I was recently flying the Catbird over the hills and fields I call my backyard. Do it all the time. I feel lucky to have such flying from my backyard. Only been flying a few months, but I feel like I am not a bad pilot. I might fly a little slow but I get the job done. No crashes etc.
On this day the catbird was hovering over a hilltop about 1500 feet away, when the screen on my Iphone went dark! I foolishly forget to note how much charge the phone had. Luckily I still had a visual on Catbird, the backdrop was a clear blue sky, the only reason I could see his little dot.
He was 150 ft high between 2 large trees. It would risky to fly him from the trees with no 1st person. From where I was I couldn't see enough to note the angles, or even if I was flying in the correct direction. Not sure what to, I decided to just land him. I dropped him down till he went down out of sight below the hill crest. He was probably 20 ft above the ground when I lost sight. I just held the stick till I was sure he made contact on the ground.
Next I jumped in my golf cart and took off to retrieve him, about a half mile away. Terrain is meadows, fields, and a few trees so not a problem. I knew the top of the hills was nothing but tall grass. My guess it might take a few minutes to find him in the tall grass and I was right. After a 10 min search I found him all safe and sound lights flashing.
I tell this story to help in the future if this should happen again. If Catbird had been out of visual, with a dark screen, what options do you have? Is there a return home on the RC (P3 standard) I don't know about that goes around the App? I prefer flying no course lock, that was the situation on this scenario.
Thoughts?
On this day the catbird was hovering over a hilltop about 1500 feet away, when the screen on my Iphone went dark! I foolishly forget to note how much charge the phone had. Luckily I still had a visual on Catbird, the backdrop was a clear blue sky, the only reason I could see his little dot.
He was 150 ft high between 2 large trees. It would risky to fly him from the trees with no 1st person. From where I was I couldn't see enough to note the angles, or even if I was flying in the correct direction. Not sure what to, I decided to just land him. I dropped him down till he went down out of sight below the hill crest. He was probably 20 ft above the ground when I lost sight. I just held the stick till I was sure he made contact on the ground.
Next I jumped in my golf cart and took off to retrieve him, about a half mile away. Terrain is meadows, fields, and a few trees so not a problem. I knew the top of the hills was nothing but tall grass. My guess it might take a few minutes to find him in the tall grass and I was right. After a 10 min search I found him all safe and sound lights flashing.
I tell this story to help in the future if this should happen again. If Catbird had been out of visual, with a dark screen, what options do you have? Is there a return home on the RC (P3 standard) I don't know about that goes around the App? I prefer flying no course lock, that was the situation on this scenario.
Thoughts?