Opps or Don't be in a hurry to take off....

AgnotGT · Jul 31, 2016

Neighbor saw smelled & smoke; called. Grab the bird and do everything different and launch. I am normally behind and in line with flight planned. After doing a compass cal. and with the sun in my eyes I move into shade. Haven't flown in two weeks....

Standing to the front and side of the bird. I take off and of course the controls are reversed. Never did that before but wasn't thinking while hurrying. A fire gets out of control quick in a forest area and with new "up the road" neighbors I wanted to confirm where the smoke was coming from as soon as possible.

Result? Props down and no fire. With less than 64gig's recorded I am a new flier. My advice is NEVER rush to flight. Take your time! Do all your normal checklist items!. If you are going to take off with the controls reversed you had better practice doing so in an open area....

Enjoy... No birds were harmed in this video.
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My Flight:

Pharm · Jul 31, 2016

I don't quite understand what happened. Controls reversed or not, climbing straight up to begin the flight should not result in something like this. Looks pretty dang windy, too!

Monte55 · Jul 31, 2016

Pharm said:
I don't quite understand what happened. Controls reversed or not, climbing straight up to begin the flight should not result in something like this. Looks pretty dang windy, too!

I think it was the shorts

AgnotGT · Jul 31, 2016

Well, I knew it was windy. Where I live I need to be at at least 100 ft before I can get GPS to lock in so basically I take off, move away from the truck, climb to that altitude and hover till I get lock. But....

Standing ahead with the camera pointed towards me I would need to move the controls in reverse to what I normally would. Add to that standing to the side also has the same effect right and left. So in that split second when the bird was heading toward my trucks lumber racks I told it to move forward towards it. Then to clear to the right and it was on a collision course towards the bobcat....

Dang it doesn't make sense now that I read that ^^^^. Basically I messed up!

Happens in an instant.

RodPad · Aug 1, 2016

Monte55 said:
I think it was the shorts

I don't think he had his mask on.

Sorry man that sucks, whats the damages, I thought the bobcat was part of the fire.

Rod

WilliamM · Aug 2, 2016

AgnotGT said:
Well, I knew it was windy. Where I live I need to be at at least 100 ft before I can get GPS to lock in so basically I take off, move away from the truck, climb to that altitude and hover till I get lock. But....

Standing ahead with the camera pointed towards me I would need to move the controls in reverse to what I normally would. Add to that standing to the side also has the same effect right and left. So in that split second when the bird was heading toward my trucks lumber racks I told it to move forward towards it. Then to clear to the right and it was on a collision course towards the bobcat....

Dang it doesn't make sense now that I read that ^^^^. Basically I messed up!

Happens in an instant.

That sucks, hope it's not damaged too bad. But wanted to give you three quick points. First why did you do a compass cal.? It's not needed unless your last cal was somewhere far away from home. Second, I see your in the mist of some very large trees, so even if you had waited a minute or two with it at idle your not getting a green "safe to fly" message? And lastly, maybe because you were rushed, always keep the battery facing you at take off.

Pharm · Aug 2, 2016

wmcvey said:
That sucks, hope it's not damaged too bad. But wanted to give you three quick points. First why did you do a compass cal.? It's not needed unless your last cal was somewhere far away from home. Second, I see your in the mist of some very large trees, so even if you had waited a minute or two with it at idle your not getting a green "safe to fly" message? And lastly, maybe because you were rushed, always keep the battery facing you at take off.

Good points. I think he's learned his lessons.

RodPad · Aug 2, 2016

I don't think he every gets Safe to Fly, until he gets up high enough, his spot looks not safe to fly already. If that's the case, he's done pretty good so far.

AgnotGT · Aug 2, 2016

wmcvey said:
That sucks, hope it's not damaged too bad. But wanted to give you three quick points. First why did you do a compass cal.? It's not needed unless your last cal was somewhere far away from home. Second, I see your in the mist of some very large trees, so even if you had waited a minute or two with it at idle your not getting a green "safe to fly" message? And lastly, maybe because you were rushed, always keep the battery facing you at take off.

"Damage?" Almost none thankfully. One arm of my prop protectors broke but no other damage. I set her back right-side up and took off immediately. Flew straight up 850ft (still below Mt. top and flight paths) took a look around and down lock left stick. Hand caught, shut down and back to what I was doing before the "Smoke seen" call.

"First why did you do a compass cal.?" Just part of what I do each (days apart) flight.

"your not getting a green "safe to fly" message?" Hovering at 100ft for a minute or so I obtain GPS "Safe to fly" Mostly so I have a RTH point. I fly manually if just flying down the road where PPL dump cars and crap....

"keep the battery facing you at take off." After 120 flights that was the first time I didn't. In my rush I setup as normal and then due to direct sun I moved to a position where I could see the screen and ascended; to the ground....

@ Pharm Yep, lesson learned!

@RodPad From the angle my bobcat does look skewed..... Just a plywood lid for winter rain which is what the bird glanced off of.

Because of commits there will be no more videos of me in shorts! LOL Just joking @Monte55. I didn't even get it when I read your post.... laughing now!

However I am uploading the file now and will update this post once done....

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RodPad · Aug 2, 2016

Yeah, when you posted smoke, I looked at the still I thought you were at a burnt location.
So assume that is a DVR security camera that caught the video clip?
There has been a couple of times lately, I thought, if a go up quickly maybe I can see whats going on and then no. If I keep hearing the noise or still see or smell the smoke, then I will.
Thanks for you post.
I am also in a hole, but have no problem getting a satellite lock on the ground.

Rod

RodPad · Aug 2, 2016

Here is a goofy connection. This year we have got lots of deer around are house, including a White one with Brown spots. I hadn't seen it in a while, but I saw it earlier when I came home. So I though I would check my batteries and get ready to fly around and try to get some deer shots from the air.

I start to walk out of the front of my garage to my Yukon that already had its rear lift open and my Phantom was setting in the back, then, holey crap!

This video came from my 4s iPhone.

WilliamM · Aug 2, 2016

AgnotGT said:
"Damage?" Almost none thankfully. One arm of my prop protectors broke but no other damage. I set her back right-side up and took off immediately. Flew straight up 850ft (still below Mt. top and flight paths) took a look around and down lock left stick. Hand caught, shut down and back to what I was doing before the "Smoke seen" call.

"First why did you do a compass cal.?" Just part of what I do each (days apart) flight.

"your not getting a green "safe to fly" message?" Hovering at 100ft for a minute or so I obtain GPS "Safe to fly" Mostly so I have a RTH point. I fly manually if just flying down the road where PPL dump cars and crap....

"keep the battery facing you at take off." After 120 flights that was the first time I didn't. In my rush I setup as normal and then due to direct sun I moved to a position where I could see the screen and ascended; to the ground....

@ Pharm Yep, lesson learned!

@RodPad From the angle my bobcat does look skewed..... Just a plywood lid for winter rain which is what the bird glanced off of.

Because of commits there will be no more videos of me in shorts! LOL Just joking @Monte55. I didn't even get it when I read your post.... laughing now!

However I am uploading the file now and will update this post once done....

.

Great place to live BTW, I can see why fire is a big four letter word.
On the compass thing, I'm sure if you read the threads much on here or the DJI forum site you know there's much talk about not doing the cal too often. I followed the manual at first myself, which does say to do it on every preflight. But after reading the pro and cons (getting a bad cal) when it was just fine to begin with. I stopped doing them completely , unless I'm having a compass issue or just did a FW update. I'm now going with the premise, that a good compass cal is not going to become a bad one on the next flight, or the flight after that. Just my thinking.

AgnotGT · Aug 2, 2016

@RodPad Deer seem very comfortable there. Are you sure the father of the white & brown one wasn't a goat? Got the proper coloring.....

@wmcvey Interesting that "not so often" was a topic. Unless you have a compass error or are in another part of the world. It might not be so necessary.

So here is the video I took that day. In the beginning I am hovering to get GPS. Then up and away. When you see the smoke in the distance; that is from the fire South of me near Big Sur, Ca. Without the haze you would be looking at the Ocean. I edited this for quality to upload quicker so sorry for outcome.....

Edit:

WOW That horrible! I had no Idea.... I will upload the proper one tonight and replace or delete this mess!

RodPad · Aug 2, 2016

Yeah that is pretty tight take of point, to get above the hills behind my house (East) and flying from my house, a set my ceiling to about 1300' - 1500' my house is at 1050' only tried it a couple of times, really have to pick a calm day.

AgnotGT · Aug 3, 2016

First my apologizes for that horrible video I deleted in my last post. I hope this makes up for it! Same video just better quality. Again in the wind I have to hover while waiting for GPS lock.

Looking down canyon the smoke & haze you see is the fire near Big Sur, Ca.

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RodPad · Aug 3, 2016

Hum, I just let it play in the small window, didn't see any quality issues, was just looking at your take off battle. Either way didn't want to see those uncovered green legs.

Pharm · Aug 3, 2016

Beautiful country! Do you lose GPS when landing?

AgnotGT · Aug 3, 2016

Pharm said:
Beautiful country! Do you lose GPS when landing?

Thanks! I feel privileged to live here. As for the GPS I probably do lose it but it is delayed. Same as for acquiring; it takes time. When landing I completely use Line of Sight and am not looking at my screen. I also always hand catch. Fun fun fun!

RodPad · Aug 8, 2016

I found my smoke,

Crews advance on Neal Creek fire

This is face book link, its safe but what the?
需要安全验证
Does everybody else see weird symbols just above?

Picture about 200' above my house, you can see the planes in the air.

Just used google earth, 3.8 miles House to Fire.
Was going to drive up there Saturday, but it was known, that they we still working on it.

This is me pulling it to my driveway Thursday night.
Dozer, headed to fire.

I only saw 3 planes, I was 200' up, when the planes circled near me I thought I was to high, but they never showed up on the camera, they where about 1200' feet above me. When they came over my house they still cleared the top of the mountain. I only had two chances to got a shot without being in the air. My cell phone would have done better.

Rod

AgnotGT · Aug 8, 2016

Just thank those crews for hitting the fire quickly and with enough resources to limit it to only 15 acres! They can get out of control very fast....

Below: From an illegal campfire July 22 in a Non-Camping area.

Soberanes Fire Updates 60,400 acres - 45% contained

Crews cycle in and out as Big Sur fire enters third week