I had a really good day droning today in a little beach town a couple of hours from where I live. I decided to make the most of recent nice weather and take the phantom out for some happy snaps.
Well right near the end of the day something incredible happened (that we had been hoping to happen). I was flying around taking photos and my partner yells at me “There are whales right there!!” - See at the moment humpback whales are making their way north up the coast of Western Australia with their babies to find warmer water and get some food!!
So at this very moment my battery was reading 34%. Being a very safe person, I’ve always set my battery alarm to 30% to bring it home. Well, I took off to the whales, following them up the coast and waiting, waiting and waiting for them to breach to take some snaps. 2 adults and one calf. The battery alarm goes off and I decided to ignore it for a while. Then, it happened - one by one they start breaching the water surface and I happily snap away as i continually fly away from home. My battery then reads 23% and I panic. Stupidly I turn the drone to the right and see land - immediately thinking that’s where I am and I head straight for it. Except I haven’t realised I am actually heading in the complete wrong direction and flying further away. As I approach the land I find it quite strange that I can’t hear it. I look down and freak out when I see I’m 700 metres from home .
I realise what I’ve done and turn around heading up the coast into a stiff head wind when the controller takes over and tells me it is activating RTH otherwise I will not arrive back in time. I’m really panicked at this stage and what felt like an eternity I look down and see I’m still 600m from home.
A few very anxious moments later and it’s 300m and I feel like I’m half a chance. I’m thinking about all these stories of people who’s drones drop out of the sky because the controller says they’ve got 20% battery but they really don’t. When it arrived back I had 15 percent battery and I cancelled the RTH because I had taken off from the bonnet of my car as there was sand and gravel everywhere and nowhere else flat enough to launch. (I’ve done it many times).
I try land on my bonnet and the screeching of the sensors on my controller further panic me and I abort that and land in a gravel car park with dust flying everywhere. My battery read 12% and whilst I was very annoyed at landing the way I did I have never felt so relieved in my life.
Lesson learnt - BE DISCIPLINED. When you’ve always decided to come home at 30% then ALWAYS do it and make no exceptions to the rule.
DONT PANIC - all I had to do is open up the map and turn my drone back to where I was. The distance I flew away from myself was further than I had flown out to meet the whales.
This is embarrassing for me but maybe someone might read this and think twice before flying into dangerous grounds!! I realise 30% is probably very conservative for most of you but I still consider myself a rookie and inexperienced operator so I feel it always gives me more than enough time to get home (providing I stick to it!!)
