Glad you're enjoying and thanks for subscribing! The Mekong River videos were flown two successive nights at sunset, with the Buddha Park video in between.
Buddha Park was frustrating, because I wasn't able to achieve live video feed there; perhaps it's because of all the rebar in the concrete statues. All the flying was done line-of-sight.
A few hours later, back at Vientiane, I flew a full battery and brought her in and put in a fresh battery. On launch, the Phantom kind of tilted over and flew a ballistic trajectory into a dried riverbed area of the river, impacting a bamboo fence. The gimbal plate was severely bent.
I've had my share of crashes caused by operator error, but that was not the case here. My P2V+ had performed flawlessly throughout Myanmar and in Laos, up until that launch.
I have a buddy who is a field engineer for a test equipment company that makes spectrum analyzers. He theorizes that there was a transmitter nearby that interfered with my signal. In the US, the FCC regulates power output for specific frequencies; either no such agency or the means to enforce that exists in Laos. Indeed, nearby workers were setting up the audio equipment at a bandshell for a live variety show which started a few minutes later.
But really, I have no idea why she crashed. My next destination was Hanoi, but I wasn't able to fly there.
Guess I'll have to go back in 2015!
