I tried landing my MA2 on a relatively clear spot on my favourite mountain bike track. The track runs along one of the ridges surrounding the valley I live in. I was on the valley floor near my house, the aircraft was some 520 metres away at altitude of 120 metres (yes, it's quite a climb on the MTB to get to that point!). I could see the track clearly with camera pointed straight down at 90 degrees, with landing spot readily identified. I came down gracefully through a gap in the trees, pulled off a nice landing as intended. This was all in VLOS, except for the brief period when I went down through the tree line; at that point it was purely FPV (oh, the adrenaline! ;- )
It soon became apparent that I had a serious problem on my hands - I could not take off! (more adrenaline!) (for my American friends, I vaguely recall from my pharmacology student days that you folks call this epinephrine!?)
What had actually happened was that there was a little bit of dry grass around my landing point, and subsequent forensic analysis revealed that a single spindle of grass had stalled one of my props! Big lesson. Unlike my cheap and cheerful high-performance home made sport quads, which basically act like a lawn mower in long grass, my delicate little MA2 seems to shut down a motor at the slightest hint of prop obstruction. And there's no way to override this, as far as I can tell. Anyone?
So, there was my MA2, half a kilometre away (straight line) on the top of a mountain, landed and stranded. Okay, I know some folks probably don't consider 120 metres a "mountain" (Everest, for reference, is about 8,000 metres!). But here in Australia, a mountain it is. And yes, you guessed it, I threw on the backpack, cycling shoes, Bell 4forty, etc. and set off up the mountain road on a recovery mission.
It was quite easy to find the aircraft - I knew exactly where I'd landed her on my very familiar track. Even still, I used the RC to home in on it, just to see if "find my aircraft" worked. It did. Admirably.
I couldn't believe the blade of grass that had scuppered my take-off. It was a weeny little thing that could easily have been chopped by the prop without any damage done. But, I guess the MA2 motors have current sensing, and over-current shutdown is, well, over-current shutdown. Ahem.
Having removed the offending blade of grass, I then launched the aircraft and flew her back out over the valley, landing (again remotely, coz now I'm on the top of the mountain!) in the paddock in front of my house, on the little landing pad, right in the middle of the "H". Fantastic! I then rode home 5 km and there she was, waiting for me ;-)
Moral of story: don't remote land your MA2 anywhere you can't recover her from, unless you are absolutely certain the landing spot is smooth, clear and devoid of any grass or other vegetation. The smallest blade of grass can mess up your day!
It soon became apparent that I had a serious problem on my hands - I could not take off! (more adrenaline!) (for my American friends, I vaguely recall from my pharmacology student days that you folks call this epinephrine!?)
What had actually happened was that there was a little bit of dry grass around my landing point, and subsequent forensic analysis revealed that a single spindle of grass had stalled one of my props! Big lesson. Unlike my cheap and cheerful high-performance home made sport quads, which basically act like a lawn mower in long grass, my delicate little MA2 seems to shut down a motor at the slightest hint of prop obstruction. And there's no way to override this, as far as I can tell. Anyone?
So, there was my MA2, half a kilometre away (straight line) on the top of a mountain, landed and stranded. Okay, I know some folks probably don't consider 120 metres a "mountain" (Everest, for reference, is about 8,000 metres!). But here in Australia, a mountain it is. And yes, you guessed it, I threw on the backpack, cycling shoes, Bell 4forty, etc. and set off up the mountain road on a recovery mission.
It was quite easy to find the aircraft - I knew exactly where I'd landed her on my very familiar track. Even still, I used the RC to home in on it, just to see if "find my aircraft" worked. It did. Admirably.
I couldn't believe the blade of grass that had scuppered my take-off. It was a weeny little thing that could easily have been chopped by the prop without any damage done. But, I guess the MA2 motors have current sensing, and over-current shutdown is, well, over-current shutdown. Ahem.
Having removed the offending blade of grass, I then launched the aircraft and flew her back out over the valley, landing (again remotely, coz now I'm on the top of the mountain!) in the paddock in front of my house, on the little landing pad, right in the middle of the "H". Fantastic! I then rode home 5 km and there she was, waiting for me ;-)
Moral of story: don't remote land your MA2 anywhere you can't recover her from, unless you are absolutely certain the landing spot is smooth, clear and devoid of any grass or other vegetation. The smallest blade of grass can mess up your day!
