Hi Everyone!
I have great news, the drone I crashed on Christmas Island has been recovered! And it's given birth to a new special crack team on the Island who call themselves the D.R.U.G Squad (Drone Recovery U-Something G-Something Squad... I think the meaning was retrospectively created oddly enough).
Anyway if anyone else is on the Island at some stage and loses their drone, go to the Christmas Island Tourist Centre and ask to be connected with the island's D.R.U.G Squad. Don't ask at the cop shop though, you wont get the same team haha.
The crash location was off by roughly 2 meters from last communicated GPS co-ordinates, worth considering for future crashes.
What is also interesting from this experience is the fact that the battery will deplete really fast even if crashed, disconnected from RC and lying in wait. I expected that it would last ages with RC disconnected so that I could return later and start the beeping / LED flashing for recovery. The lesson learned here is to start that early, as even if you cant access it immediately, at least you can get a visual fix on it's location.
The D.R.U.G Squad guys found it after filming the crash site for about an hour then retreating back home for a bevy they started combing through the footage. Joe also went straight up the cliff like some magical Canadian mountain goat whilst Craig went for a more tactful approach of sending his drone up and taking some footage to analyse later. After a pretty amazing effort that they managed to spot the MP in that scrub on the cliff. They then went back up, hacked their way through the bush with a machete, recovered the drone and gave me a call with the good news!
Damage wise, I know it needs a new full set of blades and a new gimbal cover, haven't been able to test fly it yet (they tend to frown on that in airports) but what an awesome result!
Hat goes off to the Christmas Island D.R.U.G Squad legends Craig (left) and Joe (right). Can't thank you enough guys! See you again soon!
I have great news, the drone I crashed on Christmas Island has been recovered! And it's given birth to a new special crack team on the Island who call themselves the D.R.U.G Squad (Drone Recovery U-Something G-Something Squad... I think the meaning was retrospectively created oddly enough).
Anyway if anyone else is on the Island at some stage and loses their drone, go to the Christmas Island Tourist Centre and ask to be connected with the island's D.R.U.G Squad. Don't ask at the cop shop though, you wont get the same team haha.
The crash location was off by roughly 2 meters from last communicated GPS co-ordinates, worth considering for future crashes.
What is also interesting from this experience is the fact that the battery will deplete really fast even if crashed, disconnected from RC and lying in wait. I expected that it would last ages with RC disconnected so that I could return later and start the beeping / LED flashing for recovery. The lesson learned here is to start that early, as even if you cant access it immediately, at least you can get a visual fix on it's location.
The D.R.U.G Squad guys found it after filming the crash site for about an hour then retreating back home for a bevy they started combing through the footage. Joe also went straight up the cliff like some magical Canadian mountain goat whilst Craig went for a more tactful approach of sending his drone up and taking some footage to analyse later. After a pretty amazing effort that they managed to spot the MP in that scrub on the cliff. They then went back up, hacked their way through the bush with a machete, recovered the drone and gave me a call with the good news!
Damage wise, I know it needs a new full set of blades and a new gimbal cover, haven't been able to test fly it yet (they tend to frown on that in airports) but what an awesome result!
Hat goes off to the Christmas Island D.R.U.G Squad legends Craig (left) and Joe (right). Can't thank you enough guys! See you again soon!
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