Hey Guys,
First post here in a looooooong time. That's because I haven't flown in a long time. But today was an unusually warm day for the end of December, so I decided to charge everything up and go for it. It had been so long in fact, that it took four attempts to get the flight battery hooked up correctly to the charger without errors. I forgot totally to plug in the balance leads and couldn't figure out why it kept going into alarm. Anyway, I got a good charge on my 4S Multistar 8000 and decided it was time to try to remember the launch sequence for the DJI F550. Everything went great, including firing up the FPV, so it was up, up, and away. I flew for what seemed like a really long time and the voltage telemetry still showed 14.8V. So I flew back to the rear of the house, walking behind it, where the pond is located. The pond is only about a half acre, so once I flew up and down once, I was almost done, when I decided to go to the other end, right over the middle of the pond and hover. I hadn't checked my voltage since being out in the field where it was 14.8V, so I figured I still had plenty, no need to check: WRONG. As I rotated the nose of the craft facing me, I was about to push the stick forward and it started to descend very slowly. I started screaming NO NO NO NO, over and over, but that didn't help. So I went immediately into panic mode, as many of us do, and just stood there watching it get closer to the water. When I realized it was going to get wet, I started moving all the sticks like crazy, but no effect at all on the craft. I looked down at the Black Pearl monitor and the screen was dark, even though I had just charged the monitor battery. Now I was totally confused and kept pushing the stick up for more altitude. It lifted maybe an inch or two then submerged. I got rid of my wallet and shirt and plunged into the water. Now I know why people drown from hypothermia so quickly. The water was about chest deep, but my feet were so cold and hurting from the cold water, I could hardly walk. It had been in the thirties and forties for weeks before this warm spell, so that water was cold. I finally found the place where I thought it went down, but it wasn't there. I tried a few others, ...no luck. Then my foot hit something and I reached down and felt one of the six arms. I pulled it out of the water and four of the six props were STILL SPINNING! My hands were too slippery to disconnect the main battery cable so I used my teeth. Lucky for me, the two props that had been jammed by debris were on the arms I was grabbing. If I had reached for the other arms, I would have been sliced up nicely. I waded back through the cold water and could feel nothing but pain in my feet. I was getting pretty scared by now.
After seeing that a hair dryer was doing absolutely nothing to get rid of the water in the motors, I decided to use compressed air, which worked great. Everything "looks" dry now, after a thorough blowing out, but I'm not going to apply power for at least three more days and let it stay in the warm house until then. Direct sun is not an option, as we are slated for five consecutive days of rain. The only thing I can come up with is that the voltage in the battery dropped off very quickly, and that's why the craft could not maintain altitude and descended very slowly. I learned two lessons today. 1) I ain't EVER flying over water again!!! and 2) I'm going to watch that voltage reading on the screen like a freaking hawk! Even if she won't start up again, I have a total loss replacement policy with State Farm, so I'll be able to build another one from scratch.
I thought I would post this, hoping someone could learn from my mistake, and come out better than I did. Mods, if you think this needs to be moved, have at it. I just thought it might get more exposure here than in another forum. Oh, I learned one other thing, ...don't go swimming at the end of December!!! Y'all have fun now, ya hear?
First post here in a looooooong time. That's because I haven't flown in a long time. But today was an unusually warm day for the end of December, so I decided to charge everything up and go for it. It had been so long in fact, that it took four attempts to get the flight battery hooked up correctly to the charger without errors. I forgot totally to plug in the balance leads and couldn't figure out why it kept going into alarm. Anyway, I got a good charge on my 4S Multistar 8000 and decided it was time to try to remember the launch sequence for the DJI F550. Everything went great, including firing up the FPV, so it was up, up, and away. I flew for what seemed like a really long time and the voltage telemetry still showed 14.8V. So I flew back to the rear of the house, walking behind it, where the pond is located. The pond is only about a half acre, so once I flew up and down once, I was almost done, when I decided to go to the other end, right over the middle of the pond and hover. I hadn't checked my voltage since being out in the field where it was 14.8V, so I figured I still had plenty, no need to check: WRONG. As I rotated the nose of the craft facing me, I was about to push the stick forward and it started to descend very slowly. I started screaming NO NO NO NO, over and over, but that didn't help. So I went immediately into panic mode, as many of us do, and just stood there watching it get closer to the water. When I realized it was going to get wet, I started moving all the sticks like crazy, but no effect at all on the craft. I looked down at the Black Pearl monitor and the screen was dark, even though I had just charged the monitor battery. Now I was totally confused and kept pushing the stick up for more altitude. It lifted maybe an inch or two then submerged. I got rid of my wallet and shirt and plunged into the water. Now I know why people drown from hypothermia so quickly. The water was about chest deep, but my feet were so cold and hurting from the cold water, I could hardly walk. It had been in the thirties and forties for weeks before this warm spell, so that water was cold. I finally found the place where I thought it went down, but it wasn't there. I tried a few others, ...no luck. Then my foot hit something and I reached down and felt one of the six arms. I pulled it out of the water and four of the six props were STILL SPINNING! My hands were too slippery to disconnect the main battery cable so I used my teeth. Lucky for me, the two props that had been jammed by debris were on the arms I was grabbing. If I had reached for the other arms, I would have been sliced up nicely. I waded back through the cold water and could feel nothing but pain in my feet. I was getting pretty scared by now.
After seeing that a hair dryer was doing absolutely nothing to get rid of the water in the motors, I decided to use compressed air, which worked great. Everything "looks" dry now, after a thorough blowing out, but I'm not going to apply power for at least three more days and let it stay in the warm house until then. Direct sun is not an option, as we are slated for five consecutive days of rain. The only thing I can come up with is that the voltage in the battery dropped off very quickly, and that's why the craft could not maintain altitude and descended very slowly. I learned two lessons today. 1) I ain't EVER flying over water again!!! and 2) I'm going to watch that voltage reading on the screen like a freaking hawk! Even if she won't start up again, I have a total loss replacement policy with State Farm, so I'll be able to build another one from scratch.
I thought I would post this, hoping someone could learn from my mistake, and come out better than I did. Mods, if you think this needs to be moved, have at it. I just thought it might get more exposure here than in another forum. Oh, I learned one other thing, ...don't go swimming at the end of December!!! Y'all have fun now, ya hear?
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