- Joined
- Sep 19, 2015
- Messages
- 731
- Reaction score
- 403
- Age
- 61
Hi guys,
Well, I know that I'm pretty strange in general so this sortta thing ain't likely that unusual! Won't make Guiness anyway (though if it could make Guiness Stout that'd be awesome).
Yokay. About a mile from my house is a frequent flying spot of mine. It's a small public lake with fishing, ice skating, etc.. A quarter mile away is a much larger private lake I have permission to fly across. Folks there boat, fish, ski - there's even a couple of animal enclosures holding Whitetail deer and an occasional red fox. Cool place.
I've gotten into the habit of running a Tower mission there every week - exact same flight. I'm just trying to show in a hopefully interesting way the changing seasons.
Well. Very near by, there are two extremely large trees and a water tower the height of Mt. Kilimanjaro.Topping that off, my takeoff pad is a picnic table.
Surrounding the table is a whole gazmazzle of willows, stunted pines... you know, the sort of greenery that hangs out at small bodies of water. Not to mention scads of Large-Mouth Bass I'm certain wanna take a mouthfull out of my GoPro (off the subject a tad, but I'm going to rig some fishing gear to Solo this spring. Betcha anything I could make a good haul!).
Ok, here's the point. I have the flight plan set so when I hit auto, Solo shoots straight up to 150 feet and hovers five seconds before heading to Waypoint 2. Those trees, ya know. At Waypoint 5 I have it at 375. During the flight it makes a quick circuit of my lake and heads off to the larger one, where it does a bit of sightseeing before heading home. In all, about a 9 minute flight.
Well, friends and neighbors, ze thing is - that picnic table, placed at the very side of the lake, is completely and totally surrounded by willows and small evergreens. My takeoff procedure is to manually fly through the "jungle" very carefully until fifty feet across the water, then activate the mission. The return journey is basically the same but I have Solo stop 150 feet across, near the lake's center for best return maneuverability.
Done it ten times at least.
Ok, Pre-Flight:
Turn on transmitter.
Turn on Solo.
Turn on GoPro.
Connect Galaxy, start Tower.
Double-triple-quadruple check flight plan. Yep, there we are, Solo in right place, waypoints good, map fine and hummin' right along.
Start recording.
Take off. Slowly. Thaaats good, thread through the branches... A little jig up, around, and over... ahh, nice. Safely over the water.
Recheck Tower plan. Lookin' good.
Take deep breath.
Activate program.
Solo screams towards me like it was on a beeline to the real Kilimanjaro. I've never seen a drone move so fast.
She came straight back over the water, not rising a single centimeter, and headed for the willows.
Thank the good Lord for 40 years of RC experience! A quick A button push slows things down a bit just as it reaches the nearest branches. Man alive! Sounded like a buzzsaw on speed. Wood chips flying, prop parts tossed everywhere - the chassis hit the bars of the tree hard enough I actually saw the battery lift from its tray a moment.
I managed to bring it back from the tree. Now it was very near the picnic table, a couple feet from the water, props giving off a weird dying hyena sound. Somehow - and I honestly can't explain this - I set it down on the table without a problem.
On touchdown the battery finally flopped free, skittered to the edge, and dropped off the table into the water. Bye-Bye!
All four props were shattered but still had enough of each blade to have maintained flight - long enough, that is.
Finally - silence.
Now, here's the real kicker: Solo did not have a single scratch or hint of damage, nor did the gimbal or GoPro.
Well, an eventful day, at least.
Now here's the real question:
What the heck actually happened?
And possibly far, far more importantly -
Learn to fly on manual!!!
Well, I know that I'm pretty strange in general so this sortta thing ain't likely that unusual! Won't make Guiness anyway (though if it could make Guiness Stout that'd be awesome).
Yokay. About a mile from my house is a frequent flying spot of mine. It's a small public lake with fishing, ice skating, etc.. A quarter mile away is a much larger private lake I have permission to fly across. Folks there boat, fish, ski - there's even a couple of animal enclosures holding Whitetail deer and an occasional red fox. Cool place.
I've gotten into the habit of running a Tower mission there every week - exact same flight. I'm just trying to show in a hopefully interesting way the changing seasons.
Well. Very near by, there are two extremely large trees and a water tower the height of Mt. Kilimanjaro.Topping that off, my takeoff pad is a picnic table.
Surrounding the table is a whole gazmazzle of willows, stunted pines... you know, the sort of greenery that hangs out at small bodies of water. Not to mention scads of Large-Mouth Bass I'm certain wanna take a mouthfull out of my GoPro (off the subject a tad, but I'm going to rig some fishing gear to Solo this spring. Betcha anything I could make a good haul!).
Ok, here's the point. I have the flight plan set so when I hit auto, Solo shoots straight up to 150 feet and hovers five seconds before heading to Waypoint 2. Those trees, ya know. At Waypoint 5 I have it at 375. During the flight it makes a quick circuit of my lake and heads off to the larger one, where it does a bit of sightseeing before heading home. In all, about a 9 minute flight.
Well, friends and neighbors, ze thing is - that picnic table, placed at the very side of the lake, is completely and totally surrounded by willows and small evergreens. My takeoff procedure is to manually fly through the "jungle" very carefully until fifty feet across the water, then activate the mission. The return journey is basically the same but I have Solo stop 150 feet across, near the lake's center for best return maneuverability.
Done it ten times at least.
Ok, Pre-Flight:
Turn on transmitter.
Turn on Solo.
Turn on GoPro.
Connect Galaxy, start Tower.
Double-triple-quadruple check flight plan. Yep, there we are, Solo in right place, waypoints good, map fine and hummin' right along.
Start recording.
Take off. Slowly. Thaaats good, thread through the branches... A little jig up, around, and over... ahh, nice. Safely over the water.
Recheck Tower plan. Lookin' good.
Take deep breath.
Activate program.
Solo screams towards me like it was on a beeline to the real Kilimanjaro. I've never seen a drone move so fast.
She came straight back over the water, not rising a single centimeter, and headed for the willows.
Thank the good Lord for 40 years of RC experience! A quick A button push slows things down a bit just as it reaches the nearest branches. Man alive! Sounded like a buzzsaw on speed. Wood chips flying, prop parts tossed everywhere - the chassis hit the bars of the tree hard enough I actually saw the battery lift from its tray a moment.
I managed to bring it back from the tree. Now it was very near the picnic table, a couple feet from the water, props giving off a weird dying hyena sound. Somehow - and I honestly can't explain this - I set it down on the table without a problem.
On touchdown the battery finally flopped free, skittered to the edge, and dropped off the table into the water. Bye-Bye!
All four props were shattered but still had enough of each blade to have maintained flight - long enough, that is.
Finally - silence.
Now, here's the real kicker: Solo did not have a single scratch or hint of damage, nor did the gimbal or GoPro.
Well, an eventful day, at least.
Now here's the real question:
What the heck actually happened?
And possibly far, far more importantly -
Learn to fly on manual!!!
