What a close call...

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Last Sunday I took my obsidian to Sunnyvale Baylands Park here in California for some flying. This park is dominated by two winged RC so I go there early. I managed to fly around with full battery until the park was riddled with two winged rc. On my 2nd battery I decided to fly around on the side of the field away from the flight path of the two winged. I forgot my ipad so I was limited in flying distance. The side of the field is lined with eucalyptus trees and in one of my fast turns, I miscalculated and sent the obsidian into low lying branches. It made a loud crashing noise that it turned heads towards its direction. I froze and waited for my obsidian to drop to its doom! The obsidian dropped but instead of crashing to the ground it hovered. My fingers were off the controls as soon as it hit. I flew it a few feet infront of me and checked the gimble. It looked ok and I flew the rest of the battery charge. Upon closer inspection the P4P did not sustain any scratches. It did however got pieces of leaves in the air vent of two of its motors. The blades is scratched up but no chips. From the sound of the crash, I couldnt believe that my P4P came out almost with no scratches.
 
WOW))))))))) glad that you survived the near crash...how did them winged guys treat you when they seen you were going to take a "Drone" up in their 2 winged flight area...here at a local county park at a RC area...then frown on drone flyers....I dont know why but because maybe In the past they have caused trouble or what.
 
I am a newbie in this park. I have seen racing drones flying with the two winged with no problems. Everyone seems to know there place. One guy however approached me and asked me what frequency I was using. I didnt know what to tell him but as soon as he learned that I was flying a DJI drone, he said I was fine.
 
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As a “older” RC “two winger”, a lot of the flyers had the same resentment of the electric fliers. Then didn’t like them because of the newness of them, because they didn’t make much noise, or because they were too fast and said someone was going to get hurt, or the batteries would explode. They didn’t like it when helicopters came out that were easier to fly, and then went electric, then got better gas and turbo ones. They went ballistic when the turbo planes came out. They were too fast, they could flame out, they could catch fire in the paddock area and burn everyone’s planes up.

Just as in every hobby, some people don’t like new ways of doing it, then everyone or most everyone realizes that it’s just another way, and most learn to get along.
 
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As a “older” RC “two winger”, a lot of the flyers had the same resentment of the electric fliers. Then didn’t like them because of the newness of them, because they didn’t make much noise, or because they were too fast and said someone was going to get hurt, or the batteries would explode. They didn’t like it when helicopters came out that were easier to fly, and then went electric, then got better gas and turbo ones. They went ballistic when the turbo planes came out. They were too fast, they could flame out, they could catch fire in the paddock area and burn everyone’s planes up.

Just as in every hobby, some people don’t like new ways of doing it, then everyone or most everyone realizes that it’s just another way, and most learn to get along.
Don't forget they thought the sky was falling too!! LOL
 
Oh man. You were lucky.
Actually, I also last week had my first ever crash but that too was a similar lucky escape. What's even better, I've got video with sound (had my zoom audio recorder with me that night, so the crash can be clearly heard). I'm still not even sure what did I crash into. Did a standard maneuver that I've done countless times I think there's just one lesson to be learned here: don't trust your eyes during/after sunset..

Anyway, the video itself is here (it's in Estonian but I've added English subtitles, so CC on!)
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I had a similar experience. I was flying sideways to get a tracking video shot, and didn’t have enough depth perception accuracy to either go in front of or in back of the tree on my tracking path. I hit about 75 feet up, fell about 55 feet with the drone failing about, and at 20 feet the drone found itself and returned to 75 feet to wait for my next command. A very impressive performance of the DJI Flight Control system.

Damage was 2 propellers with minor chips and green leaf stain.
 
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I'm not sure I understand. It looks like you just flew it into a tree branch or other obstacle.

What exactly was the "standard" maneuver that you were performing, and can you explain why the sunset is to blame?


Oh man. You were lucky.
Actually, I also last week had my first ever crash but that too was a similar lucky escape. What's even better, I've got video with sound (had my zoom audio recorder with me that night, so the crash can be clearly heard). I'm still not even sure what did I crash into. Did a standard maneuver that I've done countless times I think there's just one lesson to be learned here: don't trust your eyes during/after sunset..

Anyway, the video itself is here (it's in Estonian but I've added English subtitles, so CC on!)
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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
First off by "2 winged" do you mean biplanes?
Biplane - Wikipedia

Or are you talking about standard airplanes with a single wing and tailfeathers (monoplane)?
Monoplane - Wikipedia

As a long time (4 decades) R/C aviator I can give some insight (first hand from both sides of the fence as I fly planes, helo and MultiRotors ) why the helo and plank operators tend to resent modern MultiRotors. Some of it is just "newness" as mentioned above but some of it (ok a lot of it) comes from the fact that all R/C aircraft are now lumped into one big basket. Where as us old timers flew at a designated flying field, learned to fly safely, learned to fly PERIOD, learned and obeyed the AMA Safety rules (or get kicked out of the club), and flew in VERY confined and controlled environment.

Along comes these new aircraft that "self fly" and are GPS guided. No longer do you need to learn to fly. No longer do you need to invest in learning any rules or regulations. If you have a credit card you can buy, charge, and be flying your sUAS in a matter of less than an hour. Also you don't need to have a nice manicured runway so you can fly from anywhere as opposed at the flying field far away from people and PROBLEMS.

Once the Gyro stabilized, GPS guided multirotors allowed autonomous flight and VTOL capabilities removed the runway restrictions our whole industry became one big muddy mess and regulations were passed down upon those of us who have flown literally thousands of hours safely with zero incident. Many of our old school flying sites were shut down over night because of the new sUAS restrictions voided standing LOA with local airports etc.

Luckily my flying club is very forward thinking and some of our members were building custom MR's long before DJI was even on the scene. Because of this our club is and has always been very much MR friendly and encouraged but if you fly at/from our field you follow all of our club rules or you are asked to leave immediately. I see the same thing happening in our industry in the very near future. Section 336 will be rewritten and many of the rules/law we see for Part 107 will come to bear down on the hobby sector as well. That's how it should be anyway. We don't need multilevels of rules for the same aircraft flying in the same area simply because one is hobby and one is paid. Safety rules should apply to all regardless of intent of the flight.
 
I'm not sure I understand. It looks like you just flew it into a tree branch or other obstacle.
Apparently I did get caught by an odd branch. But since there wasn't a single dent or scratch on the drone, I wasn't able to exactly determine what did I hit.

What exactly was the "standard" maneuver that you were performing, and can you explain why the sunset is to blame?
By standard I mean that to get a nice shot of where I am I usually back out with slowly increasing speed and altitude. For nicer shot I usually guide the Drone close to the treetops. So far I've never even come close to hitting anything. Now as it was right after sunset and light was fading fast I must have started loosing the perception of depth and right when this crash happened, I realised that I had never done this in such light. As I was bringing the Drone back I tried really hard to see what's up there and I couldn't see what I hit. Even when a few minutes later I went to look closer I didn't see any obstructions.

One thing that I realised was that when I usually do this shot I try to always keep the Drone slightly above the imaginary straight line from my eyes to the treetop/roof or what ever. This time I was backing out initially on the course of hitting the treetop as I was planning on increasing the altitude closer to the tree. I've done that a couple of times too, but usually in daylight and with treetop being much closer to me. And that's why I believe that due to the fading light I started losing both the perception of depth as well as colour vision (in the darkness we all are literally colour blind)

Come to think about it, it might have been a branch that was protruding out towards me, hence making it invisible from my vantage point...

As I said, a valuable lesson.
 
I am a newbie in this park. I have seen racing drones flying with the two winged with no problems. Everyone seems to know there place. One guy however approached me and asked me what frequency I was using. I didnt know what to tell him but as soon as he learned that I was flying a DJI drone, he said I was fine.

One guy however approached me and asked me what frequency I was using. I didn't know what to tell him.
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Hi guys,
I have flown fixed wing RC since the late 1950. On the fixed wing flight line they share the available RC control frequencies. Only one transmitter can be turned on at a time on that frequency. If another transmitter is turned on (even for a few seconds) it can destroy the servos in the airborne plane and thus cause an uncontrolled crash of that aircraft. On the flight line they always have a positive means to who has permission to use the available frequencies one at a time. I hope this info helps explain the concern for anyone with a transmitter not leaving their transmitter in the transmitter pool area until it is time for their flight.

May I suggest that if you decide to fly at an RC field, that you FIRST check in with the flight line guys and the Tx pool area, and tell them what you want to do, and what frequencies you are using. Tell them 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz WiFi. That will stop any panic. The fixed wing guys are using much lower frequencies and their signal will not be bothered by your Tx signals.

Presented for info only.
Joe
KC7GHT
 

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