I am not sure if you have seen this video (scroll down). It is a wake-up call for all drone pilots. This poor lady crashed an Inspire into the side of a boat and then into the sea. I posted this on the Phantom Filmschool Facebook Group and I got reactions from many students. some of the students are seasoned sailors and gave good advice for trying to land on a boat. The main moral of the story for me is not following basics. and by that I mean ALWAYS taking off and landing in forward orientation and not reverse orientation. It is obvious to me in this video that this pilot would have had a much better chance of a safe landing if she was flying in forward orientation. The reason for this is simple. When landing your drone manually your brain is managing many things. Wind, weather conditions, bystanders and the noise of the drone and its proximity to you can increase your adrenal levels. Then add a moving boat and an expensive drone into the picture and adrenal levels go right up. Then do this in reverse and your brain is just about overloaded. By landing facing forwards this would have been tricky but doable. As always keep it simple and practice the basics so when you panic you have rehearsed what to do Happy flying Laurence
8 Comments
5/19/2017 09:16:50 am
This is so sad, not only is the Inspire a more difficult drone, but trying to land on a rocking boat. Im no expert but this is not how to try and land a drone on a boat. Learn to fly first and get comfortable with all orientations of flight. Such a shame to see such a nice drone go into the drink. Hopefully she learnt her lesson, learn to fly on land first.
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John
5/19/2017 10:48:48 am
It looks like a total lack of experience! Unless that boat was really moving fast and in rough seas, their is no excuse for what happened.
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Max
5/19/2017 11:02:46 am
Operator error I'm afraid.
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5/19/2017 01:24:49 pm
Its obviously that she had extreme problems with flying with the "nose" of the drone to herself. If its windy I always turn the drone to have it faceing away from me. Its much easier to react right when some unexpected happens... but lets say thank you to her to learn this lesson without dropping our drone. ;)
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Charles Merkel
10/2/2017 04:57:11 pm
Fundamental RC flying. Try to put yourself in the pilot's seat. This situation is hopeless if you are trying to react in the opposite direction . Bitter lesson...
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Carlos
5/19/2017 09:28:09 pm
I have seen worst. More plastic added to the sea. Hopefully today she is a better pilot. I have crashed 2 times and know the hurt.
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Dave
7/24/2017 09:30:12 am
Newbie question: why wouldn't the "return to home" button have been useful here? Or maybe it's because she was on a moving boat without a GPS enabled controller?
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Laurence Seberini
7/25/2017 12:30:57 am
Because the position of the boat would have moved and RTH would send it somewhere else
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AuthorI am the founder of the online series of courses called Phantom Filmschool Archives
May 2018
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