- Joined
- Apr 23, 2019
- Messages
- 145
- Reaction score
- 61
- Location
- Cheshire, England
- Website
- www.youtube.com
This morning one of my Anafis came down short on an emergency RTH. I managed to get myself into a position to see it begin to descend. This was extremely lucky as there didn't appear to be any connection back to my phone. It was about 300 metres away, too far away for anybody who didn't know what to look for to identify it as a drone at all. I myself couldn't identify it as my drone except for the fact that the little grey speck was exactly on the return flight path and moving at the speed I was expecting. The problem was that it was moving DOWN, not towards me. There was no contact on my phone but I thought I might as well at least try to control it. The only thing I could do was to try to coax it forward, closer to me, and as I judged it clear of the tree it was perilously close to. It was obvious that it wasn't going to make it significantly further but I could see it pass in front of the tree. Great, it won't be in the tree, that will do, I could now let it come down near the tree. Using the last milliamps to take it further from the tree at the risk of running out of power and falling out of the sky would be silly so I let it float down and land. I then had to go and find it.
It was in a field. Good. But it wasn't the field I was in or a field I should be in. Not so good. I didn't have time to do anything other than to go there and see if I could find it before anybody else did or before it lost the last traces of battery power or before a cow stood on it. It is a lot easier to find a drone that is still powered up, even if it on the dregs of its battery. I drove around to a place I knew I could get closer to it, to the edge of the field it was in. I then deployed my other Anafi on a rescue mission!
This wasn't quite as successful as I hoped. I couldn't find it. The grass was quite tussocky and decorated with cowpats, but at least there were no animals in the field at that moment. The next generation of drones should have adaptive squid camouflage, sky coloured when you want them not to be spotted and bright pulsating reds and oranges when they are in trouble or have crashed. Looking at the video now on my big screen I did spot it in the grass, but I didn't at the time. At one point the searching Anafi must have been within two metres of the downed Anafi, that is one metre above and no more than one metre away! Anyway, Plan A didn't work so I decided that I just had to get in the field and line myself up between the tree (it was that one, or was it that one?) and the spot that I had seen it come down from. I checked the Wi-Fi that my phone could receive, no sign of the Anafi from outside the field, that wasn't a surprise as I expected the Anafi would be in the grass, very close to the ground.
I looked at my phone and it was telling me where my Anafi was last seen! Great! I just needed to get myself to that position. The Google Maps map looked good, this was very close. Of course it was very close, it was reporting where the rescuing Anafi was last seen. But not quite, it was a few metres off, further into the field in what looked like a very credible position for the lost Anafi.
A waste of time. The downed Anafi would be losing power. Fortunately, I was now in the field when I checked my Wi-Fi status again and this time YES! I could see a signal labelled ANAFI. The signal was faint but it was still alive. I walked in what I thought would be the right direction and looked at the signal again, it was stronger! I checked one last time to line myself up between the tree and my observation position and I walked closer to the tree ... and there it was! I scooped it up, kissed it, as is traditional, and got myself out of the field again before I was challenged on what I was doing.
Despite it being really early in the morning I was dripping in sweat, probably far more from nervousness than exertion.
Lesson learned, don't attempt to do a 360-degree Panorama at a distance and at less than 45% battery level.
If I hadn't have found it within a couple of minutes I would have tried the last approach of connecting up the controller again (I was carrying the controller for the downed Anafi) and seeing if I could see anything from the camera or make it start-up in any way. By rebooting the app and the controller there is a good chance that a new connection could be made. If my phone could see the signal the controller would most likely have a much better contact because it hasn't been designed to pretend that it doesn't need an antenna at all to make a radio connection.
I have previous experience of finding a downed drone using the Anafi but that was my Alpine White Mavic Pro, white things are much easier to find in the grass than spindly dark grey things. Indeed it was the white eyeball of the camera that I spotted on the downed Anafi this morning. The dark grey of the body and arms just doesn't show up well on the ground.
It was in a field. Good. But it wasn't the field I was in or a field I should be in. Not so good. I didn't have time to do anything other than to go there and see if I could find it before anybody else did or before it lost the last traces of battery power or before a cow stood on it. It is a lot easier to find a drone that is still powered up, even if it on the dregs of its battery. I drove around to a place I knew I could get closer to it, to the edge of the field it was in. I then deployed my other Anafi on a rescue mission!
This wasn't quite as successful as I hoped. I couldn't find it. The grass was quite tussocky and decorated with cowpats, but at least there were no animals in the field at that moment. The next generation of drones should have adaptive squid camouflage, sky coloured when you want them not to be spotted and bright pulsating reds and oranges when they are in trouble or have crashed. Looking at the video now on my big screen I did spot it in the grass, but I didn't at the time. At one point the searching Anafi must have been within two metres of the downed Anafi, that is one metre above and no more than one metre away! Anyway, Plan A didn't work so I decided that I just had to get in the field and line myself up between the tree (it was that one, or was it that one?) and the spot that I had seen it come down from. I checked the Wi-Fi that my phone could receive, no sign of the Anafi from outside the field, that wasn't a surprise as I expected the Anafi would be in the grass, very close to the ground.
I looked at my phone and it was telling me where my Anafi was last seen! Great! I just needed to get myself to that position. The Google Maps map looked good, this was very close. Of course it was very close, it was reporting where the rescuing Anafi was last seen. But not quite, it was a few metres off, further into the field in what looked like a very credible position for the lost Anafi.
A waste of time. The downed Anafi would be losing power. Fortunately, I was now in the field when I checked my Wi-Fi status again and this time YES! I could see a signal labelled ANAFI. The signal was faint but it was still alive. I walked in what I thought would be the right direction and looked at the signal again, it was stronger! I checked one last time to line myself up between the tree and my observation position and I walked closer to the tree ... and there it was! I scooped it up, kissed it, as is traditional, and got myself out of the field again before I was challenged on what I was doing.Despite it being really early in the morning I was dripping in sweat, probably far more from nervousness than exertion.
Lesson learned, don't attempt to do a 360-degree Panorama at a distance and at less than 45% battery level.
If I hadn't have found it within a couple of minutes I would have tried the last approach of connecting up the controller again (I was carrying the controller for the downed Anafi) and seeing if I could see anything from the camera or make it start-up in any way. By rebooting the app and the controller there is a good chance that a new connection could be made. If my phone could see the signal the controller would most likely have a much better contact because it hasn't been designed to pretend that it doesn't need an antenna at all to make a radio connection.
I have previous experience of finding a downed drone using the Anafi but that was my Alpine White Mavic Pro, white things are much easier to find in the grass than spindly dark grey things. Indeed it was the white eyeball of the camera that I spotted on the downed Anafi this morning. The dark grey of the body and arms just doesn't show up well on the ground.
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