Hey doods!
So I was flying a mapping mission today. My partner and I parse out the job and fly 2 drones at once. Because we generally fly in remote areas, clean landing space is at a premium. So more often than not, he just catches the drones as I bring them in.
Well today, instead of keeping my eyes on the drone, I was looking at the iPad during RTH. I usually wait until she's about 1,000' out and then start looking for her. I do this so I can bring her in on a glide slope. This is way more efficient than allowing the drone to get directly over head, and THEN descending.
Well today, for whatever reason, I allowed my attention to get focused on the iPad and the orientation of drone, which had turned 90°. I like keeping the camera forward so I can make sure I'm not running into anything. I was bouncing back and forth between the FPV image and the little drone icon, when all of the sudden I hear the horrifying sound of plastic impacting wood. My partner yells, "Dude...you hit the pole!" I somehow managed to descend too low, and I grazed the the top of a telephone pole! CRAP!
But wait....she's still flying! Okay....so I bring her in and the gimbal is going nuts. We power cycle the drone and the gimbal comes up normally. We inspect the P4P thoroughly for cracks, scrapes and/or abrasions...nothing! We inspect the props. Perfect. We flew the next leg of the mission, no problems!
Somehow I managed to hit a telephone pole hard enough that we heard it from 200' away, but not hard enough to do any damage. Apparently, I had just grazed the top of the telephone pole. Zero damage! HA! Lesson learned!
It seems I have Karma left over from the last TWO drones I lost to bad propellers! HA!
D
So I was flying a mapping mission today. My partner and I parse out the job and fly 2 drones at once. Because we generally fly in remote areas, clean landing space is at a premium. So more often than not, he just catches the drones as I bring them in.
Well today, instead of keeping my eyes on the drone, I was looking at the iPad during RTH. I usually wait until she's about 1,000' out and then start looking for her. I do this so I can bring her in on a glide slope. This is way more efficient than allowing the drone to get directly over head, and THEN descending.
Well today, for whatever reason, I allowed my attention to get focused on the iPad and the orientation of drone, which had turned 90°. I like keeping the camera forward so I can make sure I'm not running into anything. I was bouncing back and forth between the FPV image and the little drone icon, when all of the sudden I hear the horrifying sound of plastic impacting wood. My partner yells, "Dude...you hit the pole!" I somehow managed to descend too low, and I grazed the the top of a telephone pole! CRAP!
But wait....she's still flying! Okay....so I bring her in and the gimbal is going nuts. We power cycle the drone and the gimbal comes up normally. We inspect the P4P thoroughly for cracks, scrapes and/or abrasions...nothing! We inspect the props. Perfect. We flew the next leg of the mission, no problems!
Somehow I managed to hit a telephone pole hard enough that we heard it from 200' away, but not hard enough to do any damage. Apparently, I had just grazed the top of the telephone pole. Zero damage! HA! Lesson learned!
It seems I have Karma left over from the last TWO drones I lost to bad propellers! HA!
D
