very sad day for kitari

[kitari]

So earlier today I was out flying, everything was just fine until my phone lost video feed which has happened before, so I simply put it in RTH mode and waited. Well, after a few minutes I got a short video feed and it cut out again, but I could tell it wasn't too far away from where I was, so I gave it a little longer. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I knew something went wrong and started to panic. I'm not sure what happened but I lost my phantom in the middle of a very large wooded area. I tried searching for it for about an hour or two and nothing! I'm gonna try to continue my search again tomorrow hopefully with more luck. I really can't afford to get another one so if I lost this one I guess that's the end of my phantom flying days at least for a while anyways. I also have a new battery and props on the way to make things worse. wish me luck guys, I'm really gonna need it on this one.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Sorry to hear, kitari.

Serves as a reminder that we should always fly with LOS... no matter how good our FPV system is, or how good we think we are at flying blind.
And perhaps use an external GPS tracker on our birds.

I do hope you find it!

 

[Kelso Kubat]

And have a flight plan!

 

[ProfessorStein]

And maybe reset your home point to the highest obstruction you can see, so RTH will fly at least 60 ft above that.
I'm guessing those trees in the wooded area were high enough that kitari's failsafe didn't clear them.

 

[kitari]

Thanks everyone, yes I should've known better but I seen a strange building in the woods near my house I never noticed before and curiosity got the best of me. I agree 100% that you should always keep line of sight or you'll risk the same fate I experienced as well. Hopefully I'll be able to recover it tomorrow, but if not, I'll just have to cut my losses and try to get another one next month if everything works out. At least I'll have brand new 9" props and a 2700 mad dog battery ready to go. :lol:

 

[Mori55]

Biggest problem I see in post like yours is " I new something was wrong but kept flying" I f you think something is wrong land ASAP !!

 

[Monte55]

Whenever I fly, I think about the location and if I had a problem how hard would it be to recover. Not sure what is worse....losing the quad totally or seeing it at the top of an 80 foot tree and knowing you can't get to it. If people want to fly in bad areas and take chances for the sake of a photo or video, then have at it. It's going to have to be something very important for me to get to risk my Phantom. No wrong or right here. Some are willing to gamble.

 

[CarlJ]

It's great if there's a lesson to be learned here, but that can't possibly assuage the loss of your Phantom...very sorry to hear. Typically I never fly above say 60 feet, but if a shot requires it I've gone as high as 250 feet, and I know that there is a risk in doing that, but the truth is it could happen at 10 feet off the ground.

If you do get a new bird, maybe consider staying in LOS and flying a little lower to mitigate your risk.

Or you could always find it! I'll send some positive energy your way...hope it helps.

 

[Monte55]

If I end up having to take a chance with my Phantom in a high risk area, I have a Drone Mods gps locator to carry on it. No guarantee I will ever get it back if I have a problem but better than nothing. Flying anything RC is always a risk. I started in Rc many years ago with scale rc planes. Only one destroyed from a crash into tree flying inverted. It was a trainer with many flights. My planes cost less than my Phantom but the many hours it took me to build them make them quite important to me. They all have glo fuel engines...some 4 stroke. I think I would rather lose the Phantom over one of them. I take more pride in them. Build them from sticks, no gyros, no rth features..just down and dirty flying.

 

[gunslinger]

Whenever I fly, I think about the location and if I had a problem how hard would it be to recover. Not sure what is worse....losing the quad totally or seeing it at the top of an 80 foot tree and knowing you can't get to it. If people want to fly in bad areas and take chances for the sake of a photo or video, then have at it. It's going to have to be something very important for me to get to risk my Phantom. No wrong or right here. Some are willing to gamble.

I totally agree... Personally I wish I were a bit more willing to take risks with my P2V. I do everything I can to stack the deck in my favor before I put my bird in the air. Some of you guys who fly FPV with no LOS put me in awe... I could never do that.

-slinger

 

[Monte55]

I also have to consider if I fly in an area and the quad goes down and I can see it....do I have access to it. There is a local water tower I would like to fly around and shoot some video. With the go pro You have to get kinna close but if the quad goes down, I can't get to it. High chain link fence with locked gates. So it boils down to importance of video vs risk of Phantom.
So with that in mind....just water tower video....maybe not worth the risk......Katherine Heigl running naked around the water tower...totally worth it.

 

[Wedeliver]

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you do not give up easy with your search, and use many methods to map out your search area. It might have been a good idea to look last night in the dark. I found a cell phone that I had dropped from 1000' away in a creek bed a few years ago. as I was ready to give up I saw the light where I had walked by 10 minutes before but did not see the phone, but from a great distance that light stood out. Good luck and let us know the results.

(I did watch a video of that hearing impared longhair (Im sorry but I don't know his name) who flies phantoms and he lost one. the he looked on the recording he was making from another camera and saw where it might have gone down. And he went out in the woods and there it was. So, folks have found them, but you gotta be trying, it ain't gonna come to you

 

[CarlJ]

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you do not give up easy with your search, and use many methods to map out your search area. It might have been a good idea to look last night in the dark. I found a cell phone that I had dropped from 1000' away in a creek bed a few years ago. as I was ready to give up I saw the light where I had walked by 10 minutes before but did not see the phone, but from a great distance that light stood out. Good luck and let us know the results.

(I did watch a video of that hearing impared longhair (Im sorry but I don't know his name) who flies phantoms and he lost one. the he looked on the recording he was making from another camera and saw where it might have gone down. And he went out in the woods and there it was. So, folks have found them, but you gotta be trying, it ain't gonna come to you

Mitch Bergsma

 

[adanac]

So that sucks and I'm sorry to hear it. So I hope you find it! So this is why I'm thinking of getting a tracker.

 

[Wedeliver]

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. I hope you do not give up easy with your search, and use many methods to map out your search area. It might have been a good idea to look last night in the dark. I found a cell phone that I had dropped from 1000' away in a creek bed a few years ago. as I was ready to give up I saw the light where I had walked by 10 minutes before but did not see the phone, but from a great distance that light stood out. Good luck and let us know the results.

(I did watch a video of that hearing impared longhair (Im sorry but I don't know his name) who flies phantoms and he lost one. the he looked on the recording he was making from another camera and saw where it might have gone down. And he went out in the woods and there it was. So, folks have found them, but you gotta be trying, it ain't gonna come to you

Mitch Bergsma

I took me a minute then I googled it. Thank you

 

[kitari]

Well, I continued my search today even though it started raining and still no luck. We had about 30 acres of land to cover so it wasn't looking too good from the start. After searching for a good 3-4 hours we finally called it a day. I think I'm just gonna cut my losses on this one and order another one and if by chance I do come across it some day, I'll use that one for experiments. I also plan on getting a tracker next time. I did get my mad dog battery in today and it looks pretty good. Lol actually thinking about getting the PV2+ next time but I'm not sure yet. Is it really worth the $1200 price tag? I know whatever I get, it will never leave my sight!

 

[ProfessorStein]

You figure a P2V is $900. A commercial 3-axis gimbal will run you $500+... so, yeah... if you want a 3D gimbal, the Plus is a pretty good deal.
If you don't need the 3D gimbal, then just go for the 2 or straight Vision. Because if you don't use it, the Pluses gimbal is a whole lot of fragile that you don't want to have to worry about if you don't have to.