Sometimes its best to be lucky

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I have several UAV's, Spark, Mavic Pro, P3P, P4 and a P2 (Gopro Version). The P2 keeps me humble as it has the well document weakness with GPS, FPV range and a few others with the gimbal steadiness. Its been over a month or more since I last took it out, and I just got in a new set of props (trying to reduce the jello effect). I put on the props, check the battery (4 bars). Fired up the RC and FPV screen and off it went. With the new props it sounded a little quiet than normal, but I take that as a good thing. I fly over an industrial area near my home that I am very familier with as I have done and do many inspection of commercial and construction projects. On the return route home all was well, as I pushed it to the limits. 600 meters out I got a problem, battery went from 25% to 10% within seconds. Here's the video

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I have several UAV's, Spark, Mavic Pro, P3P, P4 and a P2 (Gopro Version). The P2 keeps me humble as it has the well document weakness with GPS, FPV range and a few others with the gimbal steadiness. Its been over a month or more since I last took it out, and I just got in a new set of props (trying to reduce the jello effect). I put on the props, check the battery (4 bars). Fired up the RC and FPV screen and off it went. With the new props it sounded a little quiet than normal, but I take that as a good thing. I fly over an industrial area near my home that I am very familier with as I have done and do many inspection of commercial and construction projects. On the return route home all was well, as I pushed it to the limits. 600 meters out I got a problem battery went from 25% to 10% within seconds. Here's the video

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WOW...Impressive. I'll take your luck over maybe being good any day.
 
Good save. Maybe old, but takes beautiful video. ?
Sorry about the battery, hope it was an old one.
 
Good save. Maybe old, but takes beautiful video. ?
Sorry about the battery, hope it was an old one.

That's the odd part, I just brought these battery's a few months back to replace the old original ones that were bulging. That is what caught me by surprise, but I did another flight with a different battery with no issues, so that one battery is suspect.
 
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I didn't have the sound on,
So it auto landed and you went and to find it it was still recording and actually shows you pulling up in the car?

Rod
 
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I didn't have the sound on,
So it auto landed and you went and to find it it was still recording and actually shows you pulling up in the car?

Rod
Gopro kept rolling, I had a good idea where it was going down, but didn't know it landed ok (had lost FPV). I had traveled up and down the street twice before I saw it in the corner of the guys property.
 
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Personally, I would not fly over residential housing or for that matter industrial property without written permission. I was falsely accused of flying my drone from on railroad property and received citations from the local police and the transit authority police. Fortunately, my drone’s video and flight record showed I was NOT flying on railroad property. The 2 criminal disorderly conduct cases were dropped BUT the judge (who seems to be anti-drone) decided to make up a charge (similar to I failed to mow my lawn) and charged me $1000. BTW ... the retainer for a lawyer (totally unqualified for FAA case law) was $4000. SO ... you were very lucky.
 
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Personally, I would not fly over residential housing or for that matter industrial property without written permission. I was falsely accused of flying my drone from on railroad property and received citations from the local police and the transit authority police. Fortunately, my drone’s video and flight record showed I was NOT flying on railroad property. The 2 criminal disorderly conduct cases were dropped BUT the judge (who seems to be anti-drone) decided to make up a charge (similar to I failed to mow my lawn) and charged me $1000. BTW ... the retainer for a lawyer (totally unqualified for FAA case law) was $4000. SO ... you were very lucky.

I would say you got railroaded, literally. I could never be able to fly from my house if I was subject to that type of enforcement. I am surrounded by Houses, Flood Control channel, Industrial area and railroad. How do you test new gear? going down the road or driving to a remote location seems a bit unreasonable. If you need to make adjustments or replacements (computer downloads or tools to work with) that means you would need a service vehicle (box truck) to bring everything you would need. My flight was a test run with new props and stabilization pins to see if it helped with the jello effect. I could never be able to carry all of my tools, and replacement parts in my car along with having a level/solid work space to make corrections if I need to make more adjustments.
 
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Personally, I would not fly over residential housing or for that matter industrial property without written permission. I was falsely accused of flying my drone from on railroad property and received citations from the local police and the transit authority police. Fortunately, my drone’s video and flight record showed I was NOT flying on railroad property. The 2 criminal disorderly conduct cases were dropped BUT the judge (who seems to be anti-drone) decided to make up a charge (similar to I failed to mow my lawn) and charged me $1000. BTW ... the retainer for a lawyer (totally unqualified for FAA case law) was $4000. SO ... you were very lucky.

Oh by the way what part of New Hampshire? I was stationed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard back in 84-86 for Anti Terrorism duty, protecting the subs during retrofit process.
 

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