I guess it was just a matter of time.
After weeks of watching every move I make and being extra careful with everything Typhoon, I blew it today...a little. Not too bad, really. I mean, it could have been a whole lot worse.
I've been stuck inside grounded by days of poor, crappy weather, just aching to get out there. Being self-employed, I've about burnt through having enough alone time or time with tenants to conduct business, and was eager to get out flying again. But for the last 2 days I've been very stuck inside as local coastal flooding - not on my land but on the roadways granting me egress and ingress to my homesite - surrounded me and left me nowhere to go in all of this stormy weather we've been having. This morning a break in the weather came, and I thought I could finally get a flight in.
I waited for low tide to hit the coast so the roadways would be water free, then drove the short distance from my home to my family's land business site to do some storm assessments. (We rent land to people to build their homes on as well as farm it, too.) A few years ago we put in an emergency gravel access road to our community for our tenants to use during floods which runs through the heart of our corn and soybean fields. Because of all of the days of raining and flooding, the emergency road had been heavily used - abused, really - by mostly former city drivers who don't know any better than to drive full speed on a small, simple gravel country road, rutting it up and destroying it in 2 days.
Ah ha! I thought. I'll film the length of the messed up flood road with my Typhoon H to document the road damage that we will now have to spend time and money on to get it back into shape and be usable again. So I powered up the H, started my pre-flight routine, and suddenly got interrupted by a tenant driving down the flood road who stopped me to ask some questions about the drone. I was distracted and I knew it, mumbled something to him, then hastily got back to what I was doing, but I was off my bead and I knew it. I remembered to double check the winds, which were relatively high, and the Hover App on my iPhone read CAUTION in large letters, citing winds approaching 20 mph. I pulled out my handheld wind unit and measured about 17 mph, plenty safe for the H, I thought.
So I hastily pulled my launch mat into quick position - too close to the road and I knew it - situated the H on it, backed up a little - less than I normally do, and I knew it - and then hit the red button. I had it up about 3 feet off the ground when it began wobbling, veering off, and pitching. I instantly tried regaining control of it, and I did get a little, enough to land it quickly at least but not enough to power down the rotors before the Typhoon tipped just enough for one propellor to blow into smithereens striking the ground.
Everything was Kool and the Gang. No major damage at all to speak of. But a LOT of lessons to learn from.
First, I was rushing myself to get out and up as quickly as possible and did not have my head totally engaged in the game at hand, by which I mean that all-important prep time required by every pilot before flying a drone, however long that time may be for the individual. Second, I knew I was off my routine, off my mark, had been distracted by the tenant who approached me in the field, and should've just stopped to regroup, but I didn't take the extra time to do it, a decision which often leads to mistakes creeping in. And boy did I make one as I quickly discovered.
Once I tested out the rotors sans props and knew all was fine and well with my H, I recapitulated upon what had happened to pin down the cause of this event. First I thought perhaps it was prop wash as I did hover longer and lower in place than usual for me right after takeoff. Next I thought perhaps it was a sudden, untimely strong gust of wind that had grabbed my Typhoon out of my unsuspecting fingers. But then I looked at the ST16 in my hands and saw the Flight Mode toggle switch......stuck in the dreaded Smart Mode position! I obviously had somehow flipped it to Smart Mode by accident while talking to the tenant and had not double-checked the switch was correctly thrown before powering up my H.
The H's never-before-seen-by-me antics of very low altitude dancing, wobbling, veering off and eventually tipping over and blowing a prop were totally my own fault, brought about by me forgetting ONE cardinal rule that trumps all other rules at takeoff. And it does not matter that I have not forgotten so many times in the past to takeoff in Angle Mode only. In the real world with consequences, all that matters is that I forgot to do it this ONE time. I am so lucky I did not suffer much more damage than I did as I approached my initialized H in Smart Mode with the ST16 in my hand, violating it's sacrosanct safe circle zone. A few lessons learned by - and reinforced to - me on the cheap.
After weeks of watching every move I make and being extra careful with everything Typhoon, I blew it today...a little. Not too bad, really. I mean, it could have been a whole lot worse.
I've been stuck inside grounded by days of poor, crappy weather, just aching to get out there. Being self-employed, I've about burnt through having enough alone time or time with tenants to conduct business, and was eager to get out flying again. But for the last 2 days I've been very stuck inside as local coastal flooding - not on my land but on the roadways granting me egress and ingress to my homesite - surrounded me and left me nowhere to go in all of this stormy weather we've been having. This morning a break in the weather came, and I thought I could finally get a flight in.
I waited for low tide to hit the coast so the roadways would be water free, then drove the short distance from my home to my family's land business site to do some storm assessments. (We rent land to people to build their homes on as well as farm it, too.) A few years ago we put in an emergency gravel access road to our community for our tenants to use during floods which runs through the heart of our corn and soybean fields. Because of all of the days of raining and flooding, the emergency road had been heavily used - abused, really - by mostly former city drivers who don't know any better than to drive full speed on a small, simple gravel country road, rutting it up and destroying it in 2 days.
Ah ha! I thought. I'll film the length of the messed up flood road with my Typhoon H to document the road damage that we will now have to spend time and money on to get it back into shape and be usable again. So I powered up the H, started my pre-flight routine, and suddenly got interrupted by a tenant driving down the flood road who stopped me to ask some questions about the drone. I was distracted and I knew it, mumbled something to him, then hastily got back to what I was doing, but I was off my bead and I knew it. I remembered to double check the winds, which were relatively high, and the Hover App on my iPhone read CAUTION in large letters, citing winds approaching 20 mph. I pulled out my handheld wind unit and measured about 17 mph, plenty safe for the H, I thought.
So I hastily pulled my launch mat into quick position - too close to the road and I knew it - situated the H on it, backed up a little - less than I normally do, and I knew it - and then hit the red button. I had it up about 3 feet off the ground when it began wobbling, veering off, and pitching. I instantly tried regaining control of it, and I did get a little, enough to land it quickly at least but not enough to power down the rotors before the Typhoon tipped just enough for one propellor to blow into smithereens striking the ground.
Everything was Kool and the Gang. No major damage at all to speak of. But a LOT of lessons to learn from.
First, I was rushing myself to get out and up as quickly as possible and did not have my head totally engaged in the game at hand, by which I mean that all-important prep time required by every pilot before flying a drone, however long that time may be for the individual. Second, I knew I was off my routine, off my mark, had been distracted by the tenant who approached me in the field, and should've just stopped to regroup, but I didn't take the extra time to do it, a decision which often leads to mistakes creeping in. And boy did I make one as I quickly discovered.
Once I tested out the rotors sans props and knew all was fine and well with my H, I recapitulated upon what had happened to pin down the cause of this event. First I thought perhaps it was prop wash as I did hover longer and lower in place than usual for me right after takeoff. Next I thought perhaps it was a sudden, untimely strong gust of wind that had grabbed my Typhoon out of my unsuspecting fingers. But then I looked at the ST16 in my hands and saw the Flight Mode toggle switch......stuck in the dreaded Smart Mode position! I obviously had somehow flipped it to Smart Mode by accident while talking to the tenant and had not double-checked the switch was correctly thrown before powering up my H.
The H's never-before-seen-by-me antics of very low altitude dancing, wobbling, veering off and eventually tipping over and blowing a prop were totally my own fault, brought about by me forgetting ONE cardinal rule that trumps all other rules at takeoff. And it does not matter that I have not forgotten so many times in the past to takeoff in Angle Mode only. In the real world with consequences, all that matters is that I forgot to do it this ONE time. I am so lucky I did not suffer much more damage than I did as I approached my initialized H in Smart Mode with the ST16 in my hand, violating it's sacrosanct safe circle zone. A few lessons learned by - and reinforced to - me on the cheap.
