One lucky pilot, neat video so glad it survived.
Flying my Air 3S trying to get a rotation shot of a multi storey car park that's under construction. I could see the cables and I thought I'd cleared them, but didn't realise that the were running diagonally, so when I started my move to the right, I could see I was in amongst the cables, so I panicked tried to go up, and hit one of them.
Only damage was a crack in one prop... lesson learned, avoid power cables
I hit a power line with my Air 3S!
- Thread starter Puppy59
- Start date
AMann
Well-Known Member
As a kid, one of my friends was flying a long-tailed mylar dragon kite and… well, you know what happened. The police came and said it even affected their station power a couple miles away! The arc buzzing sound was really loud, and the spark and light show was incredible. I don’t think any of the tennis players in the court next to the power line were burnt by the kite ember shower. The power company had to use a really tall bucket truck to repair the lines. They never contacted my friend’s parents for reimbursement for the line damage, but I heard they will do that these days.
Did any of the OA sensors detect them?
So one of the props got damaged but you were able to control and land it?
So one of the props got damaged but you were able to control and land it?
Cafguy
Well-Known Member
PG&E WILL send you a bill if you damage their property or cause an outage...So I am sure other power companies would do the same.
If you cause damage to other peoples property or equipment because of the outage or incident, You can probably expect a few bills from angry customers whose service your drone crash interrupted. Imagine getting sued by Taco Bell because they had to close early on a friday!
Last edited:
I think this is a good time to note that, while a drone wasn't responsible, the devastating Maui fire a while back was caused by a power line coming down.
Stay away from power lines.
Stay away from power lines.
I almost couldn’t watch.
Flying my Air 3S trying to get a rotation shot of a multi storey car park that's under construction. I could see the cables and I thought I'd cleared them, but didn't realise that the were running diagonally, so when I started my move to the right, I could see I was in amongst the cables, so I panicked tried to go up, and hit one of them.
Only damage was a crack in one prop... lesson learned, avoid power cables
No and yes,it flew normally after that. I really had to look hard for the damage, so all in all it was a lucky escape with minimal damage
Is it possible to see power lines on a OA camera? Does it also give you a warning, or are the power lines to small for that? I live in Belgium and I do think our power lines are higher here, I just mention this because flying over them would take me above our 100 meter limit. So we are kinda forced to fly beneath them.
Not sure if you can see them, but I didn't get any warning, because I think they are too small for the OA to detect them.
Wow, you have power lines which are 100 meters high? That's high; really high. Yeah, I wouldn't want to fly anywhere near them. In my area, if I'm 100 meters up, there's absolutely nothing up there but the birds. I could literally close my eyes....metaphorically.
Similar to a bird strike or a tree trimming where the aircraft recovers before hitting the ground, provided there is enough altitude to work with.No and yes,it flew normally after that. I really had to look hard for the damage, so all in all it was a lucky escape with minimal damage
High_Order1
Well-Known Member
It wasn't stupidity. You saw what you were doing wasn't the best idea, you just saw it too late!Thanks for all your replies. I admit it was an act of gross stupidity, never to be repeated!
Really unlucky!
In the spirit of lessons learned, and totally admitting I am very new to this space, I offer this:
One of the things that temper my flights is when the DJI Lady says 'landing' for no, uncommanded reason, how much trouble will it be to collect my drone? In your case, you appear to have traded some great up-close shots for not being able to simply walk off a public road and retrieve your drone.
Second, and one of the reasons I finally dipped a toe into this space, these things have a unique ability. If you find yourself in 'trouble', just let go of the sticks. It will stop and hover. Then you can spin around, and move your camera to see exactly what you've gotten into, and the best way out. I have to remind myself that 'up' with full throttle isn't always the de facto emergency exit, too. (shrugs)
High_Order1
Well-Known Member
No, it applies equally to you as well.
Just because you want to do something, doesn't make it ok. Stay away from powerlines. First time you get hung up, or worse, it's going to be twisted and repeated as a reason to make it harder on the rest of us.
As to your question, he cannot. EMI is a set of variables, and essentially when the line interference is greater than your controllers' RF Out, you run the risk of troubles. If it swamps your GNSS, you're in trouble. Powerlines aren't static, especially the higher in voltage they run. They literally sag depending on several factors. With those changes, the EMI changes.
I can detect powerline EMI at almost a quarter mile with the gear I have.
Far as the exclusion zones, those were calculated based on humans being nosey and potentially drawing an arc, not drones.
advice remains the same, use the telephoto and stay far away from critical infrastructure, lest you ruin it for the rest of us.
High_Order1
Well-Known Member
I would replace all the props at a minimum.No and yes,it flew normally after that. I really had to look hard for the damage, so all in all it was a lucky escape with minimal damage
Interesting. I have no doubt that your equipment is capable of detecting EMI at such a great distance. But the question is, would EMI adversely affect a DJI drone?
High_Order1
Well-Known Member
It does.
At what distance is a calculus of factors.
For instance, as a child, my middle school had high tension lines going across the school property.
When it was really foggy, we could get fluorescent tubes, and they would light up when we walked into the energy field! (You could also feel and hear it).
This being the era of when star wars came out... it became a problem quickly as you might surmise.
At what distance is a calculus of factors.
For instance, as a child, my middle school had high tension lines going across the school property.
When it was really foggy, we could get fluorescent tubes, and they would light up when we walked into the energy field! (You could also feel and hear it).
This being the era of when star wars came out... it became a problem quickly as you might surmise.
Droning on and on...
Well-Known Member
And just in case you're not aware of it, there's a feature with the 3S and most late-model DJI drones where you can display the OA cameras views (B&W, not stabilized), which may be a good visual check in situations like this, especially if you're using tracking with the main camera which will take care of the shot.
I've done this, using Focus Track POI (I think that's what it's called) to be the "camera man" while I focus on flying... I put the OA image in the direction I'm flying sideways full screen, with the main camera image in the small inset lower left.
Practice this a bunch first. Like anything, you can get some skill watching and interpreting that admittedly inferior image from the OA cameras.
Never thought this feature would really be useful, just a gimmick, until I, well, tried to make it useful.
Similar threads
