My zoom is in a 44ft gum tree out in the bush.

MAvic_South_Oz · Nov 18, 2019

SIT said:
Can I ask how secure the stickers feel?
They look great but I’m curious about their longevity. Anything that may come loose and tangle with a prop would be bad news.

As in post #56 ?
If so, those are wraps, like the same sort of vinyl cars can be wrapped in.
Very long term if applied right, but I'd stick with the leading suppliers like Decal Girl, Wrap Grade, they are well known.
Mighty Skins is another I saw a while ago, they look to have a decent product.

anotherlab · Nov 18, 2019

SIT said:
Can I ask how secure the stickers feel?
They look great but I’m curious about their longevity. Anything that may come loose and tangle with a prop would be bad news.

I have a set from Decal Girl on my Phantom. After two years, no issues at all with peeling.

Steve M · Nov 18, 2019

I find as expected that visibility is better in most situations especially when going in front of trees, which helps my depth perception and increases VLOS especially with a dark background like hills. I also like the tactile feel of the shiny smooth vinyl.
But I mostly applied it for ease of location if in a tree or the scrub again.
Look back at the place where I found it, (post 48) 3 feet away and it was virtually invisible on the ground, in the scrub, before, not now.

MAvic_South_Oz · Nov 18, 2019

A skin would definitely be very handy there to find it in that spot, anything bright in colour to contrast the general ground / vegetation.
Strobes are great for day time VLOS, but it you crashed like you did in the tree tops, they'd be powered down after a matter of hours, so useless there.
If it came down somewhere unexpectedly and you got close with 'find my drone', then a skin and / or strobes would be incredibly beneficial.

So it's been still flying all ok again now ?

Steve M · Nov 19, 2019

Yes, still apparently no damage done. The 'find my drone' button told me from memory that it was 9 days lost at one stage.
How long it was in the tree and when it fell to the ground I don't know. As the pics show both front arms were folded back and the gimbal did not sit straight until I recalibrated it. It did rain lightly at least once before I found it, but it was on it's back so no water in the battery.
I was going to mention this earlier, if I had looked at, understood, and known how to use the 'Find my drone' function when I first lost it I would have found it immediately not on the third attempt. So for other newbies I suggest that you land the bird and pretend that you don't know where it is, and use the program to find it, before you actually need it. And put at least some reflective tape on all sides or along it's arms. That could save you a lot of time and anguish later.

Cheers Steve.

MAvic_South_Oz · Nov 19, 2019

Good to hear you're still in biz with the M2Z.

We tried Find my Drone when BIL lost his Air . . . it was no where near the location indicated on FMD, eventually found it with a ground search and a bit of luck (it was fried though, having had a swim in the Gulf St Vincent.

It was a big cliff, but FMD showed it being from the top of cliff around 30m back from the edge, searched until near dark, had to leave.
I found it on beach / rocks below next day, not far from where he had been flying backwards from over the water.

I've read FMD can get you close, but then sometimes need a tracker (marco polo etc) or a strobe is probably next best, a bright skin would also be helpful.