This morning I wanted to go shoot a newly developed outdoor shopping mall that has a retro movie theater. When I looked out my bedroom window, there was a little fog but I figured that would add to the atmosphere. My car was frozen over but I didn't think twice about it, got the scraper and scraped the half-inch-thick ice right off. I packed everything up and was soon on the road.
When I got to the mall, the parking lot across from the theater was abandoned, perfect. The big sign that should have lit up the letters "Regal" now only read "al", the other lights were already burned out. Crap, oh well, I thought I'd get the shot anyway. I did my preflight check and got a good GPS signal. I had 10 satellites, perfect.
Before long, my bird was in the air. The fog was really soupy by now but I didn't care. I shot a little video and then took a still. The lights on the Phantom looked dramatic in the fog above me.
All of a sudden I heard that erratic buzzing you hear the moment you realize there is a swarm of bees flying around you. I looked at my iPhone feed and then looked up and could see that the Phantom was descending. I hadn't given her that signal. In fact, my fingers were not even on the sticks but she was coming down anyway. When this happens, there comes a moment, kinda like when you are in the middle of the road and a huge truck is about to hit you. You become paralyzed. I thought about trying to catch it as it headed for the ground but the props were spinning and I didn't want to potentially injure myself or the Phantom.
I watched as she landed with a thud followed by little white plastic shards flying this way and that. My first thought was the legs had buckled and my camera had smashed. I turned everything off and rushed to see the damage. Luckily the only casualty was two broken props. I didn't see her tip on her side when she landed and I have prop guards on. I did notice that the props were covered in ice so it may be that the impact coupled with their frozen state just shattered them.
So here are the things I learned that I want to pass along:
1. The ice on my car was pretty thick (a less than subtle warning) so I should have rescheduled my flight.
2. Even though my weather app said it was 34 degrees F, my car thermometer said it was 28 degrees. I should have paid more attention to that.
3. When there's fog, there's moisture and freezing cold and moisture makes for a bad cocktail that will negatively affect your Phantom.
4. If in doubt, do a couple of minutes test low down and over grass or something soft. My Phantom would have dropped no matter how high or low it was and if I had performed this test, I could have avoided the crash. Granted there was a greater possibility of it getting frozen higher up. This leads me back to heeding points one and two.
I was lucky the damage was minimal. The issue here is not that you can't fly in freezing weather, you just can't fly in freezing weather with a lot of humidity.
When I got to the mall, the parking lot across from the theater was abandoned, perfect. The big sign that should have lit up the letters "Regal" now only read "al", the other lights were already burned out. Crap, oh well, I thought I'd get the shot anyway. I did my preflight check and got a good GPS signal. I had 10 satellites, perfect.
Before long, my bird was in the air. The fog was really soupy by now but I didn't care. I shot a little video and then took a still. The lights on the Phantom looked dramatic in the fog above me.
All of a sudden I heard that erratic buzzing you hear the moment you realize there is a swarm of bees flying around you. I looked at my iPhone feed and then looked up and could see that the Phantom was descending. I hadn't given her that signal. In fact, my fingers were not even on the sticks but she was coming down anyway. When this happens, there comes a moment, kinda like when you are in the middle of the road and a huge truck is about to hit you. You become paralyzed. I thought about trying to catch it as it headed for the ground but the props were spinning and I didn't want to potentially injure myself or the Phantom.
I watched as she landed with a thud followed by little white plastic shards flying this way and that. My first thought was the legs had buckled and my camera had smashed. I turned everything off and rushed to see the damage. Luckily the only casualty was two broken props. I didn't see her tip on her side when she landed and I have prop guards on. I did notice that the props were covered in ice so it may be that the impact coupled with their frozen state just shattered them.
So here are the things I learned that I want to pass along:
1. The ice on my car was pretty thick (a less than subtle warning) so I should have rescheduled my flight.
2. Even though my weather app said it was 34 degrees F, my car thermometer said it was 28 degrees. I should have paid more attention to that.
3. When there's fog, there's moisture and freezing cold and moisture makes for a bad cocktail that will negatively affect your Phantom.
4. If in doubt, do a couple of minutes test low down and over grass or something soft. My Phantom would have dropped no matter how high or low it was and if I had performed this test, I could have avoided the crash. Granted there was a greater possibility of it getting frozen higher up. This leads me back to heeding points one and two.
I was lucky the damage was minimal. The issue here is not that you can't fly in freezing weather, you just can't fly in freezing weather with a lot of humidity.
The Phantom isn't "certified" to fly in any conditions - it not being subject to any national or international certification requirements, of course. It's also not an airplane (or aeroplane). It also isn't carrying pax (no self-loading freight here), so let's keep a little perspective.
