I am breathing a HUGE sigh of relief tonight. I've been flying around downtown Philly for just over a month with no issues at all - I do avoid coming anywhere near the skyscrapers. So today I head down there took a brief flight to get overhead shots / video above the Ben Franklin Bridge (heads in NJ) - no problems as usual, I've taken this flight a few weeks ago from the same location...all was fine UNTIL today. I was coming in for a landing, suddenly 100ft out (50ft above) looking back at the the flight log I get this "Abnormal Compass" - switch to ATTI to avoid interference "....which I did but no response at all...it sat hovering for 1, 2 seconds, then briefly wobbling back and forth violently, circled then dropped like a rock into the cobblestone street. Missed parked cars, no cars driving down this non-busy side street, and no people. Can't stress this enough, ...forget the drone, all I can say is I'm thankful this goofy issue happened where it did! (I have extremely busy Interstate 95 just 200 feet to my east, a busy bridge a block to the south, major crosstown freeway literally behind me to my north..this could have been horrific!)
So 1st crash now in the books..no one hurt - of course my heart dropped, I run over expecting pieces all of the place and I hear this grinding noise. Heres the drone is upside down as the propellers were still in full power rotating, grinding into the street. Doing everything in my power trying to kill the power with failsafe - no luck shutting this thing off. Now in a slight panic I grab one of the landing legs to get it off the ground to prevent killing the motors. I know..maybe not too smart. As I did, it literally jerked my right arm me since its still on fully power..yes the propeller got me in the arm. ( Not pretty..but I'll be fine. And THAT could have been much worse too!) FINALLY the ATTI kicks in and I'm able to shut the darn thing off with the RC failsafe "kill mode."
Now I'm inspecting it - I know I look like a disheveled mess.. my arm looks like I was attacked by Wolverine, literally 3 swipes..ugh. I'm shocked, the drone is fine, shell has no scratches at all...the propellers, no that's another story. Those are a mess, the colored tips literally shaved down. It took effort, use of the tool to remove them since the grinding really tightened them up. I drive home, clean up my arm..BUT I do want to see if this X Star is ok. Took it to the park a few blocks away..broke open the spare propellers they give us, it seems fine, camera, gimbal is ok. No problems with the RC connection.
So..I have no idea what the heck happened and I feel a little dumb tonight, lucky but dumb! Abnormal compass is a first, ATTI is not, it's happened 2 times already and thankfully I'm ok with complete manual flying after 6 weeks..but having it not respond what so ever, that's new. Back to how this drone is made..I'm stunned. When this thing dropped, I expected to see it in pieces!
Flight Log from my app, final 40 seconds.
So 1st crash now in the books..no one hurt - of course my heart dropped, I run over expecting pieces all of the place and I hear this grinding noise. Heres the drone is upside down as the propellers were still in full power rotating, grinding into the street. Doing everything in my power trying to kill the power with failsafe - no luck shutting this thing off. Now in a slight panic I grab one of the landing legs to get it off the ground to prevent killing the motors. I know..maybe not too smart. As I did, it literally jerked my right arm me since its still on fully power..yes the propeller got me in the arm. ( Not pretty..but I'll be fine. And THAT could have been much worse too!) FINALLY the ATTI kicks in and I'm able to shut the darn thing off with the RC failsafe "kill mode."
Now I'm inspecting it - I know I look like a disheveled mess.. my arm looks like I was attacked by Wolverine, literally 3 swipes..ugh. I'm shocked, the drone is fine, shell has no scratches at all...the propellers, no that's another story. Those are a mess, the colored tips literally shaved down. It took effort, use of the tool to remove them since the grinding really tightened them up. I drive home, clean up my arm..BUT I do want to see if this X Star is ok. Took it to the park a few blocks away..broke open the spare propellers they give us, it seems fine, camera, gimbal is ok. No problems with the RC connection.
So..I have no idea what the heck happened and I feel a little dumb tonight, lucky but dumb! Abnormal compass is a first, ATTI is not, it's happened 2 times already and thankfully I'm ok with complete manual flying after 6 weeks..but having it not respond what so ever, that's new. Back to how this drone is made..I'm stunned. When this thing dropped, I expected to see it in pieces!
Flight Log from my app, final 40 seconds.