Need poll option for 'Yes I think about it constantly, but still go flying'
The first time the IMU went nuts in my Naza-M it went crazy out of control, took off at great speed and height and I had to kill motors just as it left my LoS. I was in a largely empty playing field just on the outskirts of a small local village. That landed up in someone's back garden, close to where their children could have been playing, but weren't at the time. Fortunately my phone number on the craft
led the people that found it to call me, and I was able to recover the pieces, explain, apologise, buy them some flowers and draw a line under the whole sorry incident.
After this event my trust in Naza and DJI in general took a serious knock, and from then on (after the rebuild) I chose generally much more remote fly-sites. But after nearly another year of no further problems, trust increased again, and I felt ready to film something more exciting than yet another grassy field.
Shortly after that there was the 'Porchester Castle incident'
I didn't crash here, but in perfect weather conditions I overflew a closed and deserted castle without incident. I shouldn't have posted that video ! :/
English Heritage, who are custodians of the castle, saw this, and were
very cross about this flight, shopping me to the CAA, and writing to me at length from their legal department detailing the rules they thought I was breaking. I held my ground to some extent, and wrote a detailed rebuttal of the charges, which came down to the somewhat nebulous definition of what constitutes a 'building under my control' (my argument was that an empty ruin WAS under my control) and after some back and forth, it was agreed no charges would be filed, and I would agree not to overfly any structure governed by English Heritage in the future without written permission from the site manager. A great shame for me, because they own pretty much ALL the best landscapes and historical buildings in England - certainly all the ones near me !!
Back to the empty fields then, and no more crash problems, until about another year later, my new Naza M2 did another NPE flyaway (this time in my beloved TBS Discovery Pro), smashing it unrecoverably into the ground before I had so much as a chance to switch to manual ! No damage to anyone or anything except the craft, because I was in an empty field.
At that point DJI still had almost non-existant customer service, again didn't want to help me at all, so my trust in them fell to 0% and I quit the hobby for 5 years.
But I missed my flyings, so kept an eye on the market. I had to a wait a long time before I found another brand I liked, and I returned to the hobby just recently with a Yuneec Typhoon H, which has been reliable so far, and the customer service excellent. But the echos of my previous experience still persist, so I remain much more conscious about where I choose to fly, and mainly limit myself to fields and hills in the middle of nowhere. I must confess that I do feel an almost constant resentment that I have to do this
I am slowly being lured back to DJI, especially with the camera on that
M2P, and it is my hope that evidence on these very forums will convince me that DJI have largely sorted out the NPE flyaway problems, and improved their customer service, at which point I may well give them another go... but whatever I am flying, I tend to spend far longer trying to find safe, isolated places to fly, and doing pre-flight plans and checks than I ever spend in the air !!
