1st Close Encounter with a Thunderstorm

QuadKid · Jul 16, 2018

Well it was inevitable, out flying yesterday afternoon, Anafi was around 1200 meters out, sudden thunderstorm between me and the drone, tried getting her back, switched to sport mode with around 38% battery left, wind was blowing a solid 35-40 MPH headwind to the drone. At 8% battery I knew it wasn't going to make it back

. Found the closest safe landing spot, just happened to be on a flat roof atop a local movie theater. Landed it safely but of course the theater was closed (Southern Sunday Thing). So it sat overnight, got rained on for about 20 minutes, nothing I could do until this morning. Went to the Theater around 9AM, the maintenance guy was kind enough to take me up on the roof, retrieved the drone, tipped the guy 20 bucks (Nice Lunch). Inspected the drone as soon as I got to the car, not a scratch on it, remove the battery, all seemed dry ! Amazing ! Got home and plugged the battery in to charge, it did a hard reset on it's own, been on the charger now for 3 hours 45 minutes - 2 solid green 3rd flashing

, checked the SD Card on my PC, all is good, formatted it. Got the drone in a bucket of rice with a few Silica Desiccant Bags, since 10 am this morning just in case there is some moisture. If this thing makes it through this I will be very impressed as far as it's durability to the environment, it sat wet for over 18 hours on that roof!

HiloHawaiian · Jul 16, 2018

That’s amazing. My Autel XSP stayed up in a tree near a waterfall for 2 days/nights with significant rain. Battery was dead, but upon retrieving it, I dried it overnight, charged the battery, and had no issues. Good luck!

AnafiPilot · Jul 16, 2018

Here's hoping all is well!

QuadKid · Jul 17, 2018

Well it took almost 6 hours to fully charge the battery from 0%. Fired everything up, drone cycled as usual, power on / power off as it should, all looks to be fine, camera working, SD card functional, all setting present in the App. Will take it out this morning to make sure it flies the way it should. Amazing, so far so good

QuadKid · Jul 17, 2018

Well happy to report, took the little Bug out for an 18 minute flight this morning, everything worked great, Good GPS lock & GPS signal, camera & gimbal function normal, video & still quality normal, all flight controls functioned normal so I can officially say SHE SURVIVED her first battle with a storm, 18 hours on an open rooftop with intermittent rain and blazing sun, battery drain to absolute 0%. Absolutely tough little insect inspired drone, think I just nicknamed it THE ROACH !!