Scooterwolf
Active Member
Well this happened sooner than I'd like, but my drone drifted away from me in the park near where I live. I was practicing basic maneuvers - take offs and landings. Hovering and learning to rotate and gain basic orientations for flight patterns. On my 5th or 6th try it really began to drift away from me toward a small pond that's in the center of the park.
Hitting the landing button I watch as the drone began to slowly descend, but it's trajectory was going to take it straight into the pond. Rushing toward it I gave it more thrust - too much - and the drone lurched upwards and struck an overhanging tree branch. Flipping over it fell into the pond. It was floating when I got to the pond so I rushed to the other side where it was closer to the bank. By the time I got there it was gone - sunk into 4-5 feet of murky water. Damn.
Of course I paced up and down the pond's edge for about a half hour trying to look for air bubbles, or a solid smudged shape in the pond's depths. Nothing. As mush as I wanted to admit it I had lost it.
In hindsight this could be a good thing. It was a really cheap drone - I paid $60 dollars for it knowing I didn't want to spend a lot on something I would probably crash (just didn't expect that to be a waterborne one). Also, the retailer was really sketch and I discovered they had sent me their cheapest model - camera quality was 640 SD. My receipt said it was a 720 HD camera. I was also getting the impression that when the camera was on it drained the battery pretty quickly.
So, as I try to put this behind me (it's a learning experience) I'm now ready to look at better quality beginner drones. Does anyone have any suggestions, or should I get a good remote controller and practice with a simulator first?
- Wolf
Hitting the landing button I watch as the drone began to slowly descend, but it's trajectory was going to take it straight into the pond. Rushing toward it I gave it more thrust - too much - and the drone lurched upwards and struck an overhanging tree branch. Flipping over it fell into the pond. It was floating when I got to the pond so I rushed to the other side where it was closer to the bank. By the time I got there it was gone - sunk into 4-5 feet of murky water. Damn.
Of course I paced up and down the pond's edge for about a half hour trying to look for air bubbles, or a solid smudged shape in the pond's depths. Nothing. As mush as I wanted to admit it I had lost it.
In hindsight this could be a good thing. It was a really cheap drone - I paid $60 dollars for it knowing I didn't want to spend a lot on something I would probably crash (just didn't expect that to be a waterborne one). Also, the retailer was really sketch and I discovered they had sent me their cheapest model - camera quality was 640 SD. My receipt said it was a 720 HD camera. I was also getting the impression that when the camera was on it drained the battery pretty quickly.
So, as I try to put this behind me (it's a learning experience) I'm now ready to look at better quality beginner drones. Does anyone have any suggestions, or should I get a good remote controller and practice with a simulator first?
- Wolf
