- Joined
- Oct 1, 2016
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- Age
- 64
Today on the way home to Tucson, I did an improv pull off on I-8 at a picnic stop near the Vekol Valley AZ exit. The sky was setting up nicely and I was an area of undeveloped land full of cactus and cool rock formations. I decided to hike up the lowest hill to see the valley on the other side and eliminate any chance of getting the freeway in the video. It was a good hike up and I was a bit winded and I reminded myself to take my time and during set up, catch my breath.
Once my level launch area was prepped, I slid in a battery and did a compass calibration. I let it sit, got GPS locks, turned it off, installed camera, rebooted, got everything connected, turned on my strobe light, set my white balance, ISO, and shutter speed to look great and lifted off. Checked my hover, stability, stick response, hit record and headed out towards my goal which was the next rock hill formation about a 1/2 a mile south of me.
The shot was going great and I flew a comfortable distance away, stopped, started a slow pan to the right and began a pull back. The strobe was really helping me maintain VLOS as being up high, I was looking straight at the drone and it was easily lost in the horizon for its shape but not that blinking light. As I looked down at the screen, it went blank and reverted to home screen as if the H was not on. I looked up and the light was gone. I knew it was not a fly away but rather a total power loss in flight. That was reinforced by the sickening boom I heard also.
My mind was thinking through all the possibilities of what went wrong as I scrambled down the rocks toward the valley below. I took the St with me and more importantly my water bottle as I began my search for my crashed Typhoon. As I headed toward what I thought was the last location a nagging thought formed in my head which was did I hear the battery click? But then I thought why wouldn't it have come loose during the calibration earlier with all the rolling?
Once on the valley floor, running out of time and daylight, I blundered around thinking perhaps I would hear it beeping. I kept the ST on in case it might connect to the crashed H if it was still on. I turned off the ST to listen more intently. The combination of the silence and no camera connection brought me back to that battery install and maybe I just blew it. Now I really wanted to find it and realized the ST had the internal video file and it could help me search.
I turned it on and began to try to understand the camera view from the flight relative to my ground position. I also remembered that the distance you think you travel is less due to the perspective of the H size relative to its position. I studied the ground terrain and my flight path of how far I went out and when I turned towards those rocks I was using as center frame with the sunlight hitting them.
I hiked back towards my hillside as the more I studied the video, the more I realized my horizontal flight out was not as far as I believed. Once I had the same view of the small rock (my subject) with its larger brother rock to its side framed like my shot then I knew that was my flight path. It took me a bit to find the sweet spot where the video paused on the ST of my heading prior to the pan and reverse was the same as what I saw on the ground but once I did, I spun around and about 100 yards back, saw my strobe blinking.
I headed over to the expected carnage and surprisingly, the H faired pretty well. But the camera was completely destroyed as was the gimbal. The battery was still inside and popped out slightly and my fears were confirmed and I knew it was my fault and a major pilot error. The SD card was gone and camera pieces were everywhere. It appeared to have hit belly down and then bounced up without the camera attached (it was buried in the dirt) and the H flipped on its back. The force of the impact dropped the gear down and the skids broke but not the leg or motors or arms.
I realized in my slow hike out cradling my broken H in my arms that I have gotten to comfortable with the battery install and always assumed I push it in all the way. And I could swear I did on this Ill fated mission and the fact it didn't disconnect during compass cal also is weird. But since I was reversing, that tips the rear down and that's a perfect time for gravity to get you twice. Once when your it battery slides loose, and two when it hits the ground. I can guarantee that's never happening again and I'm grateful it happened in a secluded area. I also learned how to find a crashed drone with your handy data in your controller.
I'll post pics tomorrow of the camera. It's sad and funny at the same time.
Once my level launch area was prepped, I slid in a battery and did a compass calibration. I let it sit, got GPS locks, turned it off, installed camera, rebooted, got everything connected, turned on my strobe light, set my white balance, ISO, and shutter speed to look great and lifted off. Checked my hover, stability, stick response, hit record and headed out towards my goal which was the next rock hill formation about a 1/2 a mile south of me.
The shot was going great and I flew a comfortable distance away, stopped, started a slow pan to the right and began a pull back. The strobe was really helping me maintain VLOS as being up high, I was looking straight at the drone and it was easily lost in the horizon for its shape but not that blinking light. As I looked down at the screen, it went blank and reverted to home screen as if the H was not on. I looked up and the light was gone. I knew it was not a fly away but rather a total power loss in flight. That was reinforced by the sickening boom I heard also.
My mind was thinking through all the possibilities of what went wrong as I scrambled down the rocks toward the valley below. I took the St with me and more importantly my water bottle as I began my search for my crashed Typhoon. As I headed toward what I thought was the last location a nagging thought formed in my head which was did I hear the battery click? But then I thought why wouldn't it have come loose during the calibration earlier with all the rolling?
Once on the valley floor, running out of time and daylight, I blundered around thinking perhaps I would hear it beeping. I kept the ST on in case it might connect to the crashed H if it was still on. I turned off the ST to listen more intently. The combination of the silence and no camera connection brought me back to that battery install and maybe I just blew it. Now I really wanted to find it and realized the ST had the internal video file and it could help me search.
I turned it on and began to try to understand the camera view from the flight relative to my ground position. I also remembered that the distance you think you travel is less due to the perspective of the H size relative to its position. I studied the ground terrain and my flight path of how far I went out and when I turned towards those rocks I was using as center frame with the sunlight hitting them.
I hiked back towards my hillside as the more I studied the video, the more I realized my horizontal flight out was not as far as I believed. Once I had the same view of the small rock (my subject) with its larger brother rock to its side framed like my shot then I knew that was my flight path. It took me a bit to find the sweet spot where the video paused on the ST of my heading prior to the pan and reverse was the same as what I saw on the ground but once I did, I spun around and about 100 yards back, saw my strobe blinking.
I headed over to the expected carnage and surprisingly, the H faired pretty well. But the camera was completely destroyed as was the gimbal. The battery was still inside and popped out slightly and my fears were confirmed and I knew it was my fault and a major pilot error. The SD card was gone and camera pieces were everywhere. It appeared to have hit belly down and then bounced up without the camera attached (it was buried in the dirt) and the H flipped on its back. The force of the impact dropped the gear down and the skids broke but not the leg or motors or arms.
I realized in my slow hike out cradling my broken H in my arms that I have gotten to comfortable with the battery install and always assumed I push it in all the way. And I could swear I did on this Ill fated mission and the fact it didn't disconnect during compass cal also is weird. But since I was reversing, that tips the rear down and that's a perfect time for gravity to get you twice. Once when your it battery slides loose, and two when it hits the ground. I can guarantee that's never happening again and I'm grateful it happened in a secluded area. I also learned how to find a crashed drone with your handy data in your controller.
I'll post pics tomorrow of the camera. It's sad and funny at the same time.
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