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4 days and 85 feet later...

Mac282

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Joined
May 4, 2020
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Age
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Location
Tonto Basin, Az
Well, had my first crash. Actually wasn't a crash, more or less getting stuck in a Ponderosa Pine tree. All my fault, forgot it was in "Sport" mode and drifted sideways into the tree. If the sensors were on, It would have alerted me, but that's hindsight. It was like it just nested down
right on branches, almost a perfect landing. The drones antennas stratled two branches, preventing it from falling.
For four days and about 85 feet up, it taunted me. Wind gusts up to 45 mph would not dislodge my little baby. I would have tired to climb the tree, but at age of 62, I gave that idea about 2 seconds, and nixed it. Finally got a fishing pole and sinker, made a cast over the branch, lowered the sinker and secured some paracord to it. Reeled the line back in, paracord in hand and shook that branch till it dislodged. Luckily(?) it fell thru the tree not striking any more branches and fell into the tarp to catch it.
Had two broken props but nothing else seemed broken. No cracks or loose motors, no scratches, nothing visible. Popped in a new battery and she started right up. Camera, gimble, lights, motors looks like everything works fine. Just lucky I guess, I'm rating this as my first crash, but a lessoned learned.
 
Well, had my first crash. Actually wasn't a crash, more or less getting stuck in a Ponderosa Pine tree. All my fault, forgot it was in "Sport" mode and drifted sideways into the tree. If the sensors were on, It would have alerted me, but that's hindsight. It was like it just nested down
right on branches, almost a perfect landing. The drones antennas stratled two branches, preventing it from falling.
For four days and about 85 feet up, it taunted me. Wind gusts up to 45 mph would not dislodge my little baby. I would have tired to climb the tree, but at age of 62, I gave that idea about 2 seconds, and nixed it. Finally got a fishing pole and sinker, made a cast over the branch, lowered the sinker and secured some paracord to it. Reeled the line back in, paracord in hand and shook that branch till it dislodged. Luckily(?) it fell thru the tree not striking any more branches and fell into the tarp to catch it.
Had two broken props but nothing else seemed broken. No cracks or loose motors, no scratches, nothing visible. Popped in a new battery and she started right up. Camera, gimble, lights, motors looks like everything works fine. Just lucky I guess, I'm rating this as my first crash, but a lessoned learned.
congrats on the retrieval-there will be more crashes!
 
All my fault, forgot it was in "Sport" mode and drifted sideways into the tree. If the sensors were on, It would have alerted me

No side sensors on the MA1 :) Something to keep in mind, even in normal P mode flying sideways is a time for extra care.
 
Yeah, I probably should have clairified that...
The front sensor would have picked up the outer part of the branches. I did I take some photos, I'll try to post them soon. Thanks for the read and comment.
 
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