Last week-end late afternoon, unsually warm here in Colorado, and an absolutely gorgeous day. I decide on a whim to go, fly and play with the Phantom. I usually fly bigger birds with more expensive gear, ground station, chargers, the whole enchilada and flight checklist, but I like the convenience and ease of the Phantom: Taranis, a tripod with 7” TFT and the Fatsharks in the trunk, a couple batteries and I am good to go. The Zenmuse with Gopro 3 is on, and pre-flight check is mostly two sequences of flashing leds. I drive to a nearby secluded spot at a local lake near the flying field. The light is just right, I head towards the shore, ten minutes walk, let’s have some fun.
A few fast flights close to water, some tests of very slow yaws and tilts I’ve programmed on the Taranis, a bit of atti/alt hold and manual flying here and there, all good. The flock of birds a few hundred feet out I’ve seen a few days ago are in the same spot, I decide to head there, maybe I can get some good shots. I gain altitude and approach them, leaving them some room, a good 30 feet or so. By that time I am mostly flying fpv from the screen as I can barely see the copter. I get a bit closer and the flock takes off. Beautiful. My screen low-res quality is crap so it’s hard to figure whether I got some good shots, but I am hopeful. Very hopeful. I back off some, fly up and down, get some views of the sun about to disappear behind the mountain range, more shots of the birds who have came back down, more slow pans, slow tilts, circles, combinations. Cool.
After 10 minutes of this I decide to fly the Phantom back closer to me. 30% battery left, plenty. I get to 300 feet or so to do one more 360 pan of the mountains, then decide it’s time to land. I know I have to be careful with this, altitude here is 1,600m and air is thinner, and the phantom is overloaded, I’ve already had one uncontrolled descent that was too fast and I could not stop the descent, it resulted in a very mild crash. I’ve ordered the newer and better props that provide more lift but don’t have them yet.
So I am descending slowly, somewhere just under the 50% mark on the Tx, in GPS mode. I check the OSD altitude and speed, no descent. I push the throttle stick lower, and there it comes. I am about 100 feet out from the shore over water.
So far so good.
At 50 feet or so up and now 50 feet from the shore I realize the bird is descending nicely but maybe a little too fast. I push the throtle stick up, nothing. Uh Oh ... By the time I am full throttle up and realize it is still going down the copter is 20 feet up and 20 feet from the shore. It’s not a full “fall out of the sky” descent, far from it, but definitely way too fast for a soft landing. I realize I must’ve gone a few percents beyond my "safe descent" speed, and I won’t be able to stop it, so I go full roll to get it to the shore, at least crash on dry land.
Almost ... Damn it. Almost. It lands 10 feet from the shore, I hear the plop and see the splash in the water, then nothing. Sunk and ompletely submerged. I realize I’d better not stare away from where I saw it go down, now a virtual spot looking like everything else and the small waves around it. Or away goes any chance of finding it in a reasonable time. Assuming water is not too deep, no idea about that. I half walk/run while still staring at the spot. Wade in water. Turns out there’s only a couple feet of water at most. I can’t see it, keep looking for it until ... here it is, I see one propeller through the relatively muddy water. Take it out, I immediately get the battery with no lights out , shake the copter, water comes out of the vents on the arms. The gimbal is gone, I grope in the mud and, lucky, also find it.
I figure the best at this point is to move fast, get home and dry. It is history but who knows, maybe a few parts are salvageable The plastic shell at least. The props, none broken, looks like it landed on its legs. Maybe some motors, some escs ... But I know DJI replacement parts pricing ...
On my way back I go through an internal dialogue that goes something like this.
- You friggin’ moron. Your broke your cardinal rule, you never, ever, ever fly if there’s even a shadow of a pre-test flight issue.
- Yeah but this was just the Phantom ...
- You knew it had issues with descent!
- Yeah, but it’s flown fine so many times ...
- You should’ve a waited for the better props!
- Yeah, but it was such a nice day. Record breaking high temperatures. Fall colors will soon be over ... It was now or never.
- Well, don’t fee sorry for yourself, then, you *** ...
- Wanted to upgrade to the GP4 anyways ... Hate unadjustable sharpness on gp3 Protune, so there ...
And on and on ...
Back home I immediately take it apart. Except for some mud over one motor winding and around the vents, everything is soaked but looks clean. No obvious trace of shorts as I look closely The stickers on the Naza and 8XR are borderline peeling, I am sure both are toast but I might as well let everything dry, I shake, rattle and roll it, I brush off the spots of mud, I vacuum the hell out of it, hair dry the hell out of it, and call it a day ... The gopro has some trace of water in the lens and one led is still on, I should have taken out the battery immediately but didn’t even bother back then because I knew it was toast. The gimbal is muddy but appears mecanically sound, yet I am certain it is history too given the on-board controller and escs.
Next morning things look perfectly dry, I figure I don’t have a lot to loose ... With the cover still off, I stick in the other battery I did not use. Holy ... ! It’s doing it’s power up beep dance, leds light up, but there’s an alarm sequence. I figure I should wait some more.
I try again five hours later. No more alarm sound! Power up the TX, arm ... Motor spin ... Wow ... That 8Xr actually works? The Naza actually works? Baro? GPS? Mag? All motors? Err, nope. One motor doesn’t. I think of swapping ESCs to find if that’s the problem, but it’s all soldered up, figure it’s only been 15 hours or so and decide to wait some more. Maybe some additional drying time will help.
A few hours later, try again. All motors spin up ... Man! I put everything back together, decide what the heck, let’s test fly it in backyard. I do, it flies like nothing happened . GPS fine. Mag fine. Baro and atti? Fine. Accels, gyros? I fly agressively in manual, all good. I then decide to check the OSD and gimbal. It all works too, I can’t believe it.
I check the Gopro. The mist in the lens of the gopro? Gone. I put the battery back on. One led stays solid, that’s a problem. Push the start button for the usual several seconds, nothing. Take the battery out. Try again. Second try? It powers on. I can’t believe it. A few seconds recording, the card reads fine, I play the movie fine. I download the “water movie”. Download fine, but reading it is a no go. I figure power must’ve cut off and the file is corrupted, but maybe I’l be able to add a few records manually and make it readable. Not on my priority list now, gopro4 is on its way ...
And so it was. I am quite concerned as to the reliability of the Phantom now. It flies fine but could it be that one tiny board component fried and one day will cause a crash? I plan on futher testing it over the next few weeks when I have time, we’ll see. RTL, failsafe and all. The gopro I may be able to use as a backup somewhere else, power on and off is unreliable right now and requires taking battery in and out. Not even sure I charge can recharge it. Plus not feasible with the zenmuse with the strap. The gimbal works but must have a few grains of sand, I don’t like the sound, I’ve considered taking it apart but decided not to at least for now, it’s just too tiny and proprietary.
I’ll see how it goes when I fly it again.
With those new improved props ...
A few fast flights close to water, some tests of very slow yaws and tilts I’ve programmed on the Taranis, a bit of atti/alt hold and manual flying here and there, all good. The flock of birds a few hundred feet out I’ve seen a few days ago are in the same spot, I decide to head there, maybe I can get some good shots. I gain altitude and approach them, leaving them some room, a good 30 feet or so. By that time I am mostly flying fpv from the screen as I can barely see the copter. I get a bit closer and the flock takes off. Beautiful. My screen low-res quality is crap so it’s hard to figure whether I got some good shots, but I am hopeful. Very hopeful. I back off some, fly up and down, get some views of the sun about to disappear behind the mountain range, more shots of the birds who have came back down, more slow pans, slow tilts, circles, combinations. Cool.
After 10 minutes of this I decide to fly the Phantom back closer to me. 30% battery left, plenty. I get to 300 feet or so to do one more 360 pan of the mountains, then decide it’s time to land. I know I have to be careful with this, altitude here is 1,600m and air is thinner, and the phantom is overloaded, I’ve already had one uncontrolled descent that was too fast and I could not stop the descent, it resulted in a very mild crash. I’ve ordered the newer and better props that provide more lift but don’t have them yet.
So I am descending slowly, somewhere just under the 50% mark on the Tx, in GPS mode. I check the OSD altitude and speed, no descent. I push the throttle stick lower, and there it comes. I am about 100 feet out from the shore over water.
So far so good.
At 50 feet or so up and now 50 feet from the shore I realize the bird is descending nicely but maybe a little too fast. I push the throtle stick up, nothing. Uh Oh ... By the time I am full throttle up and realize it is still going down the copter is 20 feet up and 20 feet from the shore. It’s not a full “fall out of the sky” descent, far from it, but definitely way too fast for a soft landing. I realize I must’ve gone a few percents beyond my "safe descent" speed, and I won’t be able to stop it, so I go full roll to get it to the shore, at least crash on dry land.
Almost ... Damn it. Almost. It lands 10 feet from the shore, I hear the plop and see the splash in the water, then nothing. Sunk and ompletely submerged. I realize I’d better not stare away from where I saw it go down, now a virtual spot looking like everything else and the small waves around it. Or away goes any chance of finding it in a reasonable time. Assuming water is not too deep, no idea about that. I half walk/run while still staring at the spot. Wade in water. Turns out there’s only a couple feet of water at most. I can’t see it, keep looking for it until ... here it is, I see one propeller through the relatively muddy water. Take it out, I immediately get the battery with no lights out , shake the copter, water comes out of the vents on the arms. The gimbal is gone, I grope in the mud and, lucky, also find it.
I figure the best at this point is to move fast, get home and dry. It is history but who knows, maybe a few parts are salvageable The plastic shell at least. The props, none broken, looks like it landed on its legs. Maybe some motors, some escs ... But I know DJI replacement parts pricing ...
On my way back I go through an internal dialogue that goes something like this.
- You friggin’ moron. Your broke your cardinal rule, you never, ever, ever fly if there’s even a shadow of a pre-test flight issue.
- Yeah but this was just the Phantom ...
- You knew it had issues with descent!
- Yeah, but it’s flown fine so many times ...
- You should’ve a waited for the better props!
- Yeah, but it was such a nice day. Record breaking high temperatures. Fall colors will soon be over ... It was now or never.
- Well, don’t fee sorry for yourself, then, you *** ...
- Wanted to upgrade to the GP4 anyways ... Hate unadjustable sharpness on gp3 Protune, so there ...
And on and on ...
Back home I immediately take it apart. Except for some mud over one motor winding and around the vents, everything is soaked but looks clean. No obvious trace of shorts as I look closely The stickers on the Naza and 8XR are borderline peeling, I am sure both are toast but I might as well let everything dry, I shake, rattle and roll it, I brush off the spots of mud, I vacuum the hell out of it, hair dry the hell out of it, and call it a day ... The gopro has some trace of water in the lens and one led is still on, I should have taken out the battery immediately but didn’t even bother back then because I knew it was toast. The gimbal is muddy but appears mecanically sound, yet I am certain it is history too given the on-board controller and escs.
Next morning things look perfectly dry, I figure I don’t have a lot to loose ... With the cover still off, I stick in the other battery I did not use. Holy ... ! It’s doing it’s power up beep dance, leds light up, but there’s an alarm sequence. I figure I should wait some more.
I try again five hours later. No more alarm sound! Power up the TX, arm ... Motor spin ... Wow ... That 8Xr actually works? The Naza actually works? Baro? GPS? Mag? All motors? Err, nope. One motor doesn’t. I think of swapping ESCs to find if that’s the problem, but it’s all soldered up, figure it’s only been 15 hours or so and decide to wait some more. Maybe some additional drying time will help.
A few hours later, try again. All motors spin up ... Man! I put everything back together, decide what the heck, let’s test fly it in backyard. I do, it flies like nothing happened . GPS fine. Mag fine. Baro and atti? Fine. Accels, gyros? I fly agressively in manual, all good. I then decide to check the OSD and gimbal. It all works too, I can’t believe it.
I check the Gopro. The mist in the lens of the gopro? Gone. I put the battery back on. One led stays solid, that’s a problem. Push the start button for the usual several seconds, nothing. Take the battery out. Try again. Second try? It powers on. I can’t believe it. A few seconds recording, the card reads fine, I play the movie fine. I download the “water movie”. Download fine, but reading it is a no go. I figure power must’ve cut off and the file is corrupted, but maybe I’l be able to add a few records manually and make it readable. Not on my priority list now, gopro4 is on its way ...
And so it was. I am quite concerned as to the reliability of the Phantom now. It flies fine but could it be that one tiny board component fried and one day will cause a crash? I plan on futher testing it over the next few weeks when I have time, we’ll see. RTL, failsafe and all. The gopro I may be able to use as a backup somewhere else, power on and off is unreliable right now and requires taking battery in and out. Not even sure I charge can recharge it. Plus not feasible with the zenmuse with the strap. The gimbal works but must have a few grains of sand, I don’t like the sound, I’ve considered taking it apart but decided not to at least for now, it’s just too tiny and proprietary.
I’ll see how it goes when I fly it again.
With those new improved props ...
