Crashed My Bird - need a few pieces of advice

[Goldengate98]

BLUF:
1. How best to dry out my rain and water soaked MP? Or is it bricked?
2. One of the arms is mis-aligned - where can I get it repaired?
3. How and where can I post the logs so I can understand and learn from my mistakes? (Beyond what I already know: I got cocky and did a galactically dumb thing)?

The Story:
After almost a year of flying I finally lodged my MP2 about 60 feet up into a tree next to a lake. It started raining later that evening and rained all day Sunday and this morning right up to the point where I shook the bird free. (How I got it free is another day's tale). It dropped to the ground and bounced into the shallows of the lake just before I was able to grab it.
Thanks to the many posts I've read here which have helped me to fly safely, and assured me that I WOULD crash eventually, I kept calm and used the flight log to get close to the last know location. Then I pulled out my Marco Polo locator (also recommended here) between it and the image that was still coming from the quad I found it.
When it came down the locator came off (I have it velcroed to the top of the quad). Just to see if I could find it, I turned on the locator and homed in on the beacon. It was giving me about a 60% strength rating and an arrow pointing into the water. I found it sitting in 6 inches of water- still beeping away. For the record: on a full charge, it signaled from 1pm on Saturday until I turned it off at noon today; through 24 hours of rain and maybe 10 minutes underwater in the lake. I will never fly without Marco Polo again.

 

[bumper]

Very important to submerge and rinse drone well in destilled water. The sooner the better. Do not attempt to power up the drone before doing this. There's a recent (as in yesterday) thread on this.

Complete arm/motor assemblies are available on-line $35 front, $45 rear. if the arm itself is intact and not cracked, motors turn freely etc, the problem may be in the arm mounts, rather than the arm itself. I replaced two arms on my M2P, but DIY is not for the inexperienced, at least in soldering and mechnaical skills. BTW, the forward arm metal hinge or pivot pins can bend or break. The rear bushing/pivots can fail in a similar manner. My rear arm was torn completely out of the body, but the bushing was easily replaced and the lower body was undamaged.

 

[Skyflyer129]

Hi Goldengate98,
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Here is how to pull the flight logs so that you can post.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

As for where to send to get repaired if you’re not planning to DIY, I recommend DJI Drone Service - Your Drone Repair Shop
Last but not least, I’m am glad to hear you did recover your bird. I hope this information helps.
Blue Skies from SoCal

 

[Goldengate98]

Very important to submerge and rinse drone well in destilled water. The sooner the better. Do not attempt to power up the drone before doing this. There's a recent (as in yesterday) thread on this.

Complete arm/motor assemblies are available on-line $35 front, $45 rear. if the arm itself is intact and not cracked, motors turn freely etc, the problem may be in the arm mounts, rather than the arm itself. I replaced two arms on my M2P, but DIY is not for the inexperienced, at least in soldering and mechnaical skills. BTW, the forward arm metal hinge or pivot pins can bend or break. The rear bushing/pivots can fail in a similar manner. My rear arm was torn completely out of the body, but the bushing was easily replaced and the lower body was undamaged.

Thanks, just picked up some distilled water to rinse with.

 

[Goldengate98]

Hi Goldengate98,
Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Here is how to pull the flight logs so that you can post.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

As for where to send to get repaired if you’re not planning to DIY, I recommend DJI Drone Service - Your Drone Repair Shop
Last but not least, I’m am glad to hear you did recover your bird. I hope this information helps.
Blue Skies from SoCal

Thanks SoCal. I’ll pull the logs when I have moment. Certainly before I fly again LOL.

 

[Goldengate98]

A followup to my crash back in December. First off, a BIG thanks to those of you offered advice on how to take care of my bird after knocking it out of 60ft perch in a tree. (I McGyvered a crossbow and fishing reel solution to get it down).
It sat in the tree for two days of pouring rain, and when I finally freed it it fell into a foot of water in the lake. I followed advice on soaking it in distilled water. Rinse and repeat to get all of the lake water and crud out of it. Left it to dry for about a week. Then I set about to repair the body where the housing had popped alose and the back right arm was 'dislocated.' A lot of screws later, i got the housing poped back to together and the arm back in its socket. I marked and set aside the crashed battery. Powered it up and everything worked! The arm is a little loose but does not seem to affect its flight. That was a lot of Fun!
I was finally able to upload and look at the flight logs. (link below). Here's what I know: I was focused on maintaining LOS and not really looking much as the screen. My depth perception at about 2300 ft out made me think I was headed into trees. So I stopped and moved left to out me on a path I though was clear and past the point where I could head into the little cove at the far end of the lake.
A last jog to the left at 9:32 secs, then the sticks show straight line travel but continued movement to the left. a second or so later I get obstacle warnings. From there on out it looks like it bouncing around in the tree. I took my hands off the sticks for a moment, and then tried to move right away from the tree and a bit later to raise it up above the tree line.
What I don't know is did I lose connection between the Controller and the MP2 at some point in those last few seconds?
My observation in other flights has been that when I take my fingers off the sticks the bird stops pretty quickly. This one seemed to continue to slide left, toward the trees. Is it possible that there was a delay in signal, or was I just moving so fast that it drifted into the trees?

One Lesson: If I had looked at the screen, I would have seen how close I was to the tree line. I now divide my time between VLOS and looking at the second source of data. '
If anyone has a chance to look at the log, I'd welcome any observations or advice. (especially any dumb rookie moves.)

Thanks again for all the help and advice getting back up in the air again.

DJI Flight Log Viewer | Phantom Help

Upload and view flight logs from your DJI drones

www.phantomhelp.com

 

[f13dfx]

Hello! I may be a little late on a recommendation, but so I never loose VLOS with my Mavic 2 Pro, I invested in the Epson Moverio BT300 FPV Drone smartglasses. May be worth a look.

Lastly, was your Marco Polo just the regular unit & not the sealed waterproof unit? That’s pretty impressive with it being rained on & submerged!