I had my first crash today. I was at a small beach, finally getting out of the city to get some wider open flying in. It started off great, as I went over a marshland and got some great footage. There had been a few people flying kites when I first took off from a small park with a gazebo, so as I started to come back, I glanced at the sky for the kites and scanned the ground to see if anyone was still flying. No one. Great! I'll fly over the gazebo on the way back to a battery change landing. As I come across the top of the gazebo, all of a sudden the motors start to make a weird noise, and my P2V+ nosedives backwards and slams into a gazebo post, crashing into an empty plastic bin. As it turns out, someone had left a kite in the air and tied the string to the side of the gazebo. WHO DOES THAT?! I was enraged. You can't just leave a kite unattended and go have a meal. The string had wound its way around one of my motors, beneath the propeller, until it locked up. Luckily, I don't seem to have much damage, though my compass is acting up somewhat. I already have decided that kites are my mortal enemy, and this just reinforces that. Normally, when I fly in the park, there is a group of guys who fly at least 5 kites, and they cut off half of the large field. I am strongly considering securely attaching a small piece of metal beneath the props, on each motor. Nothing too sharp, but just enough to easily cut any kite string that starts to wind around any of my props.
Here is the video: https://vimeo.com/101887258
BAN KITES!
Here is the video: https://vimeo.com/101887258
BAN KITES!