ElGuano said:
Ouch, hope you get it back. IIRC the drain with the motors disarmed is about 500-600mw. It's not high for such a big battery but also not significant. It can potentially last a couple of days fully charged. At 50-60% it should last 8 hours, probably a bit less once the ambient temp drops.
IME, it's really hard to notice any of the LEDs in really dense foliage. I parked my Phantom in a VERY SMALL, manicured tree in my yard once. And I knew EXACTLY where it was. And I couldn't see the LEDs through the leaves. My recent LED mod should change that significantly though, it's daylight-bright! But I'm not looking to crash it soon.
yes, it is gone. spent 7 hours in blackberrys, nettles, grass, and thistles that were up to 10 feet deep! nothing to show but cut up arms and a wasted day. good times!
its weird, here is what happened: i was flying it, and felt like i knew what i was doing (wrong). i am a pilot of real airplanes and have a lot of time on a stick (as opposed to the yoke). so feeling comfortable (first mistake) i went to 'pull up', and did what i would do in my plane, i pulled the stick back. (holding controller horizontally, pulling stick towards me). I saw it descending, realized my folly, and quickly reversed the stick to 'up'. but it just dropped like a rock, even after this correction. I'll take the blame for pilot error, but it was kind of strange the way it juts kept falling after the correction.