Dunked in the lake.........

[Blinky]

Went out to Lake Bennett for the Easter break hoping to get some good video and photos of the lake and family at play with the P4........it didn't end well........
First flight resulted in the bird getting close up and personal with the bottom of the lake......totally pilot error on a mission which should not have gone ahead.

Planned on launching from our pontoon but could not due to a shade-cloth roof so we went to a nice clear grassy area away from the bungalow. The flight plan was to launch and fly above the trees out to the water and commence filming. The launch went as planned, just as I was about to gain some altitude I noticed an eagle circling above. Mistake #1: I should have aborted the mission and waited for the eagle to leave. I continued on with the flight trying to keep just above the trees so as not to attract an eagle attack, all was going well until the drone flew out of sight and I was flying by the iPad screen. Mistake #2: I should not have lost sight of the bird when in close proximity to trees. Just out to the far edge of the screen I noticed a leafy branch, I immediately halted forward motion and wanted to rotate left to see how far away the branch was (I was still worried about the eagle circling above so didn't want to gain much altitude), instead of rotating I moved the copter to the left, within seconds I heard leaves being shredded and the screen flashing up warnings, the shredding stopped and I could hear the normal whirring, I thought maybe it had righted itself, until the shredding commenced again then an almighty splash! Mistake #3: Worrying too much about the eagle and not concentrating on the correct stick movements...........

Eyewitnesses say the aircraft drove straight into a very top branch, flipped over and fell onto branches below, at no stage righting itself, then flew into the water at the speed of a ballistic missile. It entered the water about 10 m away from our pontoon and was recovered within maybe 30 - 45 seconds, albeit the machine was completely submerged, still lit up until it was pulled from the water, then the lights went out........

I've had it in an air-conned room with a fan on for three days then in a box full of rice for another two days and now it and the battery (casing has been pulled off the camera and gimbal) are sitting out in the sun, which I'll repeat tomorrow and Friday I'll crank it up and see how things go.......

 

[spr22]

I hope it works out! I clipped a branch on April 1st and it landed in the water probably about 20-30 seconds under water. I took everything apart put it in a bin covered it with 40lbs of rice and let it sit for a week a full 7 days(that was tough!) but It worked! Bird seems to fly fine, maybe a little more shaky than before or maybe that's just me... I say keep it in the rice for a while, a couple days longer might make a difference, it might not but it might idk your call either way hope it works out!

 

[Blinky]

I hope it works out! I clipped a branch on April 1st and it landed in the water probably about 20-30 seconds under water. I took everything apart put it in a bin covered it with 40lbs of rice and let it sit for a week a full 7 days(that was tough!) but It worked! Bird seems to fly fine, maybe a little more shaky than before or maybe that's just me... I say keep it in the rice for a while, a couple days longer might make a difference, it might not but it might idk your call either way hope it works out!

I didn't cover mine in rice to that extent, I had it sitting up to about the underside of the arms but had not taken the any covers off. Being a desiccant I figured it would absorb moisture through the air...........

 

[Blinky]

Cranked the baby up last night, all the bells, whistles and lights kicked over, much to my surprise, did a quick launch and retrieve on the front lawn to make sure she was going to fly. I'll go down to the local park this arvo and put her through a full test flight.
Only issue I have is with the battery that got wet..........Battery Issue

 

[Blinky]

The bird performed perfectly during the test flight, ended up turfing the battery that got wet, it wouldn't charge and the lights continually flashed.........extremely happy with the end result. I was preparing to purchase a new aircraft but in the end it only cost me the price of the replacement battery........

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[edithouse]

Dunked mine a few months ago in a stream for about a minute. I knew the battery was immediately shot. Placed the P3P in a large shipping box with a hole cut for a hair dryer and did that for an hour, I thought the frame was going to melt it was so hot. the camera lens was fogged, so place the camera and most of the gimble in rice for a week. Amazingly, it's flying perfectly for months now and the images are great.