I'd like to say my most memorable flight was a good one but I remember it because the bird was seconds away from falling out of the sky.
I started what was going to be a quick flight around my neighborhood to show a friend what it does. I flew around for a little while then went up high to see the sunset. After that I attempted to fly home but it wasn't responding. It just started moving away on it's own. There were times when I was at 100% throttle to go forward but it was slowly moving backwards. I looked around at the scenery and checked the map to see where it was and kept trying to get it to do what I wanted but that wasn't working. I could control the altitude but it wouldn't fly in the direction that I was telling it to. It was just over 3900' away when the low battery warning came on (I have it set at 22%). The bird was trying to land at that point. I remembered that I could push through it to keep it in the air so I did that. I don't know what changed but I was able to regain control. I keep on the left stick to maintain altitude so it wouldn't land and pushed hard on the right stick to get it back as fast as I could. And that wasn't fast. It's horizontal speed was only 11-15 MPH. The battery was dropping FAST! I showed it to be 2189' away with 10% left and then 1280' away with 5% left. At that point I could see where I wanted to go (home) but knew it didn't have enough juice to make it. I kept trying while looking for a place to put it down. It was over trees at that point so it wouldn't have been good if to run out of power there. The only option was one street away. There was a cut de sac with enough room to land so that's what I aimed for. Full throttle forward and hard on the left stick to bring it down. Coming in hot!!! The bird was 160' up and 381' away from me with 1% battery. At that point I made it to my emergency landing area and got it down fast. Tree below it, back up a little, watch out for the utility pole, keep going down. Nailed the landing without hitting anything then jumped in the car and take a quick driver over to get it. I later found that it was 50' up with 0% left. 2% battery might not seem like much but in this case it was the difference between my street and the next one over.
I looked at the flight log later. There was a point when I wasn't doing anything so it should have been hovering but it was moving backwards at 14-17 MPH. Watching the playback, I was then giving it 100% throttle to come back but it was still going backwards at 8.6 MPH. I think it got into some strong winds that overpowered the bird.
I started what was going to be a quick flight around my neighborhood to show a friend what it does. I flew around for a little while then went up high to see the sunset. After that I attempted to fly home but it wasn't responding. It just started moving away on it's own. There were times when I was at 100% throttle to go forward but it was slowly moving backwards. I looked around at the scenery and checked the map to see where it was and kept trying to get it to do what I wanted but that wasn't working. I could control the altitude but it wouldn't fly in the direction that I was telling it to. It was just over 3900' away when the low battery warning came on (I have it set at 22%). The bird was trying to land at that point. I remembered that I could push through it to keep it in the air so I did that. I don't know what changed but I was able to regain control. I keep on the left stick to maintain altitude so it wouldn't land and pushed hard on the right stick to get it back as fast as I could. And that wasn't fast. It's horizontal speed was only 11-15 MPH. The battery was dropping FAST! I showed it to be 2189' away with 10% left and then 1280' away with 5% left. At that point I could see where I wanted to go (home) but knew it didn't have enough juice to make it. I kept trying while looking for a place to put it down. It was over trees at that point so it wouldn't have been good if to run out of power there. The only option was one street away. There was a cut de sac with enough room to land so that's what I aimed for. Full throttle forward and hard on the left stick to bring it down. Coming in hot!!! The bird was 160' up and 381' away from me with 1% battery. At that point I made it to my emergency landing area and got it down fast. Tree below it, back up a little, watch out for the utility pole, keep going down. Nailed the landing without hitting anything then jumped in the car and take a quick driver over to get it. I later found that it was 50' up with 0% left. 2% battery might not seem like much but in this case it was the difference between my street and the next one over.
I looked at the flight log later. There was a point when I wasn't doing anything so it should have been hovering but it was moving backwards at 14-17 MPH. Watching the playback, I was then giving it 100% throttle to come back but it was still going backwards at 8.6 MPH. I think it got into some strong winds that overpowered the bird.
