Best recovery?

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May 11, 2015
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Uganda
I've been following isopro's list of flight progressions for beginners. I've worked my way up to circles at around 300ft.

Returning home, the tree outside my compound was full of Pelicans and I couldn't resist the urge to capture a dramatic shot. Framed the tree, rose up and over, the birds took off and it was an incredible "Africa" shot with the Nile River in the background.

Then, my brain farted. Instead of hitting right stick down to reverse towards home, I hit left. Lowered the P3 right into the top of the tree. It flipped upside down and got stuck. 63 FEET UP. ****.

It was impossible to reach by climbing. This being Africa, I called a guy who knows a guy who has a brother who has a cousin with a crane. 2 hours later, I'm sitting in a makeshift sling using a tow strap being hoisted 70 feet into the air through tree branches to fetch my bird. The whole time I'm thinking "I'm never flying below 200 feet again. I'm a freaking idiot."

Recovered, bird seems ok. Miraculously, no damage other than green stains on the props. Re-calibrated and test hovered, all was well.

I've got an iPhone video of my fat *** being hoisted into the air, fishing out a P3, and coming back down. Height of the bird was checked via the app when it got stuck - 63 feet in the air. It's an ***-clincher to be sitting in a tow strap hooked to a crane at that height!

Ugandan internet isn't cooperating with uploading the video but it's coming.




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WOW your lucky you got it retrieved and no damage. Better to fly above trees and just in case have your RTH height setting set higher than all obstacles for RTH function. Safe flying!
 
I managed to get the raw footage of me in the top of the tree to load, and a photo for good measure to prove the story :)

851b5afbd9e7e0a71e81d443fa686b92.jpg


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I hope that doesn't happen to me, if so........ I hope I have that much help [emoji4]
 
Here's going up and down. I've got to admit - I'm impressed with this P3. I've hit one tree trunk and fallen 8 feet into grass and landed in the branches of another tree 70 feet up and the ONLY adjustment I've had to make is a +0.8 on the gimbal tilt in advanced settings.

Luckily, the bird landed upside down. The gimbal, for the most part, was untouched. Had I been in the frame of mind, a shot of the P3 sitting in the branches with the Nile visible in the background would have been advert worthy.

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How many people does it take to get a quadcopter out of a tree?

Oh man. In Uganda, when a white guy flys an unknown object into a tree that is so valuable he'll rent a crane to get it down, people gather. Lots of people.


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Moral of the story, bird farts are bad.

I wish it was a bird fart. This was a brain fart and my inability to separate left stick from right :/


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Oh man. In Uganda, when a white guy flys an unknown object into a tree that is so valuable he'll rent a crane to get it down, people gather. Lots of people.


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Rent a $5000 per day crane to get a $1500. P3 out of the tree. "That's Priceless" Don't leave home without it. :D:cool::cool::cool:
 
Rent a $5000 per day crane to get a $1500. P3 out of the tree. "That's Priceless" Don't leave home without it. :D:cool::cool::cool:

Luckily, the crane rental was only $140, and even that was overpriced. I think they were tipped that I was white so they doubled the price. It should have been closer to $90-$100 including fuel. Oh well - small price to pay to have the P3 back. Uganda has it's perks...
 
Luckily, the crane rental was only $140, and even that was overpriced. I think they were tipped that I was white so they doubled the price. It should have been closer to $90-$100 including fuel. Oh well - small price to pay to have the P3 back. Uganda has it's perks...
That little piece of machinery would cost about 5 grand a day in San Antonio, TXo_O
 

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