the river water and ZAP ...

Nigel

 

[alokbhargava]

Bravo [emoji122]

 

[Jayfdee]

Exactly what I would have done,in fact I once dropped a camera in a river and stripped off to dive about 2metres under to rescue it.
Had to go to the pub in my undies to recover ,but I got a free drink in the pub for entertaining the customers, up north in U.K. We are quite relaxed about this sort of behaviour.

 

[BoneThrower13]

Hi all.
I don't post much but occasionally look on forums for tips and experience of others so thought worth sharing my experience which some may also find amusing.
Was flying along a pretty river in Germany at night when I stupidly collided with some branches.
Tried to pull out and climb but no luck, dropped into river!!
Made a note of where it landed, now had to work out how to get to the river from the town!
15 mins later, managed to get to where I thought it crashed so walked near edge and low and behold saw some flashing light about 10' in.
So this is in centre of a town, park area, lots of people walking through on other side, and I am under a big light and its almost freezing point.
Bit the bullet, stripped to pants, put clothes close to edge ready to get warm and took the plunge. The drone was about 5' down so had to dive down to it.
Got it out, got to river edge and removed battery, then wipded down and got dressed fast before anyone could film me, maybe they thought I was a street entertainer under the light lol
Anyway, got back to room, recovered images and film ok, thanks to software downloaded from a link on here.
No how to recover, many stories on here so worth a go.
Emptied water out, no tools here so just dried with hair drier and left to dry in warm place.
24 hours on thought would give it a go, had couple of esc errors and altitude fluctuating so witched off.
More hair drier and left another day.
Turned on all looked ok.
Started up and left running until battery run out, letting props get more air in and give electronics chance to warm up.
Swapped for another battery, flew indoors no gps with me holding it gently incase it decided to fly off.
All ok, tried up and down forward and back while holding, all ok.
Took lens cover off to clean.
Today went to a bigggg field to test it fully all functions and full speed all directions.
Everything worked perfect, in fact less compass error so maybe water cleaned out some dust lol.
Hopefully it will remain like this as it was in fresh water, just lost 1 battery.
More time to save for a pro4 at least.
Hopefully the pics upload

WOW what a story to remember very nice pictures also !

 

[Nightwolf]

Well Done, and some nice pictures. thanks for posting.

 

[funnyman850]

I did a similar thing. Hit a branch at a freshwater pond last February then it inverted and flew straight down into the pond had no control. The battery shot out the drone on impact with the water according to what was on my screen. Some random guy that was there said he say bubbles and I got in the water and was looking for it for like 10 minutes before I found it. Luckily it hadn't fallen 6 inches closer to the jetty because under it was a super strong current that lead to good know where. It just dropped off right under it so I held on to the jetty while looking for it with my feet. Eventually found it and then brought it home dried it out and it didn't turn on. I leave it out for a few months and then put a new battery in and hold a capacitor on that came off and it booted right up. I spent the next 3 months troubleshooting shooting and figured out to replace the ofdm module and the gimbal cable. Works like new now. Most of the water was frozen then except in that one part.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

Nice images.

One slight suggestion. Fly just a bit earlier so that the dynamic range of your photos is reduced. Then set contrast to very low so that the resulting histogram is narrow. Then, in post processing, you will loose nothing in the bright or dark areas. You can then darken or lighten to suit your objectives.

 

[Melvoid]

Hi all.
I don't post much but occasionally look on forums for tips and experience of others so thought worth sharing my experience which some may also find amusing.
Was flying along a pretty river in Germany at night when I stupidly collided with some branches.
Tried to pull out and climb but no luck, dropped into river!!
Made a note of where it landed, now had to work out how to get to the river from the town!
15 mins later, managed to get to where I thought it crashed so walked near edge and low and behold saw some flashing light about 10' in.
So this is in centre of a town, park area, lots of people walking through on other side, and I am under a big light and its almost freezing point.
Bit the bullet, stripped to pants, put clothes close to edge ready to get warm and took the plunge. The drone was about 5' down so had to dive down to it.
Got it out, got to river edge and removed battery, then wipded down and got dressed fast before anyone could film me, maybe they thought I was a street entertainer under the light lol
Anyway, got back to room, recovered images and film ok, thanks to software downloaded from a link on here.
No how to recover, many stories on here so worth a go.
Emptied water out, no tools here so just dried with hair drier and left to dry in warm place.
24 hours on thought would give it a go, had couple of esc errors and altitude fluctuating so witched off.
More hair drier and left another day.
Turned on all looked ok.
Started up and left running until battery run out, letting props get more air in and give electronics chance to warm up.
Swapped for another battery, flew indoors no gps with me holding it gently incase it decided to fly off.
All ok, tried up and down forward and back while holding, all ok.
Took lens cover off to clean.
Today went to a bigggg field to test it fully all functions and full speed all directions.
Everything worked perfect, in fact less compass error so maybe water cleaned out some dust lol.
Hopefully it will remain like this as it was in fresh water, just lost 1 battery.
More time to save for a pro4 at least.
Hopefully the pics upload

If only the water had been -1°C... you could have just walked out and picked it up

 

[bad karma]

If only the water had been -1°C... you could have just walked out and picked it up

Leave it to a cheddarhead...

I have relatives in MN... went hunting pheasants along the Rum? River. Maybe that was the name? Anyway, I shot a rooster and it glided out onto the almost frozen river and died. I was 19, on leave from the misguided children and thought no f'in' way is my first pheasant going to rot out there on the ice. I stripped down to my tighty whiteys and went after him. Turns out the ice was really slush and I did a modified crawl/slide all the way out to that bird and back. My business turned turtle on me and I never thought I'd see my pecker again but I got my first ever rooster pheasant. Still have a picture in my den at home, me holding a shotgun and a pheasant and wearing nothing but my skivvies and a big **** eating grin... made a legend with my cousins that day it was totally worth it.

 

[Steve7777]

Hi all.
I don't post much but occasionally look on forums for tips and experience of others so thought worth sharing my experience which some may also find amusing.
Was flying along a pretty river in Germany at night when I stupidly collided with some branches.
Tried to pull out and climb but no luck, dropped into river!!
Made a note of where it landed, now had to work out how to get to the river from the town!
15 mins later, managed to get to where I thought it crashed so walked near edge and low and behold saw some flashing light about 10' in.
So this is in centre of a town, park area, lots of people walking through on other side, and I am under a big light and its almost freezing point.
Bit the bullet, stripped to pants, put clothes close to edge ready to get warm and took the plunge. The drone was about 5' down so had to dive down to it.
Got it out, got to river edge and removed battery, then wipded down and got dressed fast before anyone could film me, maybe they thought I was a street entertainer under the light lol
Anyway, got back to room, recovered images and film ok, thanks to software downloaded from a link on here.
No how to recover, many stories on here so worth a go.
Emptied water out, no tools here so just dried with hair drier and left to dry in warm place.
24 hours on thought would give it a go, had couple of esc errors and altitude fluctuating so witched off.
More hair drier and left another day.
Turned on all looked ok.
Started up and left running until battery run out, letting props get more air in and give electronics chance to warm up.
Swapped for another battery, flew indoors no gps with me holding it gently incase it decided to fly off.
All ok, tried up and down forward and back while holding, all ok.
Took lens cover off to clean.
Today went to a bigggg field to test it fully all functions and full speed all directions.
Everything worked perfect, in fact less compass error so maybe water cleaned out some dust lol.
Hopefully it will remain like this as it was in fresh water, just lost 1 battery.
More time to save for a pro4 at least.
Hopefully the pics upload

Some are more lucky - Look at this one - but not even time to strip off/put his swimmies on....

Now that's what I call 'dedication'....