You know, I've read these threads for over a year and I always just sit and think "oh, that's terrible", then I walk over to my gear and think "it won't happen to me"
I didn't think I'd be posting one.
I've been flying fixed wing and helis for about 15 years. I've had some crashes but I'm not new to this by any means.
I have (sniff, had) three camera platforms, so named Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
Simon is a F550, I've had the longest. A Nava V1 w/ GPS. Very stable and versatile craft. A smart bird.
Theodore is a little Phantom 2 that I've recently added. All stock for the most part.
Then, there was Alvin. Alvin was neatly upgraded, Phantom v1.whatever w/ Nava-M V2, GPS, T-Motor Antigravity props and motors. Paired with an 8FG and R6208SB onboard, fatshark tx and IBCrazy cloverleaf, the kind of craft you get in those $2500 bulk aerial photo site packages from your favorite DJI supplier.
This has been a relatively new craft to me but my go-to at late. With the 8FG and optional dual rates in Manual Mode, Alvin was always a pretty easy little bird to fly. ATT worked well enough and IOC was always turned off. GPS Mode was always a different story. I read fixed-wing guys talking about being able to flip it in GPS mode and put the controller down. That was always hit-or-miss with Alvin. Sometimes he'd fly in a tight little box and easy hover at GPS mode, other times he'd drift -- badly.
Today we were flying two of them, and we'd had 3 packs through Alvin. No wind, beautiful southern gulf states day in the 50's. We put a pack in and let it acquire, gave it the customary 3 minutes or whatever and took off in FPV like I'd done so many times before. I pulled it up to about 200 feet and flipped it into GPS mode. BAM, the craft yanks hard to the right. I center both sticks, he keeps cramming to the right and starts to descend rapidly. In that lataral movement, it's covering some ground -- has gotten about 1/8th of a mile away and is over Mobile Bay. ( I yank off the Goggles in a panic, probably a mistake or maybe too late,who knows)...
I flip him down to att and increase throttle, sticks still center, nothing. I then hit failsafe - nothing happens - he's about 40 feet off of waters of Mobile Bay and SPLOOSH -- Phantom 1.1.1 + T-Motors + Antigravity Props + GoPro Hero 3 Black + 64 gb card + FatShark transmitter - with 75 flights on it that had never so much as scraped the ground hard much less crashed, gone and not recovered.
It happened exactly the moment I hit GPS mode. I checked the props before the flight.
Well charged pack. Good GPS Signal. Who the hell knows.
I do know, there isn't enough beer or wine in the house to make me feel better about today.
At any rate, if anyone in Daphne, Alabama ever finds a lone phantom reef washed ashore
, I will buy it from you just to try to salvage the video from the sdcard.
I didn't think I'd be posting one.
I've been flying fixed wing and helis for about 15 years. I've had some crashes but I'm not new to this by any means.
I have (sniff, had) three camera platforms, so named Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
Simon is a F550, I've had the longest. A Nava V1 w/ GPS. Very stable and versatile craft. A smart bird.
Theodore is a little Phantom 2 that I've recently added. All stock for the most part.
Then, there was Alvin. Alvin was neatly upgraded, Phantom v1.whatever w/ Nava-M V2, GPS, T-Motor Antigravity props and motors. Paired with an 8FG and R6208SB onboard, fatshark tx and IBCrazy cloverleaf, the kind of craft you get in those $2500 bulk aerial photo site packages from your favorite DJI supplier.
This has been a relatively new craft to me but my go-to at late. With the 8FG and optional dual rates in Manual Mode, Alvin was always a pretty easy little bird to fly. ATT worked well enough and IOC was always turned off. GPS Mode was always a different story. I read fixed-wing guys talking about being able to flip it in GPS mode and put the controller down. That was always hit-or-miss with Alvin. Sometimes he'd fly in a tight little box and easy hover at GPS mode, other times he'd drift -- badly.
Today we were flying two of them, and we'd had 3 packs through Alvin. No wind, beautiful southern gulf states day in the 50's. We put a pack in and let it acquire, gave it the customary 3 minutes or whatever and took off in FPV like I'd done so many times before. I pulled it up to about 200 feet and flipped it into GPS mode. BAM, the craft yanks hard to the right. I center both sticks, he keeps cramming to the right and starts to descend rapidly. In that lataral movement, it's covering some ground -- has gotten about 1/8th of a mile away and is over Mobile Bay. ( I yank off the Goggles in a panic, probably a mistake or maybe too late,who knows)...
I flip him down to att and increase throttle, sticks still center, nothing. I then hit failsafe - nothing happens - he's about 40 feet off of waters of Mobile Bay and SPLOOSH -- Phantom 1.1.1 + T-Motors + Antigravity Props + GoPro Hero 3 Black + 64 gb card + FatShark transmitter - with 75 flights on it that had never so much as scraped the ground hard much less crashed, gone and not recovered.
It happened exactly the moment I hit GPS mode. I checked the props before the flight.
Well charged pack. Good GPS Signal. Who the hell knows.
I do know, there isn't enough beer or wine in the house to make me feel better about today.
At any rate, if anyone in Daphne, Alabama ever finds a lone phantom reef washed ashore
, I will buy it from you just to try to salvage the video from the sdcard.
