Here's the deal...I am the owner of the P3P in question here...I changed the title of the post to try and divert attention from it when the story hit the local TV news and today hit the front page of the newspaper and the FAA has been involved. I finally got a chance to talk to the FAA today and must say that they were extremely reasonable. I will tell the full precautionary tale when it is over. Hopefully later this week. Please don't fly your drone (or UAS as the FAA calls them) in downtown areas. It was a mistake on my part.
Inadvertent landing on top of a building
- Thread starter jrtrip2
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ianwood
Taco Wrangler
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No .. not at all. This had nothing to do with radio antennas.
You explained your error earlier .. move over to the 5/3 bank building (the tallest building in the city) and as I went behind I lost contact.
Fly behind a tall building, a mountain, a big tree or a garden shed and if you lose line of sight, you risk the same thing.
When you lose contact because you have flown behind an obstacle your Phantom will attempt to come home via the shortest straight line, after climbing to RTH height - and it will crash into any obstacle in it's path.
It is all over the internet now Drone's crash-landing on Lexington's tallest building prompts concern
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great, another example for folks to bash phantom owners with ....... thank god no one was injured.
Jtrip - how much flight time and experience did you have before making national headlines?
Come on, friend, we have enough wankers here just stirring the pot and not adding value. Read the thread and you'll see that the owner/pilot is sharing his mistake for the benefit of others.
ianwood
Taco Wrangler
@Patrick, maybe while you're givig @jrtrip2 grief for something he already accepts wasn't the wisest choice, maybe you should also consider why an RC toy sitting on someone's rooftop is becoming national news.
Is it really that newsworthy? Or is it really that the media loves scaring people with irrational fears about drones?
Little Jonny breaks his neighbor's window with a baseball. A nation panics. Story at 11.
Is it really that newsworthy? Or is it really that the media loves scaring people with irrational fears about drones?
Little Jonny breaks his neighbor's window with a baseball. A nation panics. Story at 11.
forgive the snark ,its a fine line avoiding the appearance of impropriety even if doing something perfectly acceptable. I'm genuinely curious, seems to be a newbie, but maybe not.i think every one has hit an unexpected condition with their bird. i had ~100 hours of flight time before i hit a VRS the first time. when i was new with my phantom , id get the shaking stick syndrome getting it too far away or when i would see birds, putting my self in his shoes i wouldn't be happy with all the attention, even more so if i was fairly new to the phantom world.
If you're going to do things which could damage our industry, or cause distain in the eyes of the general public expect the snark at minimum , even to a mea culpa.
anyone who crashes due to ignorance deserves a little gentile ribbing.
did i call him an idiot? no ,
is that what my initial impression is ? maybe .
Could these events hurt everyone who owns a phantom? maybe.
Is the media is going to demonize him and get out the pitch forks for other phantom pilots for this? yes.
I'm generally curious if this was his 3rd flight or 500th, to me again it's expected behavior if you fly behind something that has RF blocking characteristics (i.e. a metal building) , you know to expect signal degradation, but again I'm an engineer that works with RF so to me its a given, to a photographer it might not be so much. wanker might be a strong term don't you think? , if i told my buddies i did this , i would expect quite a bit of ribbing about it. in fact it might earn someone the nickname 5/3. if you expose your exploits in public, expect some of the responses might not be what you want to hear (justified or not) , if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen
A truly horrifying scene! Alert the public! OMG this is so scary-looking! And terrifying!! More at 11.
agreed its silly but there's a bit of hysteria surrounding our profession / hobby , any carelessness, bad behavior, accidents are under a magnifying glass and will be used to justify harsher restrictions 
The chap understands what he did wrong and accepts his mistakes.
Gentle ribbing is fine but your "i told you so" attitude is a little wankerish. It's akin to kicking a dog when it's down. I read your posts, you almost crashed into a police helicopter. If you had, that would have made national headlines... would you want another Patrick coming at you with implications that you were an idiot?
did I call you a wanker? no
is that what my initial impression is? .....
let's backup. "i told you so" isn't whats happening, i was asking a question that came off snarky to be fair, a likely rhetorical question. was more of a implied shouldn't you know what your aircraft is capable of before you potentially endanger others lives or property, without having to come out and say the obvious.
also, let me clarify , i wouldn't categorize what happened as "patrick almost crashing into a police helicopter" i would call it "patrick taking evasive action to land when a police helicopter was spotted flying directly toward me at a low altitude"
Huge difference. also note no crash, nor incident except for my complaint to the FAA and the Police Dept.
if the situation was reversed and there was a crash and i was flying recklessly or unsafe i would expect to be in jail / fined and publicly ridiculed. which would all be appropriate.
again I didn't say I'm a perfect person nor pilot , but i am saying these events are getting more and more common and its concerning, it will be painful to pay the price for others not treating their phantom and environment with the respect they both deserve. personally i believe our forum is the place to apply peer pressure to those who flaunt the rules / fly into the unknown without knowing the capabilities of their aircraft. look at the local laws / bans being proposed. these events are exactly the reason why. if you can't take it block me
Huge difference. also note no crash, nor incident except for my complaint to the FAA and the Police Dept.
if the situation was reversed and there was a crash and i was flying recklessly or unsafe i would expect to be in jail / fined and publicly ridiculed. which would all be appropriate.
again I didn't say I'm a perfect person nor pilot , but i am saying these events are getting more and more common and its concerning, it will be painful to pay the price for others not treating their phantom and environment with the respect they both deserve. personally i believe our forum is the place to apply peer pressure to those who flaunt the rules / fly into the unknown without knowing the capabilities of their aircraft. look at the local laws / bans being proposed. these events are exactly the reason why. if you can't take it block me
Wrapping up this post...I got my drone back. It really took a hit...props broken and shell kind of came apart in some areas. Unscrewed everything and got it back together. Flies fine (in unpopulated areas mind you). Video is a little shaky. I'm hoping the new firmware brings it back to full life. To answer a few posted questions: it was my 120th flight. I considered myself pretty good before. This was just a really stupid thing for me to do. You have no idea how much crap I've gotten at my workplace but I took it in good humor as it was my fault. Hope everyone takes this story as a warning and all drone flyers have my sincerest apology for further hurting our reputation!
