Did not follow my own process resulting in the only crash I have ever had with either of my Phantoms. Checked UAV forecast prior to flight. It recommended not to fly due to precipitation. All other conditions favorable. It looked as though the rain was still some time away, so I took a few test flights then launched my longest mission yet. 1/3 of the way into the mission it started raining hard. I immediately initiated home return. It worked flawless. All that remained was bringing it down 250 feet manually. In a haste and my glasses so wet I could not differentiate orientation of the aircraft I got within a few feet of the ground and grazed a pine tree branch, causing aircraft to fall to the ground.Test flight after rain stopped confirmed no damage. Had the aircraft been any further in its mission the hard rain probably would have caused motor or electronic failure before it made it back. Moral of story always stick to a known safe flying process.

I would not describe that as a crash, it's more of an unplanned flora interaction.

Cabansail Posted at 2017-3-26 14:19
I would not describe that as a crash, it's more of an unplanned flora interaction.

Now that's funny right there.

Funny - in almost two years of reading drone posts, I have yet to read one post about a drone going down due to rain.  Maybe that's because nobody flies in the rain?  I know some of us have gotten caught in it by accident, but I'm still waiting to hear about one going down due to rain.

Here's my rain flight:  

I would not describe that as a crash, it's more of an unplanned flora interaction......BWAHHHAAAHHH!  Good one,

mark the droner
How did you get that distance?

I'm sorry for your loss, thank you for sharing your cautionary tale to better help others.

outdoorlife5 Posted at 2017-3-30 17:27
mark the droner
How did you get that distance?

Lots of mods.  

Here's one I just put together yesterday and haven't even tried out yet...

image hosting over 2mb

I did 4.55km today distance.. just short of 15000 ft on my P3S with Argtek. No rain though lol

Thats an alternative landing!