Almost crashed my Evo today.

[Ansia]

Like the title says. I was doing an inspection today and DJI decided not to text me the unlocking code to fly in an Authorization Area. Since I was being lazy and didn't feel like turning on the laptop to do it via the web browser, I decided to use my Evo. BIG MISTAKE.

I knew I was flying in a wind tunnel and that I had to have 20 eyes between my screen and the drone. I've done this flight many times with my Phantom and no issues have ever happened. Surely enough, while I was looking at my screen to take a photo, I noticed that my drone was going backwards quickly without any input. When I looked up, it was about 2' from the building that was behind it. I quickly pressed pitch forward to maximum speed in the hopes it would regain it's position. At the beginning, the drone wasn't responding, since the gust of wind superseded the maximum capacity of 22mph of the Evo motors. After what it felt like a million hours struggling not to crash, the wind died down and the Evo went full speed ahead against the building I was photographing. I had to put the breaks and pitch backwards at full speed and to my luck, the wind came back. I did this dance around 3 or 4 times, before I regained full control and decided to land and rest a few minutes.

After I rested and placed my heart back in my chest, I decided to try again in Ludicrous mode and completed my mission.

Just wanted to share my experiences with you guys.

 

[macoman]

Wow, what experience man... I bring my Evo to my job when the right weather come. I had never fly on over 12mph winds... My ideal condition is when the winds is less than 10mph... You have the luck of a god. That was really close in losing the aircraft.

 

[Ansia]

Lots of practice prepares you for these kind of events. If I was a newbie pilots, I would have panicked and crashed. You have to get out of your comfort zone and push the limit if you want to improve.

I am not saying go out now and fly in hard winds. Go someplace open that has a bit stronger winds than you usually fly in and practice different scenarios. If you ever pick up jobs as drone pilot, you don’t get to choose the weather or location on the contract date. Only times I say no are when I am asked to fly in NFZ and rain.

I knew the risks involved and proceeded to do it anyways. I always fly with the possibility of worst case scenario in mind. If it can happen, it will happen to me.??

 

[Trox]

I hate Pucker Factors that exceed 5 out of 10. I guess yours was in the upper end of the scale on that flight.

This is probably the best example to encourage new, and I mean brand new pilots that have never flown before to start with an inexpensive non-GPS, non-FPV drone and learn to fly by the seat of your pant. Learning hand/eye coordination, muscle memory motor skills, aircraft orientation response, and fast thinking in unexpected scenarios like wind effects, pilot error creating a problem, or equipment failure will go a long way in keeping your high tech drone in the sky.

Ansia you get a Gold Star for making the highlight reel for "Play of the Day." LOL

 

[SJC]

Agree, pushing the envelope a little bit at a time allows you to know what will happen to drone in various scenarios. So when a situation presents itself I'm not surprised and can react not think what's going on