- Joined
- Feb 16, 2019
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- 6
Flying Sparrow (Mavic 2 Pro) up by Lake George in Colorado with no cell service. Spotter lost sight as she blended into the trees and then was flying around a rocky outcrop and backed into a tree. She went down and since we had no service looking at the flight log on DJI GO 4 didn't help as we just had a the flight plot on a blank screen with no reference point. We waded through a creek to where we thought she was, and spent three hours climbing up and down the rocks hoping to identify the last image we had of her impact. Every now and then, before the battery died, we'd see movement on the screen and assume it was one of us disturbing the area. Climbed up on the big rocks and saw something reflecting and through it was the camera, but no.
We finally called it as it after the third of the frustrating hours and drove home. BIG MISTAKE. Upon arriving at home I relooked at the flight log with satellite imagery and realized the problem was WE WERE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CREEK. We went back the next day, and even though it had snowed that night, found her exactly where the imagery showed her within 2 minutes of getting out of the car.
Total damage, one slightly cracked rotor blade. NOTHING else!
Lessons learned:
- Spotter needs to call out when he looses sight even if you're in the middle of a great shot
- Bring binoculars
- If you're in sports mode (we were) do a 360 before going in for the shot, or stay in positioning mode
- Immediately look at the flight log (we waited till about an hour in)
- Screen snap what the drone is showing before the battery gives up the ghost
- If you don't have cell service, do an immediate search then DRIVE TO WHERE YOU HAVE SERVICE and relook at the flight data. That would have saved us 6 hours (2 hours of fruitless searching and then 4 hours of driving up and back for no reason; although the shots after the snowfall were SUPERB! Yes, we flew her for another hour (only two batteries left) before leaving. Did a structure, functions and rotor check first).
Hope this helps others to avoid my stupid mistake.
We finally called it as it after the third of the frustrating hours and drove home. BIG MISTAKE. Upon arriving at home I relooked at the flight log with satellite imagery and realized the problem was WE WERE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CREEK. We went back the next day, and even though it had snowed that night, found her exactly where the imagery showed her within 2 minutes of getting out of the car.
Total damage, one slightly cracked rotor blade. NOTHING else!
Lessons learned:
- Spotter needs to call out when he looses sight even if you're in the middle of a great shot
- Bring binoculars
- If you're in sports mode (we were) do a 360 before going in for the shot, or stay in positioning mode
- Immediately look at the flight log (we waited till about an hour in)
- Screen snap what the drone is showing before the battery gives up the ghost
- If you don't have cell service, do an immediate search then DRIVE TO WHERE YOU HAVE SERVICE and relook at the flight data. That would have saved us 6 hours (2 hours of fruitless searching and then 4 hours of driving up and back for no reason; although the shots after the snowfall were SUPERB! Yes, we flew her for another hour (only two batteries left) before leaving. Did a structure, functions and rotor check first).
Hope this helps others to avoid my stupid mistake.
