Drones and Close Calls
- Thread starter ElGuapo
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Great examples of why our hobby/business is being so closely scrutinized by the media and FAA.... and thus the new regulations and more to come...
Check this raw video from yesterday. Please forgive the old fashioned gimbal.
Skip ahead to the 1:50 mark. I'm flying across the cornfield with 12 mph head winds so I'm trying to keep it low. My app crashes at about this point. I know I'm going to hit the trees if I don't gain altitude (the ground here is about 80 feet above my launch point - I'm flying uphill) so I do left stick up in the blind while trying to reload my Litchi app.
My app is not up yet but as you can see, as I go over the trees I level out and everything is fine. Meanwhile I'm waiting for my app to reconnect. At about 2:20 I level out and everything seems fine as my app reconnects. But then I get an AC lost Signal message which is unusual because usually I lose FPV first. Then the message vanishes and everything seems okay again. Then again I get the message that AC lost signal. Then my app crashes again!
Looking at the video afterwards, my AC RTH'd but if you study what actually happened, the AC actually lost elevation as it approached the high voltage wires and came dangerously close. It would have cleared them I think, but still, why did it lose elevation? Flytrex showed the AC dropped 70 feet on its own. I will study this further. But as you can see, on the turn around I'm much lower, and now in RTH I'm much closer to the trees I just went over. 70 feet is a lot of feet to be dropping inadvertently. It could be the wind hitting the tree line was doing funny things to the air pressure, but still...
Now pause at 3:20. A hawk is swooping in at high speed on the port side and seems to just miss the AC. Go frame by frame to get a good look. You can actually see the color detail of his feathers. You can first see him as a tiny dot at 3:18. He whips by at 3:21.
Skip ahead to the 1:50 mark. I'm flying across the cornfield with 12 mph head winds so I'm trying to keep it low. My app crashes at about this point. I know I'm going to hit the trees if I don't gain altitude (the ground here is about 80 feet above my launch point - I'm flying uphill) so I do left stick up in the blind while trying to reload my Litchi app.
My app is not up yet but as you can see, as I go over the trees I level out and everything is fine. Meanwhile I'm waiting for my app to reconnect. At about 2:20 I level out and everything seems fine as my app reconnects. But then I get an AC lost Signal message which is unusual because usually I lose FPV first. Then the message vanishes and everything seems okay again. Then again I get the message that AC lost signal. Then my app crashes again!
Looking at the video afterwards, my AC RTH'd but if you study what actually happened, the AC actually lost elevation as it approached the high voltage wires and came dangerously close. It would have cleared them I think, but still, why did it lose elevation? Flytrex showed the AC dropped 70 feet on its own. I will study this further. But as you can see, on the turn around I'm much lower, and now in RTH I'm much closer to the trees I just went over. 70 feet is a lot of feet to be dropping inadvertently. It could be the wind hitting the tree line was doing funny things to the air pressure, but still...
Now pause at 3:20. A hawk is swooping in at high speed on the port side and seems to just miss the AC. Go frame by frame to get a good look. You can actually see the color detail of his feathers. You can first see him as a tiny dot at 3:18. He whips by at 3:21.
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Because the app has nothing to do with the flight of my aircraft. I learned to fly without an app.
The puzzle is why my AC dropped 70 feet for no particular reason. It dropped 60 feet between the trees and the high voltage cables, then went into RTH, and then dropped another 10 feet. The 10 feet is not a big deal, but the 60 feet descent is odd.
The puzzle is why my AC dropped 70 feet for no particular reason. It dropped 60 feet between the trees and the high voltage cables, then went into RTH, and then dropped another 10 feet. The 10 feet is not a big deal, but the 60 feet descent is odd.
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To be fair, you can see 'here, hold my beer' pictures concerning many various human behaviors on YouTube. Boating, walking, eating. It often amazes me that a majority of the population survives to adulthood.
Also, most of those videos a close in shots which look horribly dangerous / too close for comfort. The wide angle on the Phantoms makes judging close distances VERY hard. I have lots of similar shots that look like your are going to crash into something when in reality you are 3 feet away. Perspective. It's a fun photographic tool.
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