This is one of the strangest incidents I have experienced and resulted in a total loss of my Phantom 2.
I was flying Phantom 2 non vision with ZenMuse gimbal and GoPro Hero 4 black. Everything standard. 4 bars of battery. Calibrated. GPS established. Not in Naza. Controls correct. Battery fully inserted. Controller on with 3 bars of power. Camera at about 45 degrees looking down.
I've flown this pattern 30 flights now at least. I'm flying over a small fishing village in Scotland at sunset. Everything normal flying out and normal on return.
Suddenly two large migrating geese, fully tagged with radio transmitters, and looking quite a bit like rare species, fly directly between the drone and me. It was beautiful and my first thought was "don't hit them". I slowed my return ever so slightly and they flew directly line of site between me and the Phantom2 with about 20 yards clearance.
The second they crossed the line of site, the Phantom dropped from the sky like it was shot by a gun. Total failure. It dropped straight down, broke into about 7 pieces on a rooftop of the tiny village, and rattle into the cobblestones.
Horrified, I rushed down only to find an elderly Scottish woman picking up the pieces.
"we were having so much fun watching you fly your little airplane", she said, "now it appears we are just Lockerbie all over again"
Leave it to a Scot to make me laugh out loud over losing a $1000 plus investment.
But now I'm haunted. What the hell happened? Could the migrating birds have caused it? Did I have total electrical failure for seemingly no reason with no warning at the exact second the birds crossed? What are the odds? Did the gimbal come loose? Fail safe failure? What happened? I have the pieces and am trying to study them but can't really say what I'm looking for. The connectors are clean to the battery and even at the crash it had 3 bars power.
Anyone ever have anything like this problem? Having bad dreams.
I was flying Phantom 2 non vision with ZenMuse gimbal and GoPro Hero 4 black. Everything standard. 4 bars of battery. Calibrated. GPS established. Not in Naza. Controls correct. Battery fully inserted. Controller on with 3 bars of power. Camera at about 45 degrees looking down.
I've flown this pattern 30 flights now at least. I'm flying over a small fishing village in Scotland at sunset. Everything normal flying out and normal on return.
Suddenly two large migrating geese, fully tagged with radio transmitters, and looking quite a bit like rare species, fly directly between the drone and me. It was beautiful and my first thought was "don't hit them". I slowed my return ever so slightly and they flew directly line of site between me and the Phantom2 with about 20 yards clearance.
The second they crossed the line of site, the Phantom dropped from the sky like it was shot by a gun. Total failure. It dropped straight down, broke into about 7 pieces on a rooftop of the tiny village, and rattle into the cobblestones.
Horrified, I rushed down only to find an elderly Scottish woman picking up the pieces.
"we were having so much fun watching you fly your little airplane", she said, "now it appears we are just Lockerbie all over again"
Leave it to a Scot to make me laugh out loud over losing a $1000 plus investment.
But now I'm haunted. What the hell happened? Could the migrating birds have caused it? Did I have total electrical failure for seemingly no reason with no warning at the exact second the birds crossed? What are the odds? Did the gimbal come loose? Fail safe failure? What happened? I have the pieces and am trying to study them but can't really say what I'm looking for. The connectors are clean to the battery and even at the crash it had 3 bars power.
Anyone ever have anything like this problem? Having bad dreams.