Okay, so since Kev 'fessed up to some less-than-brilliant thinking, I reckon I ought to as well. Now I AM a complete noob to these things, but what I did tonight was pretty stupid. LOL
I've had my P4 now for five days, and I have a whopping 4 hours or so of flying time. Yesterday I took it out for some basic familiarization. Today I flew for another couple of hours, doing more basic stuff...figure 8s, guiding the drone around the track, doing fly bys, flying between the uprights on the goal posts. That might have gotten me a little cocky. I decided this evening I would launch from my back porch, go through a relatively narrow gap between the trees, get some video of the neighborhood and come back. All was going well until I started coming back.
As you all know, this drone has front-facing collision avoidance sensors, and sensors that face down to judge how close it is to the ground. Keep that in mind. LOL As I brought the drone in over the porch railing, it appeared to be drifting backwards into the slats on the railing. Not sure if it was me giving bad stick inputs, or perhaps I was trying to land it too close to where I was sitting and the sensors kept telling the drone to back up a bit. Whatever the cause, I try to set the drone down fast before it hits the slats.
Well, it comes down at an angle, tips over and falls INTO the slats, immediately stopping the propellers from spinning. I push the left stick down, which under normal circumstances turns off the motors, and reach out to grab one of the skids to set the drone upright.
Remember the downward facing sensors? Well, they are not facing down. So the drone thinks I'm telling it "Get down FAST!!!". The minute the props clear the slats......
Good news is the drone appears to be intact. After I put some gauze on my arm, I fired everything back up to do a system check. Seems good-to-go. Then I went to the Urgent Care for a more professional dressing than paper towels and Scotch tape. That one kinda ugly one with the meat hanging on it....that's gonna scar. LOL The video should be pretty good.
I've had my P4 now for five days, and I have a whopping 4 hours or so of flying time. Yesterday I took it out for some basic familiarization. Today I flew for another couple of hours, doing more basic stuff...figure 8s, guiding the drone around the track, doing fly bys, flying between the uprights on the goal posts. That might have gotten me a little cocky. I decided this evening I would launch from my back porch, go through a relatively narrow gap between the trees, get some video of the neighborhood and come back. All was going well until I started coming back.
As you all know, this drone has front-facing collision avoidance sensors, and sensors that face down to judge how close it is to the ground. Keep that in mind. LOL As I brought the drone in over the porch railing, it appeared to be drifting backwards into the slats on the railing. Not sure if it was me giving bad stick inputs, or perhaps I was trying to land it too close to where I was sitting and the sensors kept telling the drone to back up a bit. Whatever the cause, I try to set the drone down fast before it hits the slats.
Well, it comes down at an angle, tips over and falls INTO the slats, immediately stopping the propellers from spinning. I push the left stick down, which under normal circumstances turns off the motors, and reach out to grab one of the skids to set the drone upright.
Remember the downward facing sensors? Well, they are not facing down. So the drone thinks I'm telling it "Get down FAST!!!". The minute the props clear the slats......
Good news is the drone appears to be intact. After I put some gauze on my arm, I fired everything back up to do a system check. Seems good-to-go. Then I went to the Urgent Care for a more professional dressing than paper towels and Scotch tape. That one kinda ugly one with the meat hanging on it....that's gonna scar. LOL The video should be pretty good.
