My crash story

[BadWolf1]

There's something really sickening about being able to see your drone, having the a connection from the controller, having the app working and not being able to get it back.
It was a manoeuvre that I shouldn't have attempted but it was too tempting. I'd known about this ruin for a while and it was a small detour on my way back from a family visit, and a last minute decision. [First mistake. Plan the flight.] Various openings called to be flown through [Mistake two. Over estimated my ability to fly with the required precisions and didn't have prop guards] . I got some nice footage flying through , turned round flew back [Mistake 3. Pushed my luck] and clipped the side. The drone stopped its motors and landed here


Still powered on and talking to the app, I couldn't reset it to start the motors. The high point of the door way is about 6 feet / 2meters so the drone is 3 to 4 times that far off the ground.
Could I throw something to dislodge it ? I tried but it soon became clear it needed a very precise throw which I had almost no chance of making.

There was nothing for it but to leave the drone there. I thought about asking for recovery help, surely we wouldn't end up with a stack of drones there.
Then several things went through my head. An ancient memory of my father (probably having just trodden on a Lego brick) shouting "If you don't look after your toys you don't deserve to have any". Then what wasn't backed up from the SD card [mistake 4]. Then the plans I had to use the drone in a a few days. I had to get it back, so returned just after dawn with a telescopic ladder, a long improvised poker, and an assistant.
The ladder got me half way and the poker did the rest. The drone skied down the metal support pole in the middle of the frame above giving my assistant no chance of catching it and it broke a leg on landing



Files including the shot above and film going the bell space successfully and less so were all intact , and the leg has glued nicely (and if it doesn't stay glued DJI care/refresh is there for me).

Obvious lessons ? Keep the prop guards in the car ? Take a ladder, gaffer tape, stiff wire and stick together rods where ever you go ? Probably not.

Feel free to add others or just tell me how stupid I was.

 

[THE CYBORG]

On the bright side you got it back.
Get the video posted.

 

[old man mavic]

@BadWolf1 hi my fellow flier ,glad you got your MM back, there is only one thing i would say with regards to your repair
a replacement arm is available ,and really you should think about replacing it, in the not to distant future, although it would appear to be repaired it is under some stress during flight, and should it break apart then who knows what the outcome could be ,i am also aware that the drone is small and light, but it could still cause damage or injury ,and it would be remiss of me not to mention these facts to you ,as safety is at the forefront of my philosophy towards drone flying i am not saying you have done anything wrong glueing your drone ,just pointing out the pitfalls of such an action

 

[lannes]

The MM's front arms are not very rigid, after the repair there is a risk they could twist and cause a prop strike on the body.

To support the front arms, I'd probably use some landing gear sections like these, which makes everything more rigid.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Would guards have helped? Possibly but they'd also make it wider and increase the accuracy needed to get through the window and that is not to cast aspersions at your skill.
What flight mode was it in? If I am pushing my luck with regards proximity I switch to C mode and 'creep', it's all to easy to twitch at the wrong time.
I'd be really wary of a glued repair unless you added some form of reinforcing. Aside from anything else getting the correct glue could be a nightmare, what did you use?

 

[BadWolf1]

@lannes , @old man mavic yes I may get this arm replaced, I've got something I want to shoot where there is no risk of anyone getting hurt if the arm fails - I won't get another chance for a while, so this a temporary fix. My instinct is glue will be prone to fatigue so I will keep the hours down.

@THE CYBORG here you go

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[THE CYBORG]

And you made it look so easy on the way out.

 

[BadWolf1]

Would guards have helped? Possibly but they'd also make it wider and increase the accuracy needed to get through the window and that is not to cast aspersions at your skill.
What flight mode was it in? If I am pushing my luck with regards proximity I switch to C mode and 'creep', it's all to easy to twitch at the wrong time.
I'd be really wary of a glued repair unless you added some form of reinforcing. Aside from anything else getting the correct glue could be a nightmare, what did you use?

With guards you can bounce off door and window edges if you're not accurate. No need to worry about casting aspersions I couldn't fly through a gap much wider than the drone - when I could see it.

I was in C mode and the biggest problem seems to be thinking the done was further forward than it was. (and controls being reversed when the drone is moving towards you )

It's standard loctite cyanoacrylic "Super" glue. It needs to last for about half an hour over a deserted beach at dawn. If it crash it goes back in more than the one piece - if it holds up it can go off for a replacement next week.

 

[old man mavic]

it looks impressive before the contact ,it just shows how difficult it is to judge your position just from the screen,maybe with hindsight you should have backed through the arch instead of turning around first

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Hmmmm
" s being reversed when the drone is moving towards you " ....that got me to thinking.
If you have a look in 3 dot menu -> control -> stick-mode -> custom it appears you can set up a mode such that the responses were correct/normal when the drone was flying nose towards you i.e. forward produces movement away from you, left stick moves the drone to your left.
That could be interesting/useful, thank you.


Edit
Just tried it and it works lol, it's a pity the Go app's home-lock flight mode or course-lock aren't available

 

[BadWolf1]

it looks impressive before the contact ,it just shows how difficult it is to judge your position just from the screen,maybe with hindsight you should have backed through the arch instead of turning around first

Ah, I must have done a better job with the edit than I thought. (@THE CYBORG - it looked good outbound because I edited a lot out).

Actually when I crashed I had my eyes on the drone not on the screen. I should have walked around to the far side and flown through the gap only once in the the direction I wanted to go - forwards and dropping down into the church. If I go back I'll (a) have the ladder and pokey-pokey sticks with me and (b) fly from that end - drop down to the centre line inside the walls and stand in the doorway to watch from the behind as I fly out of the window at the far end. (c) Use the prop guards !

 

[THE CYBORG]

Never let on that you edit out the bad stuff you only edit to get things to a decent length ?

 

[old man mavic]

Hmmmm
" s being reversed when the drone is moving towards you " ....that got me to thinking.
If you have a look in 3 dot menu -> control -> stick-mode -> custom it appears you can set up a mode such that the responses were correct/normal when the drone was flying nose towards you i.e. forward produces movement away from you, left stick moves the drone to your left.
That could be interesting/useful, thank you.


Edit
Just tried it and it works lol, it's a pity the Go app's home-lock flight mode or course-lock aren't available

only snag with that is it would be reversed when you were flying away from you ,either that or you would have to stop and change the settings depending on what you wanted,i think it would cause a lot of confusion, because you would not know whether you were coming or going ,l had something called headless mode on my early drones but never liked it, as i was used to the sticks being reversed from my previous experiences with RC

 

[Chanctonbury]

I know this ruin well as I walk my dog near here regularly - sorry about the crash as you were doing so well!

 

[Deleted member 103366]

All true, you'd have to switch modes but it could be handy if you did a lot of nose towards you shots etc.

 

[old man mavic]

All true, you'd have to switch modes but it could be handy if you did a lot of nose towards you shots etc.

i think you have missed the point i was trying to make ,when you fly your brain gets used to what the drone is going to do in respect of it orientation,and how it reacts to a particular stick movement ,its called muscle memory i dont look at my sticks anymore, because i have learned which way the drone will go depending on which way i am flying if you suddenly change that it will cause all sorts of problems

 

[THE CYBORG]

,l had something called headless mode on my early drones but never liked it,

I had a toy drone with headless mode and quite liked it.
I think its a shame we don't have the option, If you totally lose orientation you can always fly home as long as you can turn headless mode on mid flight.

 

[Juggler]

That is a great old building (church?) ripe for reno..
BTW you should change your handle to "MAxwell Smart"........missed it by that much

 

[BadWolf1]

I know this ruin well as I walk my dog near here regularly - sorry about the crash as you were doing so well!

Well your handle links you to that part of the country I still have family there. Given that I'm near Oxford you can imagine it was a pain to have to go back with a ladder! I'm not done with the place though.

 

[Geekser]

Despite the crash, I think it was pretty impressive that you made it thru going one way - I hope to eventually hone my skills to have the ability to do that kind of precision flying - far from it today, just means I need to fly more......