Hi Guys,
Yesterday evening there was a brief break in the weather, providing me with the opportunity to test the recent changes I had made, changing to Naza-M, allowing me to make use of CL and HL. I chose an area consisting of five or six very large short grass fields, providing excellent line of sight and recovery prospects. Having got a good, solid satellite lock (11) I fired up the engines of the Phantom, hovered for a moment, checking responses. I then flew out about 100 yards and flipped the switch for HL. As expected, a gentle pull on the stick brought the bird back to me regardless of orientation. Success!
I tried it again, and it worked perfectly. Then a third time. Now having full confidence, I flew the Phantom south east, out over the flat field area, in an effort to see just how good the connection range was. At 1500 ft, with the bird now out of sight, I thought enough was enough and decided to bring the bird home using HL. It was at this point where, just for a moment or two, I slipped into a sort of momentary mental block, pulling down on the left stick for a second or two, before realizing I should be pushing it up. The result of this inadvertent action, it being recorded by the camera and viewed later, was of particular interest to me.
I saw the Phantom had lost altitude, so pushed it back up to 150 ft and flipped the switch, initiating HL so I could bring it back home.
That moment when it was out of sight and had lost altitude? The recorded footage revealed the unseen Phantom slowly losing height and coming into a low stable hover facing an extremely curious but perfectly relaxed red deer hind and calf standing about 40 yards distant. The Phantom hovers facing them for about sixty seconds, before lifting and slowly gaining altitude, then departing.
I must confess, I have often wondered what deer and other Wildlife would make of the Phantom, in particular the prop noise, and the answer would appear to be they're pretty relaxed about it. I recently hovered a hundred feet above a buzzard sitting on a fence post, and it didn't phase the bird one bit. I think this result is quite important because, as far as wildlife and farm stock are concerned, a panic response to the presence of a Phantom - which certainly appears not to be the case - would be just one more thing to worry about, restricting the hobby even further.
Yesterday evening there was a brief break in the weather, providing me with the opportunity to test the recent changes I had made, changing to Naza-M, allowing me to make use of CL and HL. I chose an area consisting of five or six very large short grass fields, providing excellent line of sight and recovery prospects. Having got a good, solid satellite lock (11) I fired up the engines of the Phantom, hovered for a moment, checking responses. I then flew out about 100 yards and flipped the switch for HL. As expected, a gentle pull on the stick brought the bird back to me regardless of orientation. Success!
I tried it again, and it worked perfectly. Then a third time. Now having full confidence, I flew the Phantom south east, out over the flat field area, in an effort to see just how good the connection range was. At 1500 ft, with the bird now out of sight, I thought enough was enough and decided to bring the bird home using HL. It was at this point where, just for a moment or two, I slipped into a sort of momentary mental block, pulling down on the left stick for a second or two, before realizing I should be pushing it up. The result of this inadvertent action, it being recorded by the camera and viewed later, was of particular interest to me.
I saw the Phantom had lost altitude, so pushed it back up to 150 ft and flipped the switch, initiating HL so I could bring it back home.
That moment when it was out of sight and had lost altitude? The recorded footage revealed the unseen Phantom slowly losing height and coming into a low stable hover facing an extremely curious but perfectly relaxed red deer hind and calf standing about 40 yards distant. The Phantom hovers facing them for about sixty seconds, before lifting and slowly gaining altitude, then departing.
I must confess, I have often wondered what deer and other Wildlife would make of the Phantom, in particular the prop noise, and the answer would appear to be they're pretty relaxed about it. I recently hovered a hundred feet above a buzzard sitting on a fence post, and it didn't phase the bird one bit. I think this result is quite important because, as far as wildlife and farm stock are concerned, a panic response to the presence of a Phantom - which certainly appears not to be the case - would be just one more thing to worry about, restricting the hobby even further.