Hi,
A friend of mine has a P3P (and also an Inspire 1) and we took the P3 to a local field nearby my house. This time of year in the UK there is not much chance of lightning, but yesterday we got them!
He was piloting the P3 up to around 300ft, LoS. We could see a mass of black in the distance, thinking it was miles away, but over the course of say 30 mins it enveloped most of the sky. The P3 really stood out against the back sky, almost sureal so was easy to see with the eye.
A few rumbles of thunder could be heard, so the pilot thinking it could be risky (for the P3 and us, as we was on a field, no cover) started to do the RTH, then literally a bolt of lightning must have hit the ground around 1/3rd of a mile, maybe nearer. Before taking cover, the P3 (holding alt) was wobbling like mad, then another bolt, nearer I think, then it went quiet, I guess the props had stopped and it started to fall like a brick, my guess was around 300ft or so.
Thinking that was the end of it (no harvest on the field to soften the blow), the P3 came to life at around 100ft and began to shoot up to the same alt that it stopped at. The Pilot did not touch anything at all, no CSC commands, nothing.
I can only assume the locale of the lightning caused a 'static discharge' and crashed the computer on-board for a sec or more.
What amazes me though is that the P3 re-booted and we safely landed it.
Just wanted to share this with you guys, maybe its happened to you, but what I'm also saying is what a great piece of kit the P3 is...like the terminator!
A friend of mine has a P3P (and also an Inspire 1) and we took the P3 to a local field nearby my house. This time of year in the UK there is not much chance of lightning, but yesterday we got them!
He was piloting the P3 up to around 300ft, LoS. We could see a mass of black in the distance, thinking it was miles away, but over the course of say 30 mins it enveloped most of the sky. The P3 really stood out against the back sky, almost sureal so was easy to see with the eye.
A few rumbles of thunder could be heard, so the pilot thinking it could be risky (for the P3 and us, as we was on a field, no cover) started to do the RTH, then literally a bolt of lightning must have hit the ground around 1/3rd of a mile, maybe nearer. Before taking cover, the P3 (holding alt) was wobbling like mad, then another bolt, nearer I think, then it went quiet, I guess the props had stopped and it started to fall like a brick, my guess was around 300ft or so.
Thinking that was the end of it (no harvest on the field to soften the blow), the P3 came to life at around 100ft and began to shoot up to the same alt that it stopped at. The Pilot did not touch anything at all, no CSC commands, nothing.
I can only assume the locale of the lightning caused a 'static discharge' and crashed the computer on-board for a sec or more.
What amazes me though is that the P3 re-booted and we safely landed it.
Just wanted to share this with you guys, maybe its happened to you, but what I'm also saying is what a great piece of kit the P3 is...like the terminator!