Don't Make My Mistake

[JayaTheCat]

Essentially, flying too far.

I was up visiting my folks in beautiful Kamiah, ID. Drove up to the grade overlooking the small town and flew. Too far.

Hit self-level, tried to back it up to me, but it just kept drifting. I had a small tailwind, which didn't help. Lost sight of it. Hit full throttle to try to bring it up to the horizon to contrast it against the sky, as it was below me. Nothing. Killed the throttle and went for a 4 hour walk on someone's farm (I had permission).

I don't know what exactly happens when a receiver loses the signal, so if it just kept going then it's really gone, likely clear across the valley. I was using a dx6i w/ an AR6200 receiver, minus the satellite receiver, as the wires wore out and I hadn't replaced it. Anyone know what happens when a signal is lost?

Luckily, I doubt anyone was hurt (haven't heard yet but word travels fast in a small town). Very rural area.

The worst part? Lost a GoPro. First gen, so it could have been worse. Oh well. Lesson learned.

 

[Ak Flyer]

My Condolences

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Google Spektrum Failsafe, it's a setting that kicks in when the receiver is still powered up, but it looses signal from the transmitter. For instance on a plane, it might be 1/4 throttle, partial left rudder and partial up elevator so that if the plane lost signal, it would set into a powered banking turn that would hopefully cause it to "loiter" until you could reach it, or until the battery died and it slowly made it's way to the ground. Or you could put in less throttle and have it descend more quickly to reduce the chance of the wind pushing it further away.

 

[JayaTheCat]

I was too dumb to ever set a fail-safe. I figured that was only needed for FPV. I tried to find what the default fail safe was and it seems to be, at least on the AR6200, "hold last position", which is set during the binding process and the throttle is the only thing that can be set to a certain position if the signal is lost. Either way, whenever I bound anything, throttle was at 0, everything else neutral. So, from where I lost sight of it over the valley, it fell from at least 600ft. Even if it was found, I have a feeling everything would be pretty demolished. GoPro had no case. I keep replaying the image of when I last saw it.

It's pretty dang painful haha.

 

[JayaTheCat]

My Condolences

Thank you sir.

 

[aiidanwings]

I wonder... I've seen GPS tracking devices around $20 or so on the net. I'm curious if any of these work. If so, it might not be a bad investment. Years ago, I lost a TopFlite model. It took off under full power and went straight to the horizon. The speed it was flying, and a full tank of gas, it literally could have landed in another state. It was a nice plane too.

 

[Ak Flyer]

Ouch, that hurts. I hate to imagine the havoc when things like that find the ground again.

 

[Rcorreia]

Lol the same thing happened to me but I found my quad after half an hour. This is the video I captured.

 

[Anthemius]

Wooo !! i really don't want that happends to me.. fine that you find hem back

 

[JayaTheCat]

I wonder... I've seen GPS tracking devices around $20 or so on the net. I'm curious if any of these work. If so, it might not be a bad investment. Years ago, I lost a TopFlite model. It took off under full power and went straight to the horizon. The speed it was flying, and a full tank of gas, it literally could have landed in another state. It was a nice plane too.

Yeah, I'm definitely considering a tracking device of some sort. My Uncle puts them on his hunting dogs, but the ones he uses are $200+. Anything to tell you the general direction/distance would be great though, doesn't need to be fancy.

I'm looking for FPV gear now. Ordered the parts to rebuild a tri, but the dang KK2 cards are backordered. I'm having withdrawals. The tri was the funnest thing to fly!

 

[JayaTheCat]

Lol the same thing happened to me but I found my quad after half an hour.

Wow, you were pretty far out. Glad you found it man. I went out again yesterday, but had no luck.