I've read several stories of water crashes and as much as I fly over water, I figured it was a matter of time before I went in. But there were some interesting parts to this story.
First, not sure who else does this, but when I take off for the first time, I keep the P2V close and low. For a little while (30-90 seconds) it wants to drift, usually back and to the right. I keep correcting it and after a minute or so it stabilizes and does a perfect hover. THEN I fly it up and out. This has served me well for months and it has been flying great.
Yesterday I was doing a simple flight, less than 100' and light winds. I was setting up for a shot above our narrow city dock about 80' and noticed my P2V doing wide, lazy circles. I decided to bring it down and see what was up and as it got closer to me and about 20' up, it did a hard left and splashed right into the water.
It took me about 20 minutes to fish it out and I immediately took the battery out (I learned that as a salvage boat captain) and rinsed everything with fresh water. Then I took it home. I set my P2V in front of a fan and took the battery outside to the patio to dry.
An hour later I look out the window of my office and see smoke rising from my patio. The battery was burning and actually had a flame coming out of the hole on the side.
I've let the bird dry out for about 24 hours and took it down to an open field near my house. Results; it powered up and in about a minute I had green lights. However, I got no wifi signal so no other system data. I decided to try a short flight since I had green lights and powered up the motors. Three of the four motors worked, and one struggled and then gave up.
I'll check the wiring but I may be out just one motor. I'd bet that camera is toast.
I've been thinking about lessons learned on this.
1) Treat the battery as a dangerous object after a crash, especially a water submersion.
2) If flying near water, bring it over land before trying to land it.
3) Finish doing the research on a P2V lifejacket that I started earlier. (This bird sank like a rock. And the water was about 8' deep and calm. If there hadn't been bubbles for me to reference, I never would have found it.)
What did I miss? What else should I learn from this? I hope the P2V+ has a sturdier camera….
First, not sure who else does this, but when I take off for the first time, I keep the P2V close and low. For a little while (30-90 seconds) it wants to drift, usually back and to the right. I keep correcting it and after a minute or so it stabilizes and does a perfect hover. THEN I fly it up and out. This has served me well for months and it has been flying great.
Yesterday I was doing a simple flight, less than 100' and light winds. I was setting up for a shot above our narrow city dock about 80' and noticed my P2V doing wide, lazy circles. I decided to bring it down and see what was up and as it got closer to me and about 20' up, it did a hard left and splashed right into the water.
It took me about 20 minutes to fish it out and I immediately took the battery out (I learned that as a salvage boat captain) and rinsed everything with fresh water. Then I took it home. I set my P2V in front of a fan and took the battery outside to the patio to dry.
An hour later I look out the window of my office and see smoke rising from my patio. The battery was burning and actually had a flame coming out of the hole on the side.
I've let the bird dry out for about 24 hours and took it down to an open field near my house. Results; it powered up and in about a minute I had green lights. However, I got no wifi signal so no other system data. I decided to try a short flight since I had green lights and powered up the motors. Three of the four motors worked, and one struggled and then gave up.
I'll check the wiring but I may be out just one motor. I'd bet that camera is toast.
I've been thinking about lessons learned on this.
1) Treat the battery as a dangerous object after a crash, especially a water submersion.
2) If flying near water, bring it over land before trying to land it.
3) Finish doing the research on a P2V lifejacket that I started earlier. (This bird sank like a rock. And the water was about 8' deep and calm. If there hadn't been bubbles for me to reference, I never would have found it.)
What did I miss? What else should I learn from this? I hope the P2V+ has a sturdier camera….
