Well, I had my first crash at the weekend, and completely my fault (serious newbie error).
Was flying over a farmers field were there was a few trees in the centre, I was looking at the drone and not the screen and thought I was well clear of the tree line and decided to bring the drone down fast for a run along the field.
My depth perception was obviously not as good as I thought and I saw the drone try to brake in time when it detected the trees but it was going too fast. It hit the top of the trees and disappeared inside and I lost the video signal.
Picked up the iPad and followed the gps to where the last point seen was and as I got closer to the area I could hear the motors were still running. I panicked thinking it could be doing more damage and shut down the motors.
Started clambering through some nettles and bushes, getting cut and scratched to bits to find a stream in the middle of the trees. In the stream I saw the glowing light of a P4 battery and a broken prop floating away. No drone though. Looked up and there it was nestled in the branches. Must have hit something hard for the battery to pop out.
Anyway, rescued the drone and went home feeling rather angry at myself, but I was even more annoyed with myself when I looked at the footage. When the drone hit the trees and fell down inside, it found some space to correct itself and was just hovering inside the group of trees. The damage was caused by me shutting down the motors when I heard them still running.
Drone is still working fine after testing it with another battery (thankfully). The battery that fell in the water is dead as can be expected.
So, after all the rules in the UK of never let your drone out of your site, it is good to look at the screen at important times
Lesson learned.
Was flying over a farmers field were there was a few trees in the centre, I was looking at the drone and not the screen and thought I was well clear of the tree line and decided to bring the drone down fast for a run along the field.
My depth perception was obviously not as good as I thought and I saw the drone try to brake in time when it detected the trees but it was going too fast. It hit the top of the trees and disappeared inside and I lost the video signal.
Picked up the iPad and followed the gps to where the last point seen was and as I got closer to the area I could hear the motors were still running. I panicked thinking it could be doing more damage and shut down the motors.
Started clambering through some nettles and bushes, getting cut and scratched to bits to find a stream in the middle of the trees. In the stream I saw the glowing light of a P4 battery and a broken prop floating away. No drone though. Looked up and there it was nestled in the branches. Must have hit something hard for the battery to pop out.
Anyway, rescued the drone and went home feeling rather angry at myself, but I was even more annoyed with myself when I looked at the footage. When the drone hit the trees and fell down inside, it found some space to correct itself and was just hovering inside the group of trees. The damage was caused by me shutting down the motors when I heard them still running.
Drone is still working fine after testing it with another battery (thankfully). The battery that fell in the water is dead as can be expected.
So, after all the rules in the UK of never let your drone out of your site, it is good to look at the screen at important times
Lesson learned.
