Fred F
lvl.4
Flight distance : 4676457 ft
Australia
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It was a sad loss, fortunately only at the very last leg of the very long trip....Amen !!
By then, it had a few scratches, battle scars with tree leaves, ground grasses etc., and plenty of the famous red dust, though I kept it clean most of the time, but they creep in, when I cycle through 3 batteries during any one day.
I learned to hand launch and land, to reduce dust. A landing pad would have been good, but I still doubt, because it is not practical to always find a flat spot to land, in the outbacks.
It lost contact once when descended into a valley behind a tall hill, and came back after 5 mins or so of sweating palms.
It crashed into a cliff ledge when flying side ways, took two hours to find and retrieve it just after sun down. The blinking red light shone through the bush after the sun disappeared. I am thinking of putting on some fluorescent paint on the new one. Fortunately, that time, it only broke all the blades and not the gimbal at all, with scratches. After finding a new set of blades from my spare box, it went live again.
And the wind got it a few times, I had to find a layer of air that was calm for it to come home...I was pushing it, and got wonderful clips of the Australia outbacks, which I had not seen before despite being in some places 2 or 3 times prior. But the last time, the wind was just too much, coastal outward wind on the Great Ocean Rd, with only 50% power, broke my own golden rule for not launching anything below 80%. But even with full battery, I wonder if it would have saved it, it got pull out at about 12 Kph, depsite applying full throttle for it to return.
All and all, I am very happy with the beast.
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