1st & 2nd Flight - WOW!!! - Some "Funky" Bits I Did Well To Learn From

[ArnhemAnt]

^^ Nice boat and nice setup. Having 8 deep cycle batteries should keep you running quite nicely. Beautiful location, and I see you fish fly - wish we lived closer to each other. The majority of my fly fishing is in the salt water though.

Doing all your initial setup including calibrations, etc on shore is a great idea. Keen to see some aerial stuff from over your way when you get to it.

 

[dronedude1]

Welcome aboard. Great to hear about the successful first flight of your new H.

Not sure exactly why you experienced some strange behaviour over the first few batteries, but for what it's worth, I would be putting this down to not allowing the GPS sufficient time to completely download all data (almanac) before flying. I think this may be the case particularly as you haven't flown it previously. To be sure, when you get the time again, have the batteries charged up, head back out to the same area and wait a good 10 minutes (with the H and ST16 powered on) prior to arming the motors and flying. See if this makes a difference.

I took mine up for the first time yesterday. I was a little nervous but did my compass cal and away I went WOW this guy was freakin awesome.At first it rocked around a little just had it up about 3 feet and it was windy might have caused it to be dancing a bit lol.But I got it up about 30 feet and hovered stayed right there even with the wind.Took some 4k vid niceeeee.But I did not push my luck with the wind but got my feet wet.I would have to say it flew as smooth as my phantom 3 pro.Love this drone.

 

[dronedude1]

Hey ArnhemAnt,
I'd be willing to bet it has a lot to do with the EMF given off by the alternator, spark plugs, etc. If it's not running then there's probably some permanent magnets in the motor somewhere too. (But you know all that.)

I used to have a 6m inboard/outboard but downsized to a 5.2m. I've found that most of the lakes I like to fish around here don't allow gas powered craft. We also have some pretty "ugly" places to fish:View attachment 4774
The H will only go up when the water is like you see above. (Sorry, no aerial shots from the H until this summer.) I doubt the on-board batteries are an issue and I'm hoping they aren't. I've got 8 deep cycles on board as I'm 100% electric powered. I deploy two solar panels at the bow that make a good launch/landing pad: 80" x 27". (Used them for the Q500) DC motors = permanent magnets. The bow motor will be deployed and off at launch so the magnet will be a good 5ft away and enclosed in a steel housing. Fingers crossed it won't be an issue. As all flying will be within a 5km range from camp, I'll perform all calibrations on shore. Then it will just be a matter of getting a good satellite lock before launch. I prefer to land as opposed to hand catch however, I like to be comfortable in the event it becomes necessary. Murphy's Law reference: "Murphy" loves to work overtime. I like to be prepared when he decides to shows up.

All good info... Thanks for sharing.

Plan on having mine follow me this summer in my bass boat.

 

[2TO3D]

ArnhemAnt, Ocean fishing would be fun to try. The lake in the photo is 5600ft above sea level with Rainbow and Brook trout galore. The water temp never gets above 4C. Brrr. We're roughing it for 5 days so need lots of juice to make sure we get home. I've recently introduced an inverter to our trip so we can run some 110AC. The solar panels do a great job of topping up. I'm sure you can appreciate there is little room for error in places like these. If you're not over water, you're over dense forest. Very few flat or open places to play. I'm researching some ideas for emergency flotation. 300ft is a long way down to fish for a drone.

dronedude, Welcome! Glad to see you had success. I'm sure your bass boat can scoot along at a better clip than mine. Follow me/watch me will be cool. Good luck with it!

 

[ArnhemAnt]

I'm sure you can appreciate there is little room for error in places like these. If you're not over water, you're over dense forest. Very few flat or open places to play. I'm researching some ideas for emergency flotation. 300ft is a long way down to fish for a drone.

I'm in a similar situation. If I'm not over the salt water, then I have mangroves and floodplains to deal with. Throw in the saltwater crocodiles, blue bottle jellyfish, sharks, etc and it makes it a lot of fun! In the six years I have been flying multi rotors, I've lost two. One was directly over water and the other was deep in the mangroves. I tried to recover the one in the mangroves but the ever present crocodiles made me turn around and head home empty handed. I should add that both of these losses were due to user error and poor preflights. I've learned my lesson.

 

[2TO3D]

Reminds of the old adage: "Good Judgement comes from Experience. Experience comes from Poor Judgement."
... I like to think I have pretty good judgement.