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NOOB Lives Lifetime UAV Flying...Sort of...Part III: 1st Flights and
508 0 2017-9-23
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Genghis9
Captain
Flight distance : 961 ft
United States
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Part III: First Flights and the Crash
Now off to the reunion and my first flights with my shiny new drone, yeah!  On the day of the reunion, it was very windy, the clearing was small with many trees around, and they were swaying, so we were grounded all day.  However, once night fell it quieted down, wind wise, I know what you are saying, you don’t fly at night, yes however in this case we had big light-alls that lit the place up as if it were daytime.  I took off no problem, in beginner mode, stayed low, and well within the lighted area.  I performed five flights without issue.  The UAV appeared stable along with the camera and gimbal and did not experience any erratic behavior or other flight problems.  I did continue to get many pop up messages/warnings, one in particular was radio interference, and yes, some expected OA warnings about light level.  I want to note that the radio interference made no sense as I noted I was in beginner mode and was always very close to the UAV i.e. RC to UAV distance was very short and I was up in the country away from most modern RF interference factors.  My first flights were fun and went well, I kept things simple, trying out my Goggles for others to see (I did not fly with them) and they worked as expected and advertised using the HDMI connection, I have not tested the USB connection capability.  I also did not take any video and only a few pictures, I wanted to concentrate on flying.
  
So, with those successful flights under my belt, the next day we went out to the family farm where we had a lot more space in a clear area and other than some power lines, no other concerns.  My first flight went well; I came out of beginner mode and in to P-Mode and found no issues with the equipment.  However, I continued to get popup messages about radio interference, wind warnings, and for a dirt airstrip that doesn’t even exist anymore, it was very annoying.  I stayed close due to the radio warnings and again I saw no reason for them, I really think there is a problem with the FW/SW or possibly the radio in the UAV or RC or both.  The wind warnings also do not make sense, as there was little to know wind, even at altitude.  We were in a bit of bowl valley and the trees were not moving on the ridge nor at the surface.  Additionally, I was getting obstacle warnings while flying well away and higher than any possible obstacles (the best explanation I’ve seen to date on this is sunlight blinding the sensors, the sun was low on the horizon during this flight).  All of these popups came fast & furious to the point they were more distracting than helpful especially since there was no understandable reason for getting many of them.  I really hope these can be fixed with a future update, as I do not like the idea of having to send anything back for these problems.  
  
After completing a fun and enjoyable flight in broad daylight in a wide open area and exploring a bit more of my UAV’s capabilities, still did not take any video, I was feeling good about things.  Boy did I think too soon on that, which is the worst thing you can do.  So, I landed with no issues and plenty of battery power remaining, about 27%, and reset for another flight.  After putting in a fresh battery, I took off for the second flight of the day.  This time I tested using the RTH button and it worked as advertised, I still need to explore more about these features but I was satisfied with the result.  I then took back off again to do some picture taking, only ended up taking three pics.  I then attempted to set up for some fly-bys for me to observe the UAV in flight.  In the process, the sun was now behind a small ridgeline and the shadows were starting to darken.  Off to the end of the field, where it was at the foot of the ridge in that shadow were some leafless trees with some small spindly dark brown branches fingering up, see where this is going.  Well, in my overconfidence, poor judgement, and misjudgment of my distance to said trees I got stuck.  Wait you say, what do you mean stuck, well I clipped a branch making that distinct sound and then the UAV backed off and I let it hover.  I then began to move toward the tree and bird to see exactly what my issue was and to figure out how to get out of it.  However, I was not to be so lucky.  As I was in the process of walking over there, the bird moved on its own in to a branch and this time really clipped a branch good and promptly flipped over and got itself hooked in to a Y in the branches about 30 feet up.  I immediately shut down the motors.  The prop was on one side of the Y holding everything firmly in place that any amount of shaking was not going to move the thing loose.  I had a nimble cousin climb the tree but he could not dislodge it either and it was up too high in the branches to support him.  We decided we’d have to cut the branch in order to recover the bird, so far so good.  Up to this point the damage if any was limited to the props, everything else was code 1.  My cousin began sawing the offending branch, and in the meantime, some other relatives and I were positioned and prepared to catch the branch/UAV.  Nevertheless, as my luck would have it at the last moment the branch swerved in a direction we did not anticipate, as a result the UAV came loose and fell hard to the ground.  The aftermath was not pretty, two motor arms were noticeably bent, one prop was clearly damaged (likely from the branch hit), and the camera gimbal came unhinged from the UAV but remained attached by a bent but sturdy piece of metal.  To say the least the UAV was totaled, now what.  In review and lessons learned, do not be over confident, I was.  Always clearly understand your flight area and the possible areas that can get you in to trouble; the time spent may seem like it takes away from your fun time but it is time well spent.  Take in to account changing conditions such as lighting etc., do not rely on obstacle avoidance to bail you out (while I did not, I know some thought it should) more on that later, and realize that objects in life may appear closer than they look.  When I reviewed my flight log, I did get warnings that obstacle avoidance was not able to work due to low lighting, true.  Due to the shadow of the ridge and setting sun, it was darker than what is needed to work as designed.  My guess is that due to the nature of the tree branches being small in diameter I’m not certain the system would have seen them in a timely enough manner to avoid the accident, even with good lighting.  If there had been leaves on the tree, it might have gone differently.  In summary, this was pilot error plain and simple; I screwed up, and can find no blame anywhere but with myself.

Fortunately, the story does not end in complete tragedy...
Look for Part IV: The End and a New Phantom
2017-9-23
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