With all of my haphazard ways, I thought this day would be much sooner- but it finally happened-- I crashed my drone. The story goes as follows:

There was a dead owl in a tree behind our school and it was kind of dangling there- like a flag- So we decided it was best course of action was to remove it. We couldn't shake it out of the tree, for the tree was too large. We couldn't get a rock up that high, for the tree was much too tall. So we decided to take some wool yarn and attach it to the base of my drone, and wrap it around the flimsy stick that was holding up the great raptor. I managed to wrap the yarn around the stick, but as I was descending- about halfway down, the yarn got sucked into my propellers and took her down! There she flailed there, dangling by the flimsy stick just four meters off the ground. The spool end of the rope was jerked from its position in my school teachers hand and whisked off into a bush, slightly too high for us to reach. This rendered my drone at the mercy of nature, as it dangled from the tree. I sat below the drone in hopes of catching it, all the while laughing at our plight. Eventually the rope was reclaimed after much avail, but was we were lowering the drone to the ground the stick atop snapped and down went my drone- 3 meters give or take, crashing cataclysmically into the soft ground. At first it looked fine, the LED cover was popped off, but otherwise I thought it was fine. I get out of the bush and start tearing down the drone, when I realize that the motor arm had cracked. Right where the motor meets the arm. Even though it cracked I am still shocked as to how strong this little drone actually is! Still flies, even though it has the crack in the motor arm, however I have grounded it of course until I can get it repaired, I am genuinely shocked I didn't even scratch any of the propellers! I go through them like crazy, I always seem to crack the propellor blades when I brush up against something. But again, this is my first serious crash- I cannot complain. Still totally worth it! I however, regret using Squaretrade protection as my warranty, I should have gone OEM with the DJI refresh thing, makes the warranty process so much more streamline.

You what the worst part about this is?

We never got the bloody owl corpes out of the tree!

Anyway- heed be my warning- Fly safe, and probably go DJI refresh instead of aftermarket warranties.

Samuel Bona

Offnote the drones name is "Just read the instructions" Akin to Elon Musk's Droneships. Just a funny little tidbit.

a great innovator, taking a great risk. cheers!

If you find any grammatical mistakes, please msg below and correct it. I wrote this in a rush, so It may be a little.... Scattered.... One could argue that I used the word "However" too much.

Solestacz Posted at 2018-1-31 16:50
a great innovator, taking a great risk. cheers!

Thank you for the kind words

Samuel Bona Posted at 2018-1-31 17:12
If you find any grammatical mistakes, please msg below and correct it. I wrote this in a rush, so It may be a little.... Scattered.... One could argue that I used the word "However" too much.

Interesting story! Glad you got it back w/o too much damage.
BYW, only boo boo I found was you misspelled Corpse.

Samuel, sorry for your drone's accident. I would not recommend you continue to fly your spark. Please contact our support and start a case: http://www.dji.com/support . Thanks for your support.

So many innovative ideas involving the Spark, real fun machine.

Ah well it’s only an owl spark. Lol

At least you tried and now you have the excuse to buy the Mavic Air

Hope you get it repaired or replaced soon

Thanks for sharing your crash story ..

A CW Posted at 2018-2-1 11:22
At least you tried and now you have the excuse to buy the Mavic Air

Hah! I think I am just going to get this sucker fixed and avoid the Air. I am still really attached to my drone.
maybe one of these days Ill upgrade.

Montfrooij Posted at 2018-2-1 11:33
Hope you get it repaired or replaced soon

Its on its way! I should have it back by wednesday next week!

Samuel Bona Posted at 2018-2-2 07:47
Hah! I think I am just going to get this sucker fixed and avoid the Air. I am still really attached to my drone.
maybe one of these days Ill upgrade.

Good for you!

Samuel Bona Posted at 2018-2-2 07:47
Its on its way! I should have it back by wednesday next week!

Hehehe, great story, thanks for sharing!  This reminded me of an incident last year with my scratch built 450 quadcopter.  I was trying to help a friend retrieve an R/C plane that got stuck on the top of a 30 foot tall tree.  Due to poor depth perception, he flew the aircraft right into the tree on the final landing approach.  We tied a rope to my quadcopter, and on the other end of the rope to a rock.  The idea is to fly the quadcopter over the tree and then land on the other side, looping the rope over the branch holding the R/C plane so we can pull on it and shake it loose.  One of the propeller on my quadcopter got caught in the rope and the whole copter shook violently and ended up getting tangled on the rope, making weird noises in the process.  It ended up getting strangled just high enough to be out of our reach.  To this day it is still up on that tree, we never bothered to retrieve it.  Fun times.   

Flanker271 Posted at 2018-2-2 08:07
Hehehe, great story, thanks for sharing!  This reminded me of an incident last year with my scratch built 450 quadcopter.  I was trying to help a friend retrieve an R/C plane that got stuck on the top of a 30 foot tall tree.  Due to poor depth perception, he flew the aircraft right into the tree on the final landing approach.  We tied a rope to my quadcopter, and on the other end of the rope to a rock.  The idea is to fly the quadcopter over the tree and then land on the other side, looping the rope over the branch holding the R/C plane so we can pull on it and shake it loose.  One of the propeller on my quadcopter got caught in the rope and the whole copter shook violently and ended up getting tangled on the rope, making weird noises in the process.  It ended up getting strangled just high enough to be out of our reach.  To this day it is still up on that tree, we never bothered to retrieve it.  Fun times.

At least I am not alone! I plan on monday to use my P1 series drone with some heavier paracord to try and get that owl down. My plan is to just have someone Else hold onto the rope and flak it. I am pretty sure that if I just descend on a lesser angle, keep some more tension in the rope and tie the rope to the extended landing legs I should be fine. I am not deterred! The P1 should perform better than the spark, we have found that the Phantom series can lift a solid can of beans, and a small can of tuna fish, so it should be fine. Maybe I could attach a pole that keeps the rope out farther. The possibilities are endless!  

Samuel Bona Posted at 2018-2-2 08:45
At least I am not alone! I plan on monday to use my P1 series drone with some heavier paracord to try and get that owl down. My plan is to just have someone Else hold onto the rope and flak it. I am pretty sure that if I just descend on a lesser angle, keep some more tension in the rope and tie the rope to the extended landing legs I should be fine. I am not deterred! The P1 should perform better than the spark, we have found that the Phantom series can lift a solid can of beans, and a small can of tuna fish, so it should be fine. Maybe I could attach a pole that keeps the rope out farther. The possibilities are endless!

Looking forward to it!  Hope it works out, just don't do anything stupid that will make the P1 another casualty .  The reason we gave up is because we don't want anyone else's precious toy to become a third casualty to that tree.  Thinking about it now, that tree must have been there for decades, waiting patiently for our toys.  

Samuel Bona Posted at 2018-2-2 07:47
Its on its way! I should have it back by wednesday next week!

Let's hope so!