I'm uploading my flight log here hoping someone can confirm what caused a crash yesterday (aside from the obvious tree I hit). The obstacle sensing either turned off without me noticing or it just didn't work in this case.
I was flying my M2P from a boat on Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. It was my last flight of the day, setting up for a quick and easy POI. While moving sideways, the M2P hit a tree and tumbled to the forest floor. As you probably know, heavily wooded areas are not great for locating a lost drone. I couldn't get off the boat to attempt retrieval as we were running short on time.
My flight path gave me some idea as to where it crashed, but cellular access is terrible everywhere in Deep Creek Lake. The satellite view would not load on the iPad or cellphone, but I dropped a pin of the boat position. I updated the home position of the drone (FWIW), but I didn't know whether/how that would help me to locate it. The M2P was upside down, but I had an obstructed camera view of the woods (see pic). I switched to photo mode, took some pics with a long exposure (I had an ND64 on it), but it didn't give me much to work with... an old branch at an angle in a wooded area with hundreds of fallen branches and trees at an angle. In the photo, I could barely make out what appeared to be a guard rail at some distance.
So, I returned the boat, got in the car and drove to the general area and a stretch of road with about 100yds of guard rail. I had a wooded area about the size of a football field to search. After 45 min. I found it, miraculously. The arm was broke and props chewed/broken, but doesn't appear to be anything major. My wife was impatient to start the 2.5 hours home, but I was glad not to have to return the next weekend to continue the search. I have insurance, so I wasn't too upset, but I didn't want to lose the footage I'd captured over the previous few days. I've got to be more diligent about switching cards between flights.
It seems like whenever I've had a crash, it's been in a wooded area in a locale with limited or no cell coverage. I almost never have a computer with me to get the flight logs, which aren't much help if I don't have internet to upload them here. These gray-colored drones really do not stand out in a forest and I wish there were some flashing lights and audible signals to help locate them. Anyway, I'm looking at the Firehouse Arc XL and perhaps a bright colored wetsuit from Phantomrain. I should probably have their water landing kit as well, cause I'm always often flying over water. My first attempts at boat launch/landings this weekend didn't go so well either. I'll need to get a GPS unit for my iPad to be able to update Home position to the device.
I was flying my M2P from a boat on Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. It was my last flight of the day, setting up for a quick and easy POI. While moving sideways, the M2P hit a tree and tumbled to the forest floor. As you probably know, heavily wooded areas are not great for locating a lost drone. I couldn't get off the boat to attempt retrieval as we were running short on time.
My flight path gave me some idea as to where it crashed, but cellular access is terrible everywhere in Deep Creek Lake. The satellite view would not load on the iPad or cellphone, but I dropped a pin of the boat position. I updated the home position of the drone (FWIW), but I didn't know whether/how that would help me to locate it. The M2P was upside down, but I had an obstructed camera view of the woods (see pic). I switched to photo mode, took some pics with a long exposure (I had an ND64 on it), but it didn't give me much to work with... an old branch at an angle in a wooded area with hundreds of fallen branches and trees at an angle. In the photo, I could barely make out what appeared to be a guard rail at some distance.
So, I returned the boat, got in the car and drove to the general area and a stretch of road with about 100yds of guard rail. I had a wooded area about the size of a football field to search. After 45 min. I found it, miraculously. The arm was broke and props chewed/broken, but doesn't appear to be anything major. My wife was impatient to start the 2.5 hours home, but I was glad not to have to return the next weekend to continue the search. I have insurance, so I wasn't too upset, but I didn't want to lose the footage I'd captured over the previous few days. I've got to be more diligent about switching cards between flights.
It seems like whenever I've had a crash, it's been in a wooded area in a locale with limited or no cell coverage. I almost never have a computer with me to get the flight logs, which aren't much help if I don't have internet to upload them here. These gray-colored drones really do not stand out in a forest and I wish there were some flashing lights and audible signals to help locate them. Anyway, I'm looking at the Firehouse Arc XL and perhaps a bright colored wetsuit from Phantomrain. I should probably have their water landing kit as well, cause I'm always often flying over water. My first attempts at boat launch/landings this weekend didn't go so well either. I'll need to get a GPS unit for my iPad to be able to update Home position to the device.
