Crashed my Mini 2 into water

[pimpnswivel]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my story and a bit of knowledge about potentially saving my drone from water. A few weeks ago I was filming with my drone and i didn't have my prop guards on, and of course i flew into a tree and it landed in the snow... the snow was melting so it got all over my drone. i tried flying it and i got a gimbal error. and my video feed was shaking so i decided best not to fly it anymore and let the poor thing dry out. after it dried out i flew it again a week later and everything was working great. got some awesome footage and had no issues. but the other day I took it out again and i had a big oopsy. I was flying my drone under a few bridges over an icy ravine that was facing a waterfall and once i got under the last bridge facing the waterfall i wanted to go under the last bridge and up the face of the waterfall. the footage was looking amazing. i was so excited. i was about to have the perfect shot and as i went up, my drone crashes. turns out my drone wasnt fully past the bridge and it hit the underside of the bridge and fell into the ravine. i immediately jumped into the icy cold water which was about knee height and was able to recover the drone. the light was flashing on it underwater but i could tell it wasnt flashing properly. it was like an out of sync HELP ME type of flashing. i immediately pulled the battery out, drove it home and tried drying it out as best i could.... at first i just used some paper towel to dry up as much as i could inside and out and then i used a hair dryer on low setting to dry out the motors and the inside a bit more. luckily there was barely any physical damage to the unit, just a couple propellers had broken tips so i replaced them. it doesnt even make sense how the propeller tips got damaged because i had my prop guards on lol. sadly my drone is out of warranty so i cant send it back for repair. Its been a week now and im afraid to turn it on... I wish my drone had obstacle avoidance sensors.... this crash could've been prevented if it had at least a top sensor

I will try it out tomorrow and update if the drone is ok. but i've seen some youtube videos about people saving their drones from water and a bunch of different techniques. i didn't want to use the bag of rice trick because i didnt feel like picking rice out of my drone later. hopefully my method worked!

 

[Lastrexking]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to share my story and a bit of knowledge about potentially saving my drone from water. A few weeks ago I was filming with my drone and i didn't have my prop guards on, and of course i flew into a tree and it landed in the snow... the snow was melting so it got all over my drone. i tried flying it and i got a gimbal error. and my video feed was shaking so i decided best not to fly it anymore and let the poor thing dry out. after it dried out i flew it again a week later and everything was working great. got some awesome footage and had no issues. but the other day I took it out again and i had a big oopsy. I was flying my drone under a few bridges over an icy ravine that was facing a waterfall and once i got under the last bridge facing the waterfall i wanted to go under the last bridge and up the face of the waterfall. the footage was looking amazing. i was so excited. i was about to have the perfect shot and as i went up, my drone crashes. turns out my drone wasnt fully past the bridge and it hit the underside of the bridge and fell into the ravine. i immediately jumped into the icy cold water which was about knee height and was able to recover the drone. the light was flashing on it underwater but i could tell it wasnt flashing properly. it was like an out of sync HELP ME type of flashing. i immediately pulled the battery out, drove it home and tried drying it out as best i could.... at first i just used some paper towel to dry up as much as i could inside and out and then i used a hair dryer on low setting to dry out the motors and the inside a bit more. luckily there was barely any physical damage to the unit, just a couple propellers had broken tips so i replaced them. it doesnt even make sense how the propeller tips got damaged because i had my prop guards on lol. sadly my drone is out of warranty so i cant send it back for repair. Its been a week now and im afraid to turn it on... I wish my drone had obstacle avoidance sensors.... this crash could've been prevented if it had at least a top sensor

I will try it out tomorrow and update if the drone is ok. but i've seen some youtube videos about people saving their drones from water and a bunch of different techniques. i didn't want to use the bag of rice trick because i didnt feel like picking rice out of my drone later. hopefully my method worked!

A whole load of red flags tells me you haven’t learned about flying a drone before flying a drone. Taking them under a bridge will make it lose gps and confuse it, taking it under several….

You wish you’d had the prop guards on?

The crash could have been prevented if you’d kept it in line of sight, which is the law in most countries - including Canada. if you could see it, you’d know it hadn’t cleared the bridge.

You might think you were unlucky, but the reality is you were very lucky you didn’t hurts someone or damage property.

Do the rest of the drone community a favour. Learn the rules. Learn how your drone works.

 

[MS Coast]

i didn't want to use the bag of rice trick because i didnt feel like picking rice out of my drone later. hopefully my method worked!

Don't waste your time trying to dry electronic gear with rice. Put the drone in the exhaust stream from a refrigerator or larger computer, or on top of an electric water heater and leave it there for a few days.

 

[Romanbydrone]

The crash could have been prevented if you’d kept it in line of sight, which is the law in most countries - including Canada. if you could see it, you’d know it hadn’t cleared the bridge.

From where the OP was stood he may have been able to see it. What he may have been weak on is 'depth perception". He appeared to misjudge the width of the bridge when he elevated his drone.

 

[Drone-Retriever]

Sorry to hear about your water event. Check out drone-retriever.com for some insight on what to do after a water event.
Hope this helps.

 

[hiflyer201]

Good luck with the drying process. If you are going to continue that type of flight, remember to keep videoing as you drop below the surface. I have seen some amazing YouTube videos that were done that way. Just kidding..One lesson that all drone pilots learn sooner or later is that, in fact, that they have really lousy depth perception.

 

[pimpnswivel]

i actually got very lucky with my drone crash, i fired up the drone on the weekend and its working just fine. unfortunately the battery that was inside the drone during the crash seems to have died. but at the end of the day if im only out a battery i'll count this as a lucky day for me. Thanks everyone for the replies. i hope no one crashes their drones like i did! and if you do i hope you are able to save it

 

[projectarjun]

Obviously this was user error, but fortunately you were able to recover your drone. I would never rely on obstacle avoidance sensors either. Everyone's situational awareness varies and depending on from where you are remotely controlling the drone, there will be situations in which you and all other pilots would be unable to appropriately gauge their surroundings relative to the drone. The human visual perception has its limits.

Rule of thumb, if you're not sure, don't attempt to proceed with your plan; follow the same path to where you came from. Also, always keep the drone in your visual line of sight. Affixing a couple of strobe lights should help keeping an eye on the drone while its in flight