Take 3 Drowned The Drone

[Luvit]

I bought my first drone a while ago now and after nearly losing it in the drink, l sold it.

Well with the up and coming trip to the Kimberly l have bitten the bullet and l’m trying again with a less expensive drone, a DJI Spark. I have learnt some lessons from the last experience, so l feel l’ll do better this time. 

So far l’ m happy with the decision. I have 4 months to practice flying it, so when l get to the Kimberly l have a reasonable chance of capturing some decent footage. 

Here is s photo from tonight over Samford Valley. 

In between showers l took a quick 30 second vid of a local creek flowing. 

Very happy with the quality of the video and as my flying gets better the videos should too. 

Of course everything is easier on land than water. 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Luvit

[aussie123]

That looks really good Wayne.

10 bux if you can land it on a crocs back when you go over there.

[Luc53]

Cedfar Creek?

[Luvit]

7 hours ago, aussie123 said:

That looks really good Wayne.

10 bux if you can land it on a crocs back when you go over there.

$10 bucks and a new drone and you have a deal. 

[Luvit]

7 hours ago, Luc53 said:

Cedfar Creek?

Yep, Cedar Creek 

[kmcrosby78]

Looks good Wayne, have fun playing with it, results should be worth the effort.

[Luvit]

The drone not so good in low light at the start of the vid and hard to manually change light metering when trying to fly at the same time.

This is from last night.

[fishingnut]

Good day stuff! Have wanted to get into drones for ages, thanks for the vids !

[Drop Bear]

On 30/03/2019 at 11:14 PM, aussie123 said:

That looks really good Wayne.

10 bux if you can land it on a crocs back when you go over there.

haha ill put in 10 as well. 

[Drop Bear]

Stunning sunset. Why did it do a funny little double image thing at 35 seconds?

[Drop Bear]

It will be so cool to see the Kimberly footage! 

[Luvit]

9 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Stunning sunset. Why did it do a funny little double image thing at 35 seconds?

I don't really know what you mean. I guess it would be because I stopped recording and over lapped the videos.

[Drop Bear]

On 01/04/2019 at 10:34 AM, Luvit said:

I don't really know what you mean. I guess it would be because I stopped recording and over lapped the videos.

ahh that is it. 

[Luvit]

Another test video. Loving this Spark drone. 

A little clip from Wivenhoe spillway and a quick flyby on Bribie Island yesterday. 

[Drop Bear]

4 hours ago, Luvit said:

A little clip from Wivenhoe spillway and a quick flyby on Bribie Island yesterday. 

Great locations. Nice work mate. 

[Luvit]

It has limitations but, being so small it's going to be very handy.

Once I combine it with some boat Gopro footage and underwater footage it will add another dimension from the sky. 

[Drop Bear]

2 hours ago, Luvit said:

It has limitations but, being so small it's going to be very handy.

Once I combine it with some boat Gopro footage and underwater footage it will add another dimension from the sky. 

Yep they are great for a few things. High wide and looking back at the boat with fish in foreground. 

How high can it go and what is the range? 

[Luvit]

Max Height legally is 120m and range is 2km however legally has to be in sight of the operator at all times. Being a small drone you would not see it 2km away.

Even though I'm growing in confidence using it, I still get scared as it flies into the distance hoping it does not loose connection. 

[kmcrosby78]

Looks good Wayne, fun little toy that should yield good results for you  

[Drop Bear]

18 hours ago, Luvit said:

Max Height legally is 120m and range is 2km however legally has to be in sight of the operator at all times. Being a small drone you would not see it 2km away.

Even though I'm growing in confidence using it, I still get scared as it flies into the distance hoping it does not loose connection. 

Does it fly home if you loose connection? 

[Luvit]

3 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Does it fly home if you loose connection? 

In theory yes, however that depends if you have stable a gps signal. If using it from a boat the home position won't be where the boat is if the boat is drifting or moving.

There is a feature to have a dynamic home point so the controller is the home point and it is updated periodically. This is what I will use on the water, how accurate that will be in reality with wind around etc is an unknown at this point i'll have to test this in an open field.  Even the other day I lost sight of it in the distance and stopped it immediately. I knew I had flown directly away from my standing point so I simply reversed it until I could see it again.

When I saw it again there was an bird of prey circling it, so I quickly lowered it down closer to the water hit sport mode and got it back asap. I even had swallows having a go at it the other day on a river.

So many variables in real life that put it in the water.

I have insurance on it but you have to recover the drone to claim. That's another story. 

[Drop Bear]

3 minutes ago, Luvit said:

I have insurance on it but you have to recover the drone to claim. That's another story.

haha nice. 

[Luke Landrunner]

Haha I remember the incident with the old one-

Me with a decent snapper on which ended up being just a decent head after being grey suited and you Sh!tting bricks as the low battery warning was on and having me grab the drone as the boat drifted......

[Luvit]

It was a good save. I expect this one will be easier to catch. Could even do it with the landing net in an emergency landing.

 

[Drop Bear]

24 minutes ago, Luvit said:

It was a good save. I expect this one will be easier to catch. Could even do it with the landing net in an emergency landing.

 

Disposable landing net? haha. 

[Luvit]

Just upgraded the net mesh to HD silicone rubber 

[Luvit]

 

After loosing connection with my drone this afternoon in a deep valley l had my first crash. Basically once l lost connection l panicked and hit the return home button. That didn’t work well with the drone flying into trees and crashing. 

I made my way down the embankment and went to where l last saw it. Using the phone GPS l tried pin pointing it. An hour plus later after walking through a stream and fighting my way through the steep hill of Lantana with showers of rain making all rocks supper slippery. The joy of finding my drowned drone on/in the edge of the creek was amazing. 

Why? Because l took insurance out called DJI refresh, which means as long as l can return the drone body and pay $79 dollars l can get a new replacement drone. 

I tried drying it out with a hair dryer but no go. 

Take 3 drive coming up. 

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Luvit
On going story

[Poddymullet]

7 hours ago, Luvit said:

 

After loosing connection with my drone this afternoon in a deep valley l had my first crash. Basically once l lost connection l panicked and hit the return home button. That didn’t work well with the drone flying into trees and crashing. 

I made my way down the embankment and went to where l last saw it. Using the phone god l tried pin pointing it. An hour plus later after walking through a stream and fighting my way through the steep hill of Lantana with showers of rain making all rocks supper slippery. The joy of finding my drowned drone on/in the edge of the creek was amazing. 

Why? Because l took insurance out called DJI refresh, which means as long as l can return the drone body and pay $79 dollars l can get a new replacement drone. 

I tried drying it out with a hair dryer but no go. 

Take 3 drive coming up. 

 

Bugger @Luvit but what an insurance policy! How much does it cost by the way besides the $79 ? 

[Luvit]

It’s through DJI themselves it’s called DJI refresh and for my Spark it cost $99 and allows for 2 replacement drones in 12 months. 

About $600 dollars to buy another otherwise. 

[Drop Bear]

8 hours ago, Luvit said:

 

After loosing connection with my drone this afternoon in a deep valley l had my first crash. Basically once l lost connection l panicked and hit the return home button. That didn’t work well with the drone flying into trees and crashing. 

I made my way down the embankment and went to where l last saw it. Using the phone GPS l tried pin pointing it. An hour plus later after walking through a stream and fighting my way through the steep hill of Lantana with showers of rain making all rocks supper slippery. The joy of finding my drowned drone on/in the edge of the creek was amazing. 

Why? Because l took insurance out called DJI refresh, which means as long as l can return the drone body and pay $79 dollars l can get a new replacement drone. 

I tried drying it out with a hair dryer but no go. 

Take 3 drive coming up. 

 

wow. How far away was the drone when you lost connection? 

What could you have done apart from return to home?

So glad you can get a new one. 

Did you get any cool footage of the crash haha

[Poddymullet]

2 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

wow. How far away was the drone when you lost connection? 

What could you have done apart from return to home?

So glad you can get a new one. 

Did you get any cool footage of the crash haha

ummmm...ouch!

[Luvit]

The file of the actual crash will not load. I was looking forward to it as well.

In hindsight I could made my way down closer to the drone to re-establish connection and hoped the battery lasted because I was down to 30%. Apparently if you use an OTG (On The Go) cable that connects the remote to the phone rather than the wifi its more reliable. I ordered on last week but had not had a problem up till this point.

I tried it again this morning and found the battery is catus but, with a newly charged battery it starts up and runs. The camera is good but the propeller motors sound uneven reving up and down so I didn't want to risk a flight with it.

I'll call DJI this morning and see what my options are.

[Drop Bear]

7 hours ago, Luvit said:

The file of the actual crash will not load. I was looking forward to it as well.

In hindsight I could made my way down closer to the drone to re-establish connection and hoped the battery lasted because I was down to 30%. Apparently if you use an OTG (On The Go) cable that connects the remote to the phone rather than the wifi its more reliable. I ordered on last week but had not had a problem up till this point.

I tried it again this morning and found the battery is catus but, with a newly charged battery it starts up and runs. The camera is good but the propeller motors sound uneven reving up and down so I didn't want to risk a flight with it.

I'll call DJI this morning and see what my options are.

Great that you have the option to just send it back. 

[Luvit]

Some of video before the crash

[Luvit]

I’ve done it again.

Mis-spelt ‘surrounds’ in the title. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Luvit

[kmcrosby78]

Cool video Wayne, some nice looking country out your way, looks pristine  

[Drop Bear]

Stunning shots. The creeks look beautiful. I would have been tempted to fly low and scare the turtle haha. Perhaps I am just mean. 

That low flying stuff up the bubbling creek is awesome. 

[Luvit]

I'll see how long it will take to get a replacement before I get back out there.

The better you get at editing the better the end result. I'm no movie maker but it's fun experimenting in beautiful locations. 

[Drop Bear]

12 minutes ago, Luvit said:

I'll see how long it will take to get a replacement before I get back out there.

The better you get at editing the better the end result. I'm no movie maker but it's fun experimenting in beautiful locations. 

The  creeks must be running well after all this rain?

[Luvit]

Certainly are and we have full water tanks for the winter dry spell.