River Murray floods - Mannum, South Australia, 15 December 2022

[speagles2]

I guess there are still a few of us left enjoying flying the Anafi...

Floodwaters rising at Mannum in South Australia as the river Murray experiences a 1-in-50-year flood event.

You can see in the video how windy it was on the day. The Anafi did really well, but I was getting constant high wind warnings on the app, especially high above the river. In the end I think it threw in the towel and initiated an auto-land while it was over the river, which had me scrambling to get it back to solid ground - after which I decided that was enough for one day

 

[Liger 1956]

Well done for being brave and flying over the water. I am glad that it all turned out good in the end and that the Anafi survived.

 

[Bebop2 burt]

Great video really enjoyed that thank you for sharing

 

[speagles2]

Thanks all - and yes, I enjoy flying over water but it does make for some nervous moments, especially when it's windy!

I returned to Mannum nine days later, early in the morning on Christmas Eve, and took a few more shots as the floodwaters continued to rise. It was a lot calmer then so much more relaxing flying, and nice morning light. I'll upload another video shortly.

 

[Bebop2 burt]

Excellent look forward to seeing it

 

[DaveN]

I was leery about flying over water when I started. Then I did a couple of flights over water and enjoyed it until… my last flight when my Anafi decided to go for a swim. Keep up the good work.

 

[speagles2]

I was leery about flying over water when I started. Then I did a couple of flights over water and enjoyed it until… my last flight when my Anafi decided to go for a swim. Keep up the good work.

:-( Sorry to hear that. Yeah, every time I do it I steel myself for the possibility that it could end badly... so far I've been lucky, but I'm very aware that it's a fragile web of complicated software and hardware that's keeping the thing in the air and there are any number of things that could go wrong at any time.

Still, we have these things because we want to use and enjoy them, so I'm willing to accept some level of risk. I might think differently when the inevitable happens, though :-/

 

[DaveN]

:-( Sorry to hear that. Yeah, every time I do it I steel myself for the possibility that it could end badly... so far I've been lucky, but I'm very aware that it's a fragile web of complicated software and hardware that's keeping the thing in the air and there are any number of things that could go wrong at any time.

Still, we have these things because we want to use and enjoy them, so I'm willing to accept some level of risk. I might think differently when the inevitable happens, though :-/

Thanks. It was a surreal situation. I was taking photos, panning a little, taking another photo, etc, when it became unresponsive. I thought it was catching up on the photos before moving to the next pan position but then it became completely unresponsive. I looked up just in time and watched it nose dive into the water. Oh well. At least I wasn’t on the aircraft when it crashed! I was going to get a replacement but never did.