MAYDAY, MAYDAY: Phantom lost

tawd77 said:
Your Phantom may have flown ok in drizzle, but that doesnt mean anything other than you are extremely lucky that you still have a Phantom. Unless I missed something (As I often do... Very often. :D ), I think its a REALLY bad idea to fly the Phantom in drizzle/dense fog. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't ever think of intentionally flying my Phantom in any precipitation.

I wasn't worried the least bit, it would have to down pour quite hard before I'd worry, Why you ask? All my electronics have been sprayed with a water proof coating, besides the vent holes are much too small to allow enough water to enter, so to effect anything inside. The motors aren't even effected by water, so that's a non-issue.
 
BruceTS said:
tawd77 said:
Your Phantom may have flown ok in drizzle, but that doesnt mean anything other than you are extremely lucky that you still have a Phantom. Unless I missed something (As I often do... Very often. :D ), I think its a REALLY bad idea to fly the Phantom in drizzle/dense fog. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't ever think of intentionally flying my Phantom in any precipitation.

I wasn't worried the least bit, it would have to down pour quite hard before I'd worry, Why you ask? All my electronics have been sprayed with a water proof coating, besides the vent holes are much too small to allow enough water to enter, so to effect anything inside. The motors aren't even effected by water, so that's a non-issue.

You took extra protective measures to protect your phantom from moisture. So to say that water didnt affect his phantom doesnt make any sense. If it wont harm his non waterproofed Phantom, why did you waterproof yours?
 
tawd77 said:
BruceTS said:
tawd77 said:
Your Phantom may have flown ok in drizzle, but that doesnt mean anything other than you are extremely lucky that you still have a Phantom. Unless I missed something (As I often do... Very often. :D ), I think its a REALLY bad idea to fly the Phantom in drizzle/dense fog. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't ever think of intentionally flying my Phantom in any precipitation.

I wasn't worried the least bit, it would have to down pour quite hard before I'd worry, Why you ask? All my electronics have been sprayed with a water proof coating, besides the vent holes are much too small to allow enough water to enter, so to effect anything inside. The motors aren't even effected by water, so that's a non-issue.

You took extra protective measures to protect your phantom from moisture. So to say that water didnt affect his phantom doesnt make any sense. If it wont harm his non waterproofed Phantom, why did you waterproof yours?

I'm not sure spraying anything in/on the Phantom with a waterproof coating, whether it be NeverWet or anything else, is a good idea, particularly on something like a motor that generates (and needs to dissipate) heat.

Mike
 
Magnumb said:
It sounds like he actually had a break in the weather vs. Flying into bad weather people. He sounds like a sharp chap, so I'm sure he could figure out if he was in moisture aloft. So let's give the man some credit!

If it wasn't raining at the time and your FPV image was clear, then I agree that it sounds like you lost a motor/prop. Hell of a thing the weather and so sorry to hear of your loss! :cry:

I can also say it rarely helps to get free advice after the fact (you know who you are) so I applaude you on taking any commentary politely. That said there have been some great ideas to prevent total loss in the future.

Despite our best efforts though, this kind of thing will always be a real possibility. More than anything, its very instructional to hear about it. It takes guts to even mention it here, no one wants to be "that guy", so I applaude once again your willingness to share as it helps us all out as a community.

Short of losing a prop, likely the only issue would have been winds aloft and it blowing you downwind in an unexpected direction. Not a major issue in GPS mode.

I do have an idea to help you look in the right direction for the crash site. Wind backs or veers as you go up in altitude. You likely had a low in the area at the time of the crash, so I would suggest looking 90deg left of downwind. Windspeed increases and backs counter clockwise in or around a low, or in cool unstable air behind a cold front for example. So, likely you should widen your search left of downwind as I suggested before. You would be stunned how much the wind will back or veer as it frees itself from ground based turbulance. Especially at 2k feet. About 200' agl will be high enough to make a difference depending on local terrain, trees and vegetation.

1 hope that helps you in your search.


Hey there, thanks for your valuable information. For the three days after the crash I searched far and wide. The problem/s are that in the approximate area of the crash are lots of trees and bodies of water, farm land (with nearly mature crops) and a large property development. I guess that part of the responsibility of ownership of these types of machines is being realistic when one goes missing. Yes, I searched carefully and methodically where possible but I was not about to go thrashing through some farmers crops causing damage, nor was I going to climb over people's fences to see if it was in their back yard. Ironically, the one useful tool that could have assisted me was the very thing I was searching for.

In the last 2 days we have had quite a nasty storm system move over this part of New Zealand which has brought sustained heavy rain and wind gusts. As soon as I heard the rain start hitting the roof I knew that if my P2 was still out there, smashed into a few pieces that the rain was going pretty much finish it off.

As early as last Saturday morning I had started re-ordering what I had lost. My new Phantom is on its way with a new gimbal (H2-3D) attached, my new Gopro arrived yesterday and the new iOSD and Immersion TX should be here any day. Even if I couldn't really afford to replace this kit, I would have found a way.
 
tawd77 said:
You took extra protective measures to protect your phantom from moisture. So to say that water didnt affect his phantom doesnt make any sense. If it wont harm his non waterproofed Phantom, why did you waterproof yours?

OK the vent holes in the frame are much too small to have any significant amount of water penetrate, if any got inside it would seek the lowest point and all the electronics are raised sitting on post. He wasn't flying in rain, it was dry at the time the failure occurred, that's why it didn't affect his.

I waterproofed mine because I fly over lakes and the ocean on occasions, with flotation devices added, just extra added safety that I hope never to use.

mikeydaddio said:
I'm not sure spraying anything in/on the Phantom with a waterproof coating, whether it be NeverWet or anything else, is a good idea, particularly on something like a motor that generates (and needs to dissipate) heat.

Mike

The motors don't need to be protected, they can easily run underwater without shorting out. Coating the electronics does nothing to it's ability to dissipate heat. Can you explain why waterproofing is not a good idea other than adding a gram of weight?

BTW the motors shouldn't be getting hot, if so your having other issues like the bearing need lubricating.
 

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