It's been quiet lately having not flown since Thanksgiving due to cold weather. This week was relatively warm so Thursday evening I decided to take the Phantom up to blow out the dust. The batteries have been sitting here fully charged since late November and I was curious how they would function. Performance was fine except once I got down below 50% I would get low battery warnings at max power. Back off the throttle a little and the alert went away. Hopefully that will clear up once they cycle once or twice.
It was still light out for the first two flights, dusk for the third, and dark for the final. I launched from the driveway and the first three flights went off perfectly with flight times of 17:53, 18:56, and 21:02 respectively. RC'ed out to a mile on two of four flights (stock V+). As I was flying the final mission things got strange....
By this time it was dark, but I noticed some sort of large bird buzzing around. I caught a glimpse of it in the street light and it was big & black. At this point the Phantom was over a mile out so no worries. A few minutes later I am heading back at a pretty good pace, maybe 150' up, and coming over the house right across the street. At that instant I catch the silhouette of what I can only describe as Night Fury, heading straight towards the Phantom. Before I can react I hear a thud, the Vision+ cartwheels, careens uncontrollably through the upper branches of a tree, and crashes hard into the street in front of the house next door! :shock:
I'm standing there in shock thinking 'WTF?"
The Phantom is still powered on but, as I walk over, I know this is going to be bad. I pick it up, both front props are broken & the camera is detached at the roll axis. I know the ribbon is ripped. The Flytrex 3G is still attached & functioning. I power her off and head inside for a flashlight. I find the camera in the yard next door. A scrape to the barrel but the yaw motor separated cleanly...shaft pulled out. I have a spare ribbon so it may be repairable. Sadly I bring the wreckage inside...
Once inside I power on and spin up the motors. Everything seems to work, but the FR motor mount point in the shell is cracked badly. (All 4 have been developing stress cracks so it was time to re-shell anyways) I notice the memory card ejected in the crash and head back out to hunt. While searching I wonder what happened to the bird? Was it injured? Dead? Was it an accidental collision or an outright assault? As I'm searching I'll be damned if I don't see the same bird (at least I assume it was the same) still flying around in the dark!!! I had to laugh...
The video file was damaged from being ejected mid-recording. I was able to repair it but it truncated just prior to the impact. Looks like I'll be replacing props, shell, and possibly the camera/gimbal. I have everything here (except a new camera/gimbal & a new decal set). I do have a spare ribbon on hand to attempt a camera repair.
Dirty Bird 0 - Night Fury 1
It was still light out for the first two flights, dusk for the third, and dark for the final. I launched from the driveway and the first three flights went off perfectly with flight times of 17:53, 18:56, and 21:02 respectively. RC'ed out to a mile on two of four flights (stock V+). As I was flying the final mission things got strange....
By this time it was dark, but I noticed some sort of large bird buzzing around. I caught a glimpse of it in the street light and it was big & black. At this point the Phantom was over a mile out so no worries. A few minutes later I am heading back at a pretty good pace, maybe 150' up, and coming over the house right across the street. At that instant I catch the silhouette of what I can only describe as Night Fury, heading straight towards the Phantom. Before I can react I hear a thud, the Vision+ cartwheels, careens uncontrollably through the upper branches of a tree, and crashes hard into the street in front of the house next door! :shock:
I'm standing there in shock thinking 'WTF?"
The Phantom is still powered on but, as I walk over, I know this is going to be bad. I pick it up, both front props are broken & the camera is detached at the roll axis. I know the ribbon is ripped. The Flytrex 3G is still attached & functioning. I power her off and head inside for a flashlight. I find the camera in the yard next door. A scrape to the barrel but the yaw motor separated cleanly...shaft pulled out. I have a spare ribbon so it may be repairable. Sadly I bring the wreckage inside... Once inside I power on and spin up the motors. Everything seems to work, but the FR motor mount point in the shell is cracked badly. (All 4 have been developing stress cracks so it was time to re-shell anyways) I notice the memory card ejected in the crash and head back out to hunt. While searching I wonder what happened to the bird? Was it injured? Dead? Was it an accidental collision or an outright assault? As I'm searching I'll be damned if I don't see the same bird (at least I assume it was the same) still flying around in the dark!!! I had to laugh...
The video file was damaged from being ejected mid-recording. I was able to repair it but it truncated just prior to the impact. Looks like I'll be replacing props, shell, and possibly the camera/gimbal. I have everything here (except a new camera/gimbal & a new decal set). I do have a spare ribbon on hand to attempt a camera repair.
Dirty Bird 0 - Night Fury 1
