Between the weather and me quietly dying of man flu I have not done much flying at all lately. Went out once, had left the pad at home. Next day all set up, no SD card. "ohh dear" I said, or words to that effect. Next day I set everything up and as I mounted the NVIDA tablet I noticed that one of the corners had lifted slightly. I pushed it back in with a satisfying click. The screen disappeared and a message the effect of 'Welcome to your new NVIDIA tablet. Went into my software all my DJI apps etc had gone. No flying. After I got home the tablet sorted itself out once connected to the internet and its back to normal.
Today I went out. Did a check before I left the front door. All present. Very windy with quite violent gusts. Sod it I am going to fly anyway. Tricky take off between the gusts but managed to get it up in the air. Did some low flying to keep out of the wind and practiced slow turns and slow gimbel moves. Despite the weather it should make some decent footage. Hand caught. Went to switch off the recording........... I had not pressed record. Sugar! I was not going to leave without some footage.
I took off again. Did some sweeps and turns. Flew between some trees. Great. Flew around a little more. Started to descend slowly. A gust of wind came up. My rucksack on the ground started to blow away to some rather yucky looking mud.......... I was distracted. I looked up and the drone was being shoved down and sideways......... too late. It crashed into the top of a tree. When I say tree I mean a bush that has grown to the size of a tree and gone all woody. Did not look damaged just tangled up in the upper branches.
I trudged over. Luckily I had my wellies on.Ankle deep in the smelly stuff. When I got to the tree I come see it flashing away like some demented Christmas tree decoration. How the ***** was I going to get it down. Ok you wise guys will be saying 'climb the tree you pillock'. But remember I did say this was more like an overgrown bush 40 feet high. To make it more fun the branches were thorny. The base had a defense perimeter of bramble bushes as high as my neck.
This is a photo from the drone as it dangled to give you some idea of what it was like. That bird knew where to build its nest.
(Down there, somewhere, is me looking up. )
I tried climbing the tree. Coat covered in moss. Hands covered in scratches. Could not get close. Tried throwing branches up into the tree to try and dislodge it. The tree now has a lovely collection of funny shaped walking sticks dangling from the upper branches. I needed something longer. So I found a long branch on the tree. Started to separate it from the tree and I noticed the branches under the branches above, hope this makes sense, started to fall. The prize moved! So with the help of my new found friend the big branch I proceeded to remove the stuff underneath. Slowly branch by bundled branch it got lower and lower. Finally with a coat covered in moss, hair full of tiny twigs, wellies covered in mud I got it free.
Walking triumphantly from the bushes with drone in hand I practically collided with a couple of aged ramblers. Afternoon! Did not say much just went in the opposite direction quickly. Packed up, I think the gods were telling me something. On arrival home my wife was not too happy with the muddy dog. Among other words she said have you seen yourself? Looked in the bathroom mirror. Face covered in moss and mud where I had brushed stuff off my face. Hair full of twigs and other stuff Id rather not think about. I looked like an ancient Celtic warrior on a bad hair day. Queen Boadicea would have been proud of me.
Happy to say though the drone is still working, appears undamaged.
To be continued?
