AlansDronePics
 Second Officer
Flight distance : 814751 ft
Guernsey
Offline
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A frightening thing happened shortly after this photo was taken.
As you can see, I was way out over water and i flew out from land that was way behind me.
According to the battery indicator, I had about 32% left. More than enough to get back, even following the beach, rather than the direct path over water. The warning was set at the default of 30% and a few seconds later, the warning came. I had to return home immediately.
You should know that as planned, the wind was blowing at 12 MPH towards home and that the battery was believed to be in good condition. However, I hadn't flown with it for quite a while. Regular maintainance charges were given during the down time.
I planned to return following the coast. I didn't consider this necessary, but why take unessessary chances?
Seconds later, the 6 minuit flying time remaining suddenly dropped to 5 minutes.
I was already losing altitude and heading towards the beach.
A couple seconds later, the 5 minutes dropped to 4 minutes.
I wasn't sure now that I could reach land at all.
I hoped the steady glide path down to the beach might be the best of my limited options. However, I hadn't experienced such a sudden loss of charge and this was unknown territory for me.
I had reached a point off the small stone pier and my first instinct was to land there. However, there were children playing ther and also on that part of the beach. I dare not go near them in cast the drone fell out of the sky.
You may notice a small path across the grass on the extreme left of the picture. I could see a small beached boat and some clothing on the beach at that point. I couldn't see anyone actually on that part of the beach. I would try and reach it or drop in the sea.
The drone warned that it was landing, regardless. I was still about 500 metres away from the chosen spot and it was necessary to cancel the forced landing process.
Not being familiar with this degree of finality, I admit, I fumbled the cancel process and lost precious seconds. The drone was now headding back out to sea, towards home but dropping towards the sea.
I tilted the camera down a bit in the hope of spotting a nearer landing spot on the waters edge.
The tide was coming in, and hard sand is not a good place to fall from the sky. The pile of clothes and beached boat worried me. Could there be someone there that I hadn't seen?
I headed for the soft sand and tried to land. As you know, with bland surfaces, the drone is reluctant to land where directed.
Everything went black on the screen.
It took me 5 minutes to drive to the crash site.
What would I find?
It occured to me that some barsteward might pick up the drone and begger off with it.
OK, I found it! A soft landing in the fine sand and the lights were still flashing.
Panic over, shut a through clean and a fresh battery for the afternoon flight.
Thank goodness for pre-planning.
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Captain
DJI team
and Glad you found the drone.
lvl.1