So I was sitting on my driveway flying the drone around just tweaking my stick settings. I was hovering at around 200 feet and about 100 feet away over some trees in my neighbors backyard (still VLOS) when I got the "aircraft nearby" warning and also barely started to hear a helicopter off in the distance. I am over a flight path for helicopters so I'm always ready to descend. I flick the controller into Sport mode, aim the camera down and started to descend as fast as possible. The drone was headed towards the trees below but knew I could just slow down and hover near the tops of them.
I knew I was at least a few hundred feet below their flight path but, sometimes the medevac flights occasionally fly low at around 500ish feet so that kinda got my heart rate goin up a bit. Plus, whenever I get the ADS-B warning, I get this image in my head of the pilot or observer seeing a drone off in the distance and getting pissed. I'm sure they're further away than I imagine and can't instantly see a tiny drone amongst the city backdrop but still, I get anxious.
Within seconds as I'm descending, I instantly lose connection with the drone and the screen goes dark and can now hear the distinct sound of black hawk rotor blades chopping the air. It was either something coincidentally on my end or that black hawk was running some type of signal interference. Regardless, a new fear was instantly unlocked as I knew I had a RTH altitude issue. See, in case the controller loses connection when flying around my neighborhood, I leave my RTH height at 200 feet because of the hills around me and the tall trees on those hills. Now I can visually see the drone hovering, have no controls and hear the black hawk coming much closer.
I'm now crapping out diamonds just waiting for the RTH signal-loss timer to run out and zip my drone up to 200 feet where the pilot sees it and aims his hellfire missiles at my forehead
. I know, those are only on Apaches. Anyway, I never even looked up to see where the helicopter was as I was desperately staring at my tablet waiting for the drone to reconnect plus, I didn't want to see what might have happened.
Yes I was waaaay over-thinking the situation but I had never lost signal with a helicopter inbound. What seemed like 10 minutes but more likely 10 seconds, the connection came back and my thumb never came off of the left stick the whole time so I'm not really sure how high the drone was when I got control. I just knew I was flying back home. Man was that scary. I ain't flyin' high in my neighborhood anymore.
I knew I was at least a few hundred feet below their flight path but, sometimes the medevac flights occasionally fly low at around 500ish feet so that kinda got my heart rate goin up a bit. Plus, whenever I get the ADS-B warning, I get this image in my head of the pilot or observer seeing a drone off in the distance and getting pissed. I'm sure they're further away than I imagine and can't instantly see a tiny drone amongst the city backdrop but still, I get anxious.
Within seconds as I'm descending, I instantly lose connection with the drone and the screen goes dark and can now hear the distinct sound of black hawk rotor blades chopping the air. It was either something coincidentally on my end or that black hawk was running some type of signal interference. Regardless, a new fear was instantly unlocked as I knew I had a RTH altitude issue. See, in case the controller loses connection when flying around my neighborhood, I leave my RTH height at 200 feet because of the hills around me and the tall trees on those hills. Now I can visually see the drone hovering, have no controls and hear the black hawk coming much closer.
I'm now crapping out diamonds just waiting for the RTH signal-loss timer to run out and zip my drone up to 200 feet where the pilot sees it and aims his hellfire missiles at my forehead
. I know, those are only on Apaches. Anyway, I never even looked up to see where the helicopter was as I was desperately staring at my tablet waiting for the drone to reconnect plus, I didn't want to see what might have happened.Yes I was waaaay over-thinking the situation but I had never lost signal with a helicopter inbound. What seemed like 10 minutes but more likely 10 seconds, the connection came back and my thumb never came off of the left stick the whole time so I'm not really sure how high the drone was when I got control. I just knew I was flying back home. Man was that scary. I ain't flyin' high in my neighborhood anymore.
