Another day, another unnerving crash.
Having barely survived a river crash (described elsewhere) I made two very conservative practice flights this afternoon to fully test the Phantom. Then, as bad luck would have it, a neighbor stopped by to watch. Trying to answer her questions while guiding the Phantom past a stand of tall trees was not a good idea.
Multi-tasking with a multi-rotor is clearly not one of my skills.
Having applied too much throttle, I zigged when I should have zagged. The Phantom shot behind the trees, climbing high and fast. Panicked, I ran through the pasture to regain LOS but ran instead into a fence. All I knew was that the Phantom was headed north -- and there's nothing to the north but dense forest most of the way to Canada.
Rather than risk having the quad disappear I opted for Failsafe. In this case it was more like a suicide switch.
The good news is that Failsafe worked. The bad news is that in attempting to return Home the Phantom didn't see the forest or the trees between us. It plunged noisily into the branches of a very tall fir. I heard it crash from branch to branch, all the way to the ground, props chopping away like a Cuisinart.
Amazingly, the only damage was a broken battery door and seriously scuffed props. Everything else checks out fine -- no calibration required and the motors sound good. I'll rebalance the props and fly again (very cautiously) in the morning.
Today's hard-earned lesson: always carry fencing tools when flying in or near livestock pastures.
Having barely survived a river crash (described elsewhere) I made two very conservative practice flights this afternoon to fully test the Phantom. Then, as bad luck would have it, a neighbor stopped by to watch. Trying to answer her questions while guiding the Phantom past a stand of tall trees was not a good idea.
Multi-tasking with a multi-rotor is clearly not one of my skills.
Having applied too much throttle, I zigged when I should have zagged. The Phantom shot behind the trees, climbing high and fast. Panicked, I ran through the pasture to regain LOS but ran instead into a fence. All I knew was that the Phantom was headed north -- and there's nothing to the north but dense forest most of the way to Canada.
Rather than risk having the quad disappear I opted for Failsafe. In this case it was more like a suicide switch.
The good news is that Failsafe worked. The bad news is that in attempting to return Home the Phantom didn't see the forest or the trees between us. It plunged noisily into the branches of a very tall fir. I heard it crash from branch to branch, all the way to the ground, props chopping away like a Cuisinart.
Amazingly, the only damage was a broken battery door and seriously scuffed props. Everything else checks out fine -- no calibration required and the motors sound good. I'll rebalance the props and fly again (very cautiously) in the morning.
Today's hard-earned lesson: always carry fencing tools when flying in or near livestock pastures.
