It started as a lovely day for a drone flight over Loch Leven in Scotland. The weather was calm and overcast. Perfect for flying and photography and within minutes it turned into a disaster.
It was the 13th March 2022 and we were on a tour of Scotland. It had been a brilliant trip so far but now things took a turn to the surreal.
I got the drone up and sent it out over the lake after doing some safety checks on the controls. Everything seemed nominal and so I sent the drone down the lake.
I was getting some great cinematic video footage and was focussed on the scenery rather than on the direction of the drone. I had figured. "What could possible go wrong?" I'm over water away from any people or livestock. This is brilliant.
As I turned the drone to come back down the lake to film the mountains at the other end of the lake I had lost visual line of sight (VLOS) which means I could no longer see the drone. It was a disaster. I'm about to lose a Β£300 ($400) drone into the depths of Loch Leven.
The drone was pretty high up as you can see from the photo below so I just let go of the joystick controls and let it hover in place while I figured out what to do?
I must admit at this point a little panic set in and I basically forgot what to do. My first reaction was to bring the drone down so that I could at least maybe see it again.
I began to descend the drone as you can see in the low angle of the image below.
The waves are easily visible and I forgot that the altitude I was on was different to the altitude of the drone. I was about 8 feet above lake level. The DJI Mini SE has a ground facing sensor and luckily for me it must have detected the water and stopped automatically and hovered in place.
I had completely forgotten the most basic things to check in my slightly panicked mode and I'm sure plenty of you drone pilots out there are screaming at your screens right now. Telemetry, Telemetry, Telemetry!
In the image below is where the drone 'actually' was and I was looking in the opposite direction completely?
Some how I had managed to fly the drone right past where I was standing and hadn't noticed. The clock was ticking and the battery was getting low.
When the battery gets to a certain level the drone will return to it's take off starting point...again something that I had forgotten?
Another thing that I forgot was that on the controller is a direction indicator (telemetry) which shows which direction the drone is facing.
All rookie mistakes I know but in my defence I'd only had this drone a month at the time and wasn't used to such an advanced drone with all it's safety features. Even though I had test flown it a few times I was not very familiar with it's functionality.
I was operating on gut instinct at this point and with a bit of luck my little granddaughter Aiya spotted the drone and pointed and shouted out excitedly "it's over there". Which we all ignored to our shame. We were still panicking and told her to shush! lol
The video is quite funny as well as dramatic.
Aiya persisted and eventually got my attention. I looked in the direction she was pointing and still couldn't see the drone but as I gimbaled the camera up I saw myself coming into view standing on the lakeside bank.
The drone was in a location completely different to where I thought it was?
I started the drone back towards the shore and as it approached at speed I realised it was to low and may plough into the lakeside bank. I pulled it up higher and brought it back in.
This was the point below when I reaquired the drone visually.
I brought the drone in for a safe landing and was super relieved that we got it back safely thanks to Aiya's great eyesight.
Disaster averted I thought about it for quite some time. I had completed all the civil aviation tests and am a qualified drone pilot. I have all the theoretical knowledge but nothing prepares you for when things go wrong.
Fortunately DJI drones have so many safety features that I should have trusted that the drone would protect itself and return to it's take off position regardless of operator failure.
The reason most drones are lost is because operators interfere with the drones built in safety systems.
I'll leave you with a final shot of Loch Leven. Which photo do you like the best and did you enjoy the story?
Thank You Aiya ππ and thank you for reading.
I remember a few of those heart flutters when I first started using my FPV goggles and lost LOS and got turned around a bit. Or a few times with the early goggles that had a glitch with Mavic 2 and would lose their signal just a short distance out. I found it great practice after that to practice using the little map screen to backtrack or check direction. I'll also sometimes engage RTH manually and then turn it back off. A final trick is to just gun it and watch the distance counter to see if it's getting farther or closer... That saved me a couple times when I (or my spotter) lost sight.
I completely forgot about RTH and the direction indicator as my butt was making buttons lol.
In hindsight it was perfectly fine as the drone would have returned to its take off position with no input from me. Just a dumb set of rookie mistakes.
At least I had the good sense to let go of the controller and let it hover in place while we tried to figure out where it was?
Lessons learned it won't happen again. Probably make another load of new mistakes? π€¦ββοΈπππΌ
That as a bit of a drama. Good to hear you got it back in the end. These things seem to be pretty smart, but the pilot needs to be too ;)
The pilot needs to calm the feck down lol It was a proper freak out moment although looking at the video you wouldn't think so. I appear calm and collected haha. I'll edit the video at some point. I'm working on some original music to put on the video.
They are pretty smart drones and will basically look after themselves if left alone! π€¦ββοΈπ
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Cool shots. I would love to visit there one day.
Scotland is breathtakingly beautiful. If you get the chance to visit I highly recommend it.
I'll be going back up there for sure.
It is a completely different country. I know that sounds daft but trust me it is majestically epic.
Is there a physical return to home button on the controller of the SE? The range / connection is notoriously poor as there is no Occusync.
I would have shat myself if that happened but luckily no one was around!
Yep there is a return to home button on the controller but in my panic I forgot just about everything π€¦ββοΈπ
The drone was about 150 metres away and the signal was fine...I just couldn't see the drone.
Grey drone on a greyish water background it just blended in. Stealthy lol
I've flown it out to 500 metres in earlier test flights and it was okay. Beyond 500 metres I wouldn't risk it.
Correct it has no occusync which is fine for what I use the drone for. I like to be able to see it at all times to avoid bird attacks which happens occasionally.
I feel you! I still think it's terrifying to fly my drone! So much money there in the air! I also flew my drone over Log Leven back in 2019, I took a stunning picture there during sunset!
Wow that is a great photo with the cloud reflecting in the lake. It's a beautiful place and perfect for drone footage and photos.
Thanks for sharing your photos. Do you post in the drone community?
No I didn't post it there! I think it's already in a travel or photography community. But I will make some drone post later on. I have so many pictures!
Cool I'll look forward to your future posts ππΌ
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