Keep Your Cool

John Eiberger · Jan 15, 2018

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 · Jan 15, 2018

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 · Jan 15, 2018

AH-1G said:
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 · Jan 15, 2018

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 · Jan 15, 2018

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 · Jan 15, 2018

John Eiberger said:
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 · Jan 15, 2018

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 · Jan 15, 2018

John Eiberger said:
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 · Jan 15, 2018

nice keeping your cool that was pretty close, great save

txDroneCo · Jan 16, 2018

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

ArrUnTuS · Jan 16, 2018

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 · Jan 20, 2018

Brilliant vid! You deserved the beer!

Tim Jones · Jan 21, 2018

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

Geo_in_KS · Jan 24, 2018

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 · Jan 26, 2018

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 · Jan 29, 2018

AH-1G said:
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 · Feb 11, 2018

John Eiberger said:
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