Lost: DJI Spark, near Siffleur Falls, Alberta March 2020 (LONG SHOT LOL!)

[Nathan the OAF]

Heh heh...if this drone somehow turns up, I'll be amazed. As the picture shows, some enormous OAF (me) thought it was a good idea to try to get a video inside a waterfall canyon in winter. See that tiny SPARK in the bottom? Yeah. Spoiler: The drone doesn't survive the canyon. Lost cause, right? Near Siffleur Falls, Alberta, Canada.

 

[dirkclod]

You a rock climber or repeller

 

[Nathan the OAF]

You a rock climber or repeller

LOL - Both...but I'd be dead if I went down there. Two people have already died at this exact spot over the years.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Can you walk in to the base of the falls?
How high relative to the bottom of the falls did it crash?
Is there any flowing water?

 

[Paint Rock Drones]

Out of curiosity, what caused the loss? Did you lose signal due to an obstruction? Or get blown into the side or something? I ask because I'm considering flying in a somewhat similar chasm (though in my case I can walk into the bottom from one end, and there is no water).

 

[Nathan the OAF]

Can you walk in to the base of the falls?
How high relative to the bottom of the falls did it crash?
Is there any flowing water?

Can't walk to the base of the falls. It crashed into the pools at the bottom. There's a ton of flowing water, even on the coldest winter days. It's pretty much a lost cause. Best case scenario: the high volume of water washed it downstream and someone found it along the shoreline. But as I say - it's a long shot!!

 

[Nathan the OAF]

Out of curiosity, what caused the loss? Did you lose signal due to an obstruction? Or get blown into the side or something? I ask because I'm considering flying in a somewhat similar chasm (though in my case I can walk into the bottom from one end, and there is no water).

I didn't lose signal, but inside those types of canyons, GPS signals get really messed up, and it started moving around on its own. I panicked. I hit RTH, but I wasn't watching the overhead cliff, and the rest feels like a slow-motion horror movie as I watched it gently touch the side of the cliff and fall silently into the turbulent water below. To be fair, it was a SPARK, and I've flown my Air 2S inside a waterless chasm and the GPS worked just fine.

 

[DanJ]

This is a new one on me.
The drone is probably somewhere in Abraham Lake now.

 

[OdysseyShane]

I knew one of the people that died there, and your experience is tragic, but I'd still love to fly there.