I had my first crash tonight and I'm fuming mad about it.
Unforeseen consequences of my own actions. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I got the idea to do some camera testing at night. First I was motors off just taking test pictures and video in the dark.
Then I got it in my head to do some actual flight testing, just hovering in my back yard and looking back at the house to see how well the camera could see me and the lights in the windows at various ISO settings.
Then I made the fatal mistake. I decided to clip a flashlight into the gimbal protector tray. (thanks fatsmiles)
I took off from the back deck and put it into a hover about 12 feet up in the back yard. Then I noticed she was drifting a lot. I saw the TBE (toilet bowl effect) for the first time. Should have landed it then and there but the effect settled out and she seemed fine after that. For only about 30 seconds. I was trying to rotate back and look at the house when all hell broke loose. She started drifting backward fast. I tried to counter with no effect so I gave it throttle to try to get altitude and by that time she was leaned over so far the throttle only served to speed up the sideways momentum. She just missed the house, went past the side of the house, impacted on asphalt and skidded under my neighbors truck.
The battery dislodged on impact and I found that 10 feet away from the wreck. The camera guard came lose and lodged up in the wheel of the truck with the flashlight on it.
While it was happening, I had no idea why. On reflection though I realize I had put a metallic, high current device right next to the compass. **** it.
So let that be a lesson to all. Don't attach anything to the phantom without thinking really hard about how that will affect it. And keep anything metallic away from the landing gear.
The good news is the damage seems superficial as far as I can tell now. The camera and gimbal still work. The ribbon cable is still intact. Nothing is bent.
Just some broken props and nasty black road rash on two arms.
Now I need to go back to kicking myself and checking and cleaning the damage.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Unforeseen consequences of my own actions. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I got the idea to do some camera testing at night. First I was motors off just taking test pictures and video in the dark.
Then I got it in my head to do some actual flight testing, just hovering in my back yard and looking back at the house to see how well the camera could see me and the lights in the windows at various ISO settings.
Then I made the fatal mistake. I decided to clip a flashlight into the gimbal protector tray. (thanks fatsmiles)
I took off from the back deck and put it into a hover about 12 feet up in the back yard. Then I noticed she was drifting a lot. I saw the TBE (toilet bowl effect) for the first time. Should have landed it then and there but the effect settled out and she seemed fine after that. For only about 30 seconds. I was trying to rotate back and look at the house when all hell broke loose. She started drifting backward fast. I tried to counter with no effect so I gave it throttle to try to get altitude and by that time she was leaned over so far the throttle only served to speed up the sideways momentum. She just missed the house, went past the side of the house, impacted on asphalt and skidded under my neighbors truck.
The battery dislodged on impact and I found that 10 feet away from the wreck. The camera guard came lose and lodged up in the wheel of the truck with the flashlight on it.
While it was happening, I had no idea why. On reflection though I realize I had put a metallic, high current device right next to the compass. **** it.
So let that be a lesson to all. Don't attach anything to the phantom without thinking really hard about how that will affect it. And keep anything metallic away from the landing gear.
The good news is the damage seems superficial as far as I can tell now. The camera and gimbal still work. The ribbon cable is still intact. Nothing is bent.
Just some broken props and nasty black road rash on two arms.
Now I need to go back to kicking myself and checking and cleaning the damage.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.