Hi,
Even with 188 safe flights, I nearly lost my drone when he started auto landing: a sudden wind didn't help me, I want to share what I've learned from this 189th fly:
* avoid putting a value less than 20% for "Low Battery Warning".
* if the drone is flying (going) at max speed with some peaks above max speed, WARNING => there might be some winds that will get you into troubles when flying back!
* when the drone is flying (returning), if you can't reach max speed WARNING, some strong winds are slowing down the drone. Try first to change the flying altitude and observe the flying speed on your RC (top left).
* if you are in the "yellow region" of the flight, and flying in SPORT MODE, switch to normal mode => you'll have more time to find a solution before AUTO LANDING starts ("Red region" of the flight)
* obviously, when flying far away (better signal quality), flying high (while following regulation rules) give you more chances to bring your drone back.
If auto landing starts:
1) don't panic
2) turn the camera down to memorise the region your drone is landing (roads, paths, trees, what's on the left, what's on the the right, what's in front)
3) if you can, do quickly some screen shots of the camera view on your mobile, it will help you later identify the area (when the drone lands in a wild area, the camera is useless)
4) start immediately identifying a safe and flat landing zone, while continuing to fly forward
5) stop the horizontal speed when the drone is near 10m of altitude to reduce risk of damaging it
6) memorize the texture where your drone is landing, observe any important detail that might help you when arriving there
7) observe at which distance from Home Point your drone is. This is the distance you'll need to walk before you'll start your researchs.
8) once there, go back 50m, search 50m left, 50m right, then move 5m ahead and repeat. Be persistent and look carefully until you can exclude at 100% the area you're looking at.
Personally, I could find it back only through the "Flight record", and "replaying" the flight record allowed to better "guess" where it landed.
It was only 200m away from HomePoint, but took me 2h: I wrongly searched 200m left, 200m right, GPS location was in fact good: it landed in a large field, the grey colour of the drone didn't help me to identify it on the brown/green field. ==> I'll put some yellow/orange stickers on top of it for next time!
Having a white blinking LED at the top of it or an actionable BEEP (like cars) would probably help.
Any other "nearly lost" experience ?
KBerrah
Even with 188 safe flights, I nearly lost my drone when he started auto landing: a sudden wind didn't help me, I want to share what I've learned from this 189th fly:
* avoid putting a value less than 20% for "Low Battery Warning".
* if the drone is flying (going) at max speed with some peaks above max speed, WARNING => there might be some winds that will get you into troubles when flying back!
* when the drone is flying (returning), if you can't reach max speed WARNING, some strong winds are slowing down the drone. Try first to change the flying altitude and observe the flying speed on your RC (top left).
* if you are in the "yellow region" of the flight, and flying in SPORT MODE, switch to normal mode => you'll have more time to find a solution before AUTO LANDING starts ("Red region" of the flight)
* obviously, when flying far away (better signal quality), flying high (while following regulation rules) give you more chances to bring your drone back.
If auto landing starts:
1) don't panic
2) turn the camera down to memorise the region your drone is landing (roads, paths, trees, what's on the left, what's on the the right, what's in front)
3) if you can, do quickly some screen shots of the camera view on your mobile, it will help you later identify the area (when the drone lands in a wild area, the camera is useless)
4) start immediately identifying a safe and flat landing zone, while continuing to fly forward
5) stop the horizontal speed when the drone is near 10m of altitude to reduce risk of damaging it
6) memorize the texture where your drone is landing, observe any important detail that might help you when arriving there
7) observe at which distance from Home Point your drone is. This is the distance you'll need to walk before you'll start your researchs.
8) once there, go back 50m, search 50m left, 50m right, then move 5m ahead and repeat. Be persistent and look carefully until you can exclude at 100% the area you're looking at.
Personally, I could find it back only through the "Flight record", and "replaying" the flight record allowed to better "guess" where it landed.
It was only 200m away from HomePoint, but took me 2h: I wrongly searched 200m left, 200m right, GPS location was in fact good: it landed in a large field, the grey colour of the drone didn't help me to identify it on the brown/green field. ==> I'll put some yellow/orange stickers on top of it for next time!
Having a white blinking LED at the top of it or an actionable BEEP (like cars) would probably help.
Any other "nearly lost" experience ?
KBerrah
It could be a cool effect also for sky writing (just don’t draw any body appendages)
