So, my Phantom landed on top of a 100ft tree and my Brother thought it was a good idea to try to air lift it out with another Phantom.
The tree:
This is where my Phantom was stuck (this photo was taken before it got stuck):
And my brothers the video of the rescue attempt:
My Phantom sat there for 2 days and 2 nights, until a local climber contacted me and said he'd have a look for a small fee. He free climbed right to the top and managed to bring it down very carefully without damaging anything!
I've not powered it on yet as I'm a bit worried about shorting something on one of the circuit boards so it's spending a few hours in front of a heated fan and then it'll spend a few days in an airing cupboard just to give it the best chance of getting any moisture out.
Nothing is visibly damaged BUT I did get a 'MOTOR OBSTRUCTED' alarm when it crashed and for a split second I saw 'GIMBAL OVERLOAD' on my screen also so there is a possibility that there may be some damage but I wont know until I power it up in a few days time (fingers crossed).
It actually looks in very good condition considering it's been in a tree for 2 days and had some bugs living in it:
As for why it crashed, well, I was trying the 'Point Of Interest' flight mode for the first time, I could see the Phantom by eye as I wasn't very far away from it so I hovered it above the tree to set the center point, then I was supposed to pull the right stick back to set the radius for the POI mode BUT I must have pulled the left stick back instead for some reason!
Here's the flight log of my tree landing, at the time I was convinced a motor had failed or something and caused it to drop in to the tree as I heard a loud screech and looked at my screen to see that it was parked in a tree! But on inspection of drone all 4 motors spin freely and after viewing the flight log playback on my screen it doesn't show me pulling the right stick back as I should have. Maybe the loud screech was one of the gimbal motors? Or maybe it was just something else in the park area at the time? I'll know the state of the gimbal in a few days.
Log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
Lesson learned, be more careful and pay more attention!
The tree:
This is where my Phantom was stuck (this photo was taken before it got stuck):
And my brothers the video of the rescue attempt:
My Phantom sat there for 2 days and 2 nights, until a local climber contacted me and said he'd have a look for a small fee. He free climbed right to the top and managed to bring it down very carefully without damaging anything!
I've not powered it on yet as I'm a bit worried about shorting something on one of the circuit boards so it's spending a few hours in front of a heated fan and then it'll spend a few days in an airing cupboard just to give it the best chance of getting any moisture out.
Nothing is visibly damaged BUT I did get a 'MOTOR OBSTRUCTED' alarm when it crashed and for a split second I saw 'GIMBAL OVERLOAD' on my screen also so there is a possibility that there may be some damage but I wont know until I power it up in a few days time (fingers crossed).
It actually looks in very good condition considering it's been in a tree for 2 days and had some bugs living in it:
As for why it crashed, well, I was trying the 'Point Of Interest' flight mode for the first time, I could see the Phantom by eye as I wasn't very far away from it so I hovered it above the tree to set the center point, then I was supposed to pull the right stick back to set the radius for the POI mode BUT I must have pulled the left stick back instead for some reason!
Here's the flight log of my tree landing, at the time I was convinced a motor had failed or something and caused it to drop in to the tree as I heard a loud screech and looked at my screen to see that it was parked in a tree! But on inspection of drone all 4 motors spin freely and after viewing the flight log playback on my screen it doesn't show me pulling the right stick back as I should have. Maybe the loud screech was one of the gimbal motors? Or maybe it was just something else in the park area at the time? I'll know the state of the gimbal in a few days.
Log: DJI Flight Log Viewer - PhantomHelp.com
Lesson learned, be more careful and pay more attention!