Scary night...

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Last sunday I went flying on Busloo (recreational area in the Netherlands) on waypoints. After a few minutes I suddenly lost connection. I was not worried because it did happen before and then just did come home. But after 15 minutes I was starting to worry, cause now it definitely should be back.
So I waited for another 10 minutes and realized that I would probably never see my P3A again. I was with my brother and we took the car and drove to latest gps position. Started looking in this area but all water and trees. We decided to go home.
Next day I posted on Facebook that I lost my drone and asked people to share the message. I also put a reward of €200,00 on returning it. So yesterday night I received a message from a guy I know via Policed training and he told me a friend of him who is also training Policedogs has found it. I just thought he was kidding of course but he told me he was not. So he gave me the phone number of his friend and I called her.
She told me it crashed in her garden and saw on Facebook that a friend of her shared my message. I drove to her house and it was there! I took out the SD card and checked images to confirm it was mine. It was.
The damage? Just one broken prop and a broken cable from I think compass (little grey cable to a part that is numbered 3 in the landing gear. So I replaced all the props (still the first) and took the bird out for a very short flight. It was working. Today I have cleaned the P3A, replaced the cable and overall status is ok. And I did a IMU calibration, just to be sure.

Video is here:
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"This Video contains content from SME who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds".
I'm in the US
 
shitty us laws, here comes a no sound version in few minutes
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Glad you got your aircraft back. It might be a good idea to affix a label with your name and contact information just in case of future losses.
 
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Beautiful footage.
 
Flying backwards on waypoint missions is fine if altitude is correct. You also need to check elevations before launching an autonomous flight, also taking into account trees, etc. The altitude your bird/controller reports to you is the altitude relative to the takeoff point, not the altitude above the area you're flying over (unless it's perfectly flat and level with your takeoff point). You've probably already figured that out by now but thought I'd mention it.
 
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Well I just assumed it would be 40m from ground. Good lesson for me, not to much damage and will probably pay more attention to settings.
 
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.... The altitude your bird/controller reports to you is the altitude relative to the takeoff point, not the altitude above the area you're flying over (unless it's perfectly flat and level with your takeoff point). You've probably already figured that out by now but thought I'd mention it.

I think a lot of people really don't realize this fact. Basically everything is relative to the spot the aircraft left from.
 
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Well I just assumed it would be 40m from ground. Good lesson for me, not to much damage and will probably pay more attention to settings.
Live and learn. I learned it because I almost crashed mine one day. I was luckier than you. Came within a foot of trimming a tree top (I forgot that the tree added to the altitude needed). My friend was watching and of course I acted like it was all normal. He thinks I'm an ace pilot now. :)
 
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In the end I was lucky. I had a good reason to sell my P3A and buy a P4. Love the sports mode but is is slow on "P" mode. Also love 4 K filming and forward collision
 

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