Welcome, Autel Pilots!
Join our free Autel drone community today!
Join Us

Very close call caught on video...

Apollo11capcom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2019
Messages
309
Reaction score
115
Age
52
So I went out in the country today and flew around an old covered bridge and mill, trying out some filters and different settings (that's a whole different threads worth of issues), and on the way home I figured I'd try to track myself driving down the road. I just did this with fantastic results in the little village I was visiting, but out here in the country there was much more wind, and I was driving straight into it, meaning the Evo was battling the headwinds trying to keep up. Well, it wasn't able to and just kinda gave up, after which it started drifting over across the street, and well, the video tells the rest of the story. I am glad there wasn't any audio recording, I screamed like a girl while watching the camera view on the remote.

 
That's the first thing I thought, then I started to wonder if it didn't just glance off the landing gear, which i think is what happened... it definitely made contact.
Yeah it made contact that was close! The drone seemed like it did stop moving forward when it came close to the post.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apollo11capcom
UUUUFFFFF!! way too close for comfort, did you finally move it or did it climb by itself?
 
OMG.... I’ve been there, but it’s still painful to relive. Life takes some luck... OV wouldn’t necessarily see the power lines, would it?
 
Amazing video. Was a close one. My question is why did it start to drift left?

I had one close call with powerlines. Not with my Evo, but with my Air. I usually fly by myself and am totally focused on what I'm doing. The first time I went out with my youngest I was talking him through what I was doing and not paying close enough attention to the flying I was doing. I was setting up a shot in front of a school and was backing the drone up to get a better frame. After a beat my son says, "you just flew through the power lines." I looked and sure enough when I was backing up the drone went right through a set of power lines.
 
UUUUFFFFF!! way too close for comfort, did you finally move it or did it climb by itself?
No it pretty much just hovered after it drifted, but I'm pretty sure i hit pause as quickly as I could, so that may be why it stopped. Idk, it was kind of a blur.
 
OMG.... I’ve been there, but it’s still painful to relive. Life takes some luck... OV wouldn’t necessarily see the power lines, would it?
Im thinking no, with the angle of approach and how thin they are I wouldn't think so... but then again ive noticed it picking up things I would not have expected before.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HiloHawaiian
Amazing video. Was a close one. My question is why did it start to drift left?

I had one close call with powerlines. Not with my Evo, but with my Air. I usually fly by myself and am totally focused on what I'm doing. The first time I went out with my youngest I was talking him through what I was doing and not paying close enough attention to the flying I was doing. I was setting up a shot in front of a school and was backing the drone up to get a better frame. After a beat my son says, "you just flew through the power lines." I looked and sure enough when I was backing up the drone went right through a set of power lines.
The only thing I can guess is the wind, but even that shouldn't have done it, idk just a quirk with that particular scenario?
 
So I went out in the country today and flew around an old covered bridge and mill, trying out some filters and different settings (that's a whole different threads worth of issues), and on the way home I figured I'd try to track myself driving down the road. I just did this with fantastic results in the little village I was visiting, but out here in the country there was much more wind, and I was driving straight into it, meaning the Evo was battling the headwinds trying to keep up. Well, it wasn't able to and just kinda gave up, after which it started drifting over across the street, and well, the video tells the rest of the story. I am glad there wasn't any audio recording, I screamed like a girl while watching the camera view on the remote.



I am curious if there were any warnings in your flight logs? Not busting your chops for driving a car while flying your drone -- but when piloting and having the drone in the tracking mode -- you still have to pay attention and be able to take control of your aircraft.

I had a similar response from my EVO while actively piloting two weeks ago. While I was tracking a subject -- my drone behaved just like yours (but with) the notices on my screen indicating the EVO had lost the subject being tracked (my subject had a few things get in between the view of the drone and my subject as they moved around.) I think it tried to recapture the subject, but was real quick to simply give up and hover - at that point I simply took manual control as the drone stopped and hovered really close to a tree.

Also, it is possible the wind didn't help anything either in your experience you have shared.

It is possible the drone fell behind due to head-winds... and once it drifted by the power lines and then behind the power pole -- simply lost track of you. (But you also hit pause, which would stop the EVO ASAP and hover) So it is hard to say. When in tracking mode and it looses the subject -- it simply stops and hovers.

I know there are questions floating, questioning the ability of the EVO in windy scenarios. In my opinion -- it is not that great hovering depending on the gusts and speeds. It is already shown in several videos and noted from Autel that the wind can cause issues with drone speed/movement when avoidance sensors are activated in windy situations (especially in head-winds). In the videos seen -- turning off the sensors helped greatly - but defeats any purpose of Auto-flight modes.

I have also seen a few videos that show the drone being moved around quite a bit when it is hovering in gusty winds - as well as confirm mine acts the same. One thing to keep in mind here though is "stabilization" -- depending on how it is pushed around in the wind -- it may or may not be noticeable in recordings from the drone's camera. These are operating characteristics that have to be seen and learned by actively piloting your drone and keeping an eye on it physically.
 

Latest threads

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
11,229
Messages
102,660
Members
9,819
Latest member
sky3d