- Joined
- Mar 1, 2017
- Messages
- 23
- Reactions
- 3
- Age
- 73
Hello all,
Well I know it happens to everyone but I never suspected it would occur so unexpectedly. I was flying my mP in a large park in KC near a major museum. The park is about 150 yards wide and 500 yards long. It's bordered by 20ft. trees and neighborhoods and provides a large open space perfect for flying.
It was late evening and only a couple of people were in the park, Class D space with minor activity mainly sightseeing and police helicopters. I was flying in altitude mode and kept my max altitude under 300ft. The weather was perfect clear and late afternoon.
I was practicing long low altitude flying followed by a max speed climb to reveal the beauty of the local nearby Museum, the Nelson/Atkins to the north. I was also flying the same maneuver flying south toward a small waterway called Brush Creek. I was on my third battery and feeling like I had a decent feel for the aircraft and decided to finish for the day. The mP was southwest of my location and I decided to do a sideways dolly along the west border of trees to fly it back to my home location. As I was doing that a sightseeing helicopter flew directly overhead and I looked up briefly to check it's location, (I was flying under 50ft.), and then it happened. I lost the connection with the mP and when I looked back to where I expected the aircraft to be it was lost in the texture of the background trees. I knew it was nearby and had probably crashed into the border of trees somewhere to my west. I searched and searched panicking of course but grateful I was in an enclosed space so to speak.
I've only flown five times and was not prepared to deal with a lost connection and crash. Logic seemed to dictate that I continue searching on the west side of the park along the tree line, but zilch. It was starting to get dark and my worries were that it somehow escaped the park and was on someone's roof, car or worse...
I finally calmed down enough to get my wits about me and search for remedies on the web and I learned about viewing my flights on the flight log on the dji flying app. To my astonishment I was able to retrieve the last flight and play it in real time. I discovered after I lost connection and visual contact that the mP had flown in a completely different direction and ended up in a grove of trees to my east, 180 degrees from where I expected it to be. I finally found it at the base of a tree... the impact was hard enough to dislodge two of the props, knock the battery out and snap the gimbal so it's repairsvillke for me today, (why didn't I buy dji refresh???!?).
My question after all this wordy stuff is why did I lose connection??? There were no obstacles, I wasn't flying beyond the range of the controller and in a low altitude visual mode. I had return to home enabled but realized all grass looks the same and that it probably got lost, but I had a good gps signal. Is it possible the heli flying overhead interfered with my connection?
I'm enclosing a screen grab from my last flight and would welcome your comments so I can understand what happened. I'm perplexed but feeling I was lucky.
best,
Steve W.
Well I know it happens to everyone but I never suspected it would occur so unexpectedly. I was flying my mP in a large park in KC near a major museum. The park is about 150 yards wide and 500 yards long. It's bordered by 20ft. trees and neighborhoods and provides a large open space perfect for flying.
It was late evening and only a couple of people were in the park, Class D space with minor activity mainly sightseeing and police helicopters. I was flying in altitude mode and kept my max altitude under 300ft. The weather was perfect clear and late afternoon.
I was practicing long low altitude flying followed by a max speed climb to reveal the beauty of the local nearby Museum, the Nelson/Atkins to the north. I was also flying the same maneuver flying south toward a small waterway called Brush Creek. I was on my third battery and feeling like I had a decent feel for the aircraft and decided to finish for the day. The mP was southwest of my location and I decided to do a sideways dolly along the west border of trees to fly it back to my home location. As I was doing that a sightseeing helicopter flew directly overhead and I looked up briefly to check it's location, (I was flying under 50ft.), and then it happened. I lost the connection with the mP and when I looked back to where I expected the aircraft to be it was lost in the texture of the background trees. I knew it was nearby and had probably crashed into the border of trees somewhere to my west. I searched and searched panicking of course but grateful I was in an enclosed space so to speak.
I've only flown five times and was not prepared to deal with a lost connection and crash. Logic seemed to dictate that I continue searching on the west side of the park along the tree line, but zilch. It was starting to get dark and my worries were that it somehow escaped the park and was on someone's roof, car or worse...
I finally calmed down enough to get my wits about me and search for remedies on the web and I learned about viewing my flights on the flight log on the dji flying app. To my astonishment I was able to retrieve the last flight and play it in real time. I discovered after I lost connection and visual contact that the mP had flown in a completely different direction and ended up in a grove of trees to my east, 180 degrees from where I expected it to be. I finally found it at the base of a tree... the impact was hard enough to dislodge two of the props, knock the battery out and snap the gimbal so it's repairsvillke for me today, (why didn't I buy dji refresh???!?).
My question after all this wordy stuff is why did I lose connection??? There were no obstacles, I wasn't flying beyond the range of the controller and in a low altitude visual mode. I had return to home enabled but realized all grass looks the same and that it probably got lost, but I had a good gps signal. Is it possible the heli flying overhead interfered with my connection?
I'm enclosing a screen grab from my last flight and would welcome your comments so I can understand what happened. I'm perplexed but feeling I was lucky.
best,
Steve W.
