Have you crashed?

[GVDD scout]

My wife thinks I’ll never crash our drone. I’m not sure, even if “I hope not”.

I’ve read comments like “Most people crash at least once”.

Apologies if someone else has recently done a survey, but I thought it might be interesting to know - and perhaps act as a reminder that we all need to be cautious.

Any time your drone is in the air, there is risk. Even if you are careful, strange things can happen that will make you more prepared, or knee wobbling paranoid. Case in point: I've broken a few propellers, and have replacements in the box with me at all times. I must have used one of the old blades and did not lock it down correctly even though I do check them, and found myself at 200 feet over a parking lot when my camera feed pitched hard right, and when I looked up The drone was coming down... end result was a a crack in the right leg, 2 broken blades, one totally missing, but stopped legs and camera up. Found the undamaged propeller a few days later. No signs of anything mid-air strike, must have been???

 

[JohnnyB]

OA will make your AC do some weird movements at times if you fly close to things. Most of the time I have mine turned off due to flying close to trees a lot. I took a flight this summer to a water tower and back, with OA on, and when I returned I flew around an out building between the building and a telephone pole. The pole was on the right and building on the left and I was flying between about 3' off the ground.. it sensed the pole and made a sudden dart left and hit the building in kind of a slow motion. I had time to counter the movement with a stick command in the opposite direction but it didn't make a difference. Broke 2 props and barely cracked the shell where the landing gear attached... User error.. if I had turned OA off before flying close to the objects (on purpose) it wouldn't have happened. Most crashes are user error.

 

[ftttu]

I posted earlier in this thread about a couple of my mishaps, but I posted in another thread about my most recent which was yesterday. I'm not going to rehash it here, but my big lesson is TO NOT RUSH your pre-flight even if you have a lot of experience.

 

[Raptorman0909]

I've posted this before, there's always someone coming along to report there war stories, so one more time...

Not quite 2 years ago, while flying my Inspire 1 Pro, I had a close call, a really close call, then an impact with a tree that damaged one of the props. Amazingly I managed to get the drone back home 76 seconds later without crashing into the ground.

I've had my P4P for more than a year now and have flown more than twice as many hours with it than the I1Pro and so far no crashes or impacts though I've had two occasions when the Go 4 app closed itself mid flight -- I managed to reload the Go 4 app and resume the flight on both occasions without further problems. I really recommend people NOT to panic if something goes wrong -- think the problem through and if it was going to crash it was going to crash so don't make it do it by over reacting.


Brian

 

[Raptorman0909]

I posted earlier in this thread about a couple of my mishaps, but I posted in another thread about my most recent which was yesterday. I'm not going to rehash it here, but my big lesson is TO NOT RUSH your pre-flight even if you have a lot of experience.

Indeed, see my post (#64) right after yours and check out the video I linked. If you rush things and fail to properly review the location first the odds of something bad happening go up BIG TIME.


Brian

 

[African wildlife]

Ftttu & Brian: Very true. We can’t hear such advice/warnings enough.

 

[Brother Dave]

I have crashed many times, mostly with “learning” drones. I used the Syma X8C. I had several of them. One of them, I crashed so many times, I named it Tree Hugger, lol. I lost that one 80’ up in an oak tree. I could see it from my garage. I watched it for 3 months, until Hurricane Matthew blew it down. It was full of water. After a couple of days of drying, I put in a new battery, and it flew almost as good as normal.

 

[African wildlife]

That made me laugh, Brother Dave.

Perhaps you could rewrite the lyrics of Neil Diamond's classic "Brother Dave's Flying Salvation Drone" and use it for a compilation video of your crashes?!

 

[Brother Dave]

Hahaha, I didn’t know about that song, but it sure fits. I’ll have to look into it,lol. [emoji1303]

 

[Brother Dave]

That made me laugh, Brother Dave.

Perhaps you could rewrite the lyrics of Neil Diamond's classic "Brother Dave's Flying Salvation Drone" and use it for a compilation video of your crashes?!

Found the song. Let’s see about the compilation now! I think I have enough shots from the Drone. I don’t have any from a different perspective, but maybe I can compile them in an interesting way. Worth a shot!
What was it someone said in a post yesterday? “You never know where the next great idea is going to come from!”

 

[African wildlife]

Obviously, I was originally just joking. But, yes, it’s a good idea and would be a great entertaining match if done well. If you do do it, please let me know. I’d be happy to comment on the editing and audio match. Make sure that you use the classic “live” version from the original “Hot August Night” album (1972).

Should you change the lyrics and record your own version over the soundtrack, send it to Neil’s agent for forwarding. It will be appreciated, I’m sure. I’ve quoted lyrics many times in at least three of my books and singer/songwriters are very approachable (albeit initially through their agents).

 

[African wildlife]

YouTube will allow a parody of a licensed song, by the way.

“Despacito” by Lois Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee is a phenomenal YouTube success - the biggest ever - with 4.7 billion views so far. And several drone shots are featured early on in the video.

Whereas not in the same league (and not overly funny), the parody “I wear speedos” to the same music has achieved 14 million views.

The original “Despacito” video is well made, largely shot from the ground, of course. (Please ignore the Justin-Bieber-getting-in-on-the-act version.) Along with the similarly-popular video of “Bailando” by Enrique Inglesias & Co (English or Spanish version), it has relevance for any drone pilot who wants to learn how to put together and edit a professional, entertaining video.

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Hypothetically speaking, would overshooting the home point on RTH and landing in a traffic lane, then being hit by a oncoming vehicle technically qualify as a "crash"? Just wondering.

 

[African wildlife]

Apologies, RunningWithScissors, because it sounds serious and expensive (not to mention any damage to the oncoming vehicle), but it sounds funny - like a scene out of a comedy film. Perhaps it’s my British sense of humour?! RTH has a generally good reputation from what I’ve picked up, but I always trust myself to do manual landings. Now I’m even more convinced!

Did this actually happen to you? Or were you literally just speaking hypothetically? If it did happen, yes, it’s a crash in my view. And perhaps a malfunction claim to DJI?!

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Did this actually happen to you? Or were you literally just speaking hypothetically? If it did happen, yes, it’s a crash in my view. And perhaps a malfunction claim to DJI?!

Disconnecting from the controller, never regaining signal, overshooting the home point on RTH, then landing in a traffic lane, that definitely happened. And the drone did narrowly avoid becoming a fatality. Had some kind person not seen the drone land in the street and removed it to safety just 10 seconds before a car passed through, this story would have had a very different (and very sad) ending. Moral of the story? Don't let your kids play (or land) in the street.
Some time later, I thought about what MIGHT have been had the car actually hit it. Like you, I pictured a scene straight out of Monty Python where the drone looses all contact and (against all odds) makes the long, perilous, flight back home over a large body of water, lands safely, only to be smashed to pieces by an oncoming car. I replay the actual flight video occasional just to remind me of what CAN go wrong.

 

[lmccluer]

At first flight.

Well, I guess if you have to have it happen, at least it was in a beautiful location. That one rock formation at time 00:52-00:55, looks like a devil type face, that’s smiling at you!

 

[lmccluer]

African Wildlife: It was my first drone and first flight. I love to fly through narrow canyons and thanks God we have several such places here. I accepted associated risk and I love to do that again. Actually I have already done that:

Beautiful! At first the fish were all over the place like, what kind of bird is this!!! Then, it looked like you were herding them.

 

[OOO]

Beautiful! At first the fish were all over the place like, what kind of bird is this!!! Then, it looked like you were herding them.

White eagle (P4P). Herding [emoji16][emoji1303]

 

[African wildlife]

Disconnecting from the controller, never regaining signal, overshooting the home point on RTH, then landing in a traffic lane, that definitely happened. And the drone did narrowly avoid becoming a fatality. Had some kind person not seen the drone land in the street and removed it to safety just 10 seconds before a car passed through, this story would have had a very different (and very sad) ending. Moral of the story? Don't let your kids play (or land) in the street.
Some time later, I thought about what MIGHT have been had the car actually hit it. Like you, I pictured a scene straight out of Monty Python where the drone looses all contact and (against all odds) makes the long, perilous, flight back home over a large body of water, lands safely, only to be smashed to pieces by an oncoming car. I replay the actual flight video occasional just to remind me of what CAN go wrong.

I almost mentioned Monty Python myself in my first reply. Delighted you were lucky.

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Delighted you were lucky.

I have to believe it was more of a blessing than it was luck. The story also includes a number of phone calls over four weeks between myself and the woman who found it, and a three hour drive back to the scene of the crime, but that's another story for another day.