Drone Experience

[ovrszd]

Come fly yours around my house and property and we'll see about that.

Judge rules in favor of 泥rone Slayer, dismisses lawsuit filed by pilot | Ars Technica

This is why I am very conscious of my intrusion on people's privacy. I will never, never fly my Drone in a situation that would warrant someone shooting it down.

 

[Jstpssng]

My neighbor just told me that the trees in my back yard next to the creek had eaten three of his drones.

I'm impressed. I wasn't aware that you could train trees that way.

 

[bunyip]

Probably Plane trees

 

[ovrszd]

It is real easy to lose or crash my drone. I have woods all around me so I fly in trees. On my fifth trip I was flying in my yard practicing. In fact I was getting pretty confident. I was getting it located to land. It had been beeping the whole time because of the proximity of all the trees and I was about 30 ft from landing. Apparently the battery was getting lower than I realized and did not hear or recognize the low battery beep. It went straight up into RTH mode but it was not clear of the trees yet even though it was almost where it started out and crashed about 40 ft up in a limb and fell completely broken to the ground. Luckily they honored the accident insurance I had purchase with the drone.
Big lesson learned. I am much more hesitant to fly it now and am very watchful. I can easily see being distracted trying to get the camera settings right.

Big learning lesson here. When you hear any type of beeping, let go of the controls which will put the Drone in hover mode, review the screen to analyze the beeping, then proceed. In your case I think you ran your Drone low on battery and it did RTH just as you think it did. First thing that happens in RTH mode is it elevates to whatever altitude you have preset. If you are amongst trees when that happens your Drone is going to crash trying to elevate.

Don't be hesitant. Just be diligent about "listening" to your Drone.

 

[ovrszd]

Richard - A couple of years ago there were a couple of videos showing how to build the drone frame that I bought with recommendations for compatible components. There were all kinds of sites like TBN with helpful members helping each other. It actually is big enough to "easily" assemble . The upgrades (everything replaced) took some serious research. It probably still flies. I could still see the "Flying Cuisinart" close to ~1000' and that's the distance that my VTx signal starts breaking up due to its legal and limited signal strength. I had a dedicated 7 tv monitor Rx attached to my TX.

A couple of years a go a troubled enabled rich kid in CT mounted a semi-automatic to his home build and did a YouTube video of it firing off a couple of rounds. He was already known to PD. He got in a lot of State and Federal legal difficulties after that video. Another incident with this kid is while flying illegally in a State Park he got beat up by an agitated female who believed (erroneously) that he was "looking where he should not, called 911, and then she assaulted him while he was flying his drone. He actually videoed the assault from his drone. The officers once they saw his video arrested the woman.

It is a big no no to arm a drone. I think my current payload capacity is ~2#'s with all the added weight of stuff. There is a German web site that helps one determine component mix and performance of the selected components.

Not counting the RC helicopters lost/crashed/flew away I think that I've had 3 flyaway's, and wrecked 4 so badly they were beyond repair. The "Flying Cuisinart" has crashed and repaired so many times that I've lost count. It does a good job pruning trees.

I used a 12G Browning Pump shotgun to retrieve one of my errant drones. The tree grabbed it. I trisected the tree with 2 deer slugs and got my drone back unharmed.

Good stuff!!! Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with me!!!! If I have Drone questions in the future I'll look you up!!!!

 

[ovrszd]

Nice pictures, the one of your farm is that windmill still pumping water?
I didn't see any tanks close by.

Nope. When I was a kid my job was to go turn on the windmill to fill the stock tank and turn it off when done.

The Aeromotor head was completely worn out with most of the vanes missing. I removed it and built the vane that's up there now. It's simply a wind vane. There's an active well under it though. Drank a lot of water from that well. Thanks for asking Lou!!!

 

[ovrszd]

At any rate if I see a drone flying over my property within shotgun range that is not being operated by myself it may not make it back to it's owner.

And if it were my Drone I would say you were within your rights. If I'm flying over you without permission and close enough to shoot down with a shotgun I deserve it.

 

[ovrszd]

My neighbor just told me that the trees in my back yard next to the creek had eaten three of his drones.

I've crashed twice due to trees.

 

[ovrszd]

bunyip, I couldn't get your videos to play.

May be my computer.

 

[Jstpssng]

bunyip, I couldn't get your videos to play.

May be my computer.

They wouldn't play on mine either, I chalked it up to either my connection speed, aging computer, or most likely a combination of both.