Keep Your Cool

[John Eiberger]

Since nobody has posted here yet - I'm going to kick this sub forum off with a personal FAIL that I learned so very much from.

It was the early days of the Phantom 2 and my early days flying. I hadn't cracked it open yet to add FPV to the mix. So my battery life indicator was a stopwatch and all my test/past flight info - with a margin of error added. Remember the ancient times of 2014?

I was filming for a cruise line in Vietnam out over the water in wind - final flight of the day. The P2 battery failsafe kicked in during the last moments of landing - JUST beyond the edge of the boat and the riggings.

When something goes wrong - keep your cool - follow your troubleshooting checklist - never give up. (Sounds like a 107 test question doesn't it?)

And maybe treat yourself after for doing so.

 

[AH-1G]

So, you're really a window peeper ehhh?
Good recovery, did you hit the home switch or did the bird decide to come alive?
What was your blood pressure and heart rate?
We are taught, fly the plane first, look for the nearest place to land then assess the situation when in emergency.

 

[John Eiberger]

So, you're really a window peeper ehhh?
Good recovery, did you hit the home switch or did the bird decide to come to live?
What was your blood pressure and heart rate?

First was home switch indeed! Then power off controller and count to 5 (the boat had a decent amount of radar and electronics so I thought maybe I just lost signal). Then finally I chose to give 100% UP a second try - which is the way to retake control during failsafe. I must only done 99% the first try.

My BP was a billion over a billion.

Ironic that the prop guards that caused all the drag on the battery life were also what saved it when I started contacting the boat on the way down.

 

[AH-1G]

Took a second look, nice to see the sun bathers at port side. Before that crew was nonchalantly having a boring time at the table then panic erupted

 

[John Eiberger]

Right? Those 4 crew are the ones who insisted I have a beer after!

ps - LOVE that image on your site of the 3 silos from above.

 

[AH-1G]

Right? Those 4 crew are the ones who insisted I have a beer after!

ps - LOVE that image on your site of the 3 silos from above.

thanks, thought I was going to get shot, literately! Some bad looking dudes drove out from there then got in my face wondering what in blank blank blank I'm doing, Kept my cool and promised them I would edit out their vehicles in Photoshop. My guess drug hide out?
This place is suppose to be abandoned.

 

[dpwarren]

Very nice recovery. I too have had some close calls (pilot errors) in my early days, but not man enough (yet) to post the videos for the world to see. Good job keeping her dry.

 

[Linval Ebanks]

Since nobody has posted here yet - I'm going to kick this sub forum off with a personal FAIL that I learned so very much from.

It was the early days of the Phantom 2 and my early days flying. I hadn't cracked it open yet to add FPV to the mix. So my battery life indicator was a stopwatch and all my test/past flight info - with a margin of error added. Remember the ancient times of 2014?

I was filming for a cruise line in Vietnam out over the water in wind - final flight of the day. The P2 battery failsafe kicked in during the last moments of landing - JUST beyond the edge of the boat and the riggings.

When something goes wrong - keep your cool - follow your troubleshooting checklist - never give up. (Sounds like a 107 test question doesn't it?)

And maybe treat yourself after for doing so.

 

[Linval Ebanks]

nice keeping your cool that was pretty close, great save

 

[txDroneCo]

My stomach drops when watching videos like these. I know the feeling!

 

[ArrUnTuS]

That feeling is never forgotten, apart from the fact that I think it is necessary to have a scare of them from time to time so that we are aware of what we are doing, to review emergency procedures and to be always attentive.

That knot in the stomach comes loose with beer? It's good to know

Thanks for sharing

 

[Mikemal]

Brilliant vid! You deserved the beer!

 

[Tim Jones]

great post.
Knowing what to do is the beginning
practicing it is even better
Mastering it reduces the instinctive panic

 

[Geo_in_KS]

Thanks for sharing! Ive had a couple mishaps, just recently, not even during my first flights.
So you use prop guards? Ive been thinking about installing them. At first I thought they're for beginners but Ive had to dig out spare props a couple times now.

 

[Mike Dasbach]

Wow, awesome recovery. It's hard to do, but in those situations, you have to keep your head and not panic. I had an incident filming my cousins house and trying to use active track to pan down as I went up, but set it on the side of the house instead of the top, so when I pushed the stick up the drone went back to keep focus and right into a tree. My first thought was get ready to catch it so it doesn't get too damaged from hitting the ground from about 50 ft up. It didn't fall so I calmly gave it forward and it flew out with only some green on the props. It seemed like it was in the tree about 5 minutes shredding leaves, but when I viewed the video it was only about 10 seconds.

 

[R.Perry]

So, you're really a window peeper ehhh?
Good recovery, did you hit the home switch or did the bird decide to come alive?
What was your blood pressure and heart rate?
We are taught, fly the plane first, look for the nearest place to land then assess the situation when in emergency.

I was flying with an ex Marine pilot one night and we were talking about night emergency landings, he said "Well the Marines taught me to wait until I'm about a hundred feet off the deck, turn on all my lights, if I don't like what I see, turn them off."

Marine logic.

 

[Rodger]

Since nobody has posted here yet - I'm going to kick this sub forum off with a personal FAIL that I learned so very much from.

It was the early days of the Phantom 2 and my early days flying. I hadn't cracked it open yet to add FPV to the mix. So my battery life indicator was a stopwatch and all my test/past flight info - with a margin of error added. Remember the ancient times of 2014?

I was filming for a cruise line in Vietnam out over the water in wind - final flight of the day. The P2 battery failsafe kicked in during the last moments of landing - JUST beyond the edge of the boat and the riggings.

When something goes wrong - keep your cool - follow your troubleshooting checklist - never give up. (Sounds like a 107 test question doesn't it?)

And maybe treat yourself after for doing so.

Great save. It is easy to say don't panic and thetas very true indeed. The only way not to panic is to practice and more practice. I spend a lot of time in a very large open field flying in large circles developing my muscle memory. Instead of that sinking feeling when things go astray I now react instinctively. I bet you had more than one cocktail