I’m traveling out of state, and heard about a fantastic waterfall nearby. I scoped it out online USDA forest, seemed clear to fly.
I headed out early in the morning and hit an overlook for the falls right around golden hour. The sun was perfect, right behind me. The weather was perfect. The only concern, was that the drone was in a narrow canyon and LOS could be partially obscured by trees if I wasn’t careful. I had a great flat and open landing area, not a soul to be found, I went ahead and put the drone up in the air. I carefull navigated the drone over the tree tops, and down... down.... down.... into the canyon several hundred feet below.
The pictures and video looked fine, but I was keeping my eye on the GPS signal. I also oriented my camera down, to make sure as I was descending into the canyon, I wouldn’t descend unexpectdly into a tree. While GPS was green at the top where I was standing, it was yellow bordering on red near the falls. Given the distance, I was also very cautious about hitting any obstructions.
Actually, all in all, the flight was going rather smooth, there was only one seemingly minor but major issue. In shifting my attention between the remote and drone... I lost sight of the drone!
I knew roughly where it was, I knew which way it was oriented, but the trees on the other side of the canyon camouflaged it from my view. Try as I might, I could not locate the drone.
No problem, I thought, I will just pull up on the altitude and scan for it against the sky. My remote sounded off “maximum altitude reached”. I move the drone back and forth, I still couldn’t find it. The camera was holding steady, but the battery was slowly counting down. My drone was over a water fall and river hundreds of feet below, with a steep ravine on both sides. If I lost my drone here, there would be no retrieval.
With six minutes left on the battery, I decided to hit “return to home” and hope for the best. I was petrified that I would hit a tree or that side of the canyon, but I decided that if I failed to act, that would be the end result anyway.
The view screen showed my drone getting closer and closer to me, via the icon on the screen, but the picture did not appear to be changing, all I could see was distant trees. Due to the water fall and rushing water below, I couldn’t hear the drone either.
When the view screen showed the drone almost on top of me, I still couldn’t see or hear it. It wasn’t until the drone was on top of me via the icon, that I finally saw it. I immediately deactivated the return to home, and landed manually.
I was sweating bullets, but my drone was safe and sound.
Later, as I continued my trip, I found some other falls that were much more spectacular, and it was much easier to keep track of the drone. The second location, also had a nature trail that ended at the top of the first falls I had filmed. I flew there as well, and again, had much better view of the drone from that spot.
With the close call I had today, I couldn’t help but wish I had a spotter with me. If anything it would have at least decreased my anxiety. This experience also taught me that I don’t need to risk such dangerous shots, there are always other better places to fly.
I headed out early in the morning and hit an overlook for the falls right around golden hour. The sun was perfect, right behind me. The weather was perfect. The only concern, was that the drone was in a narrow canyon and LOS could be partially obscured by trees if I wasn’t careful. I had a great flat and open landing area, not a soul to be found, I went ahead and put the drone up in the air. I carefull navigated the drone over the tree tops, and down... down.... down.... into the canyon several hundred feet below.
The pictures and video looked fine, but I was keeping my eye on the GPS signal. I also oriented my camera down, to make sure as I was descending into the canyon, I wouldn’t descend unexpectdly into a tree. While GPS was green at the top where I was standing, it was yellow bordering on red near the falls. Given the distance, I was also very cautious about hitting any obstructions.
Actually, all in all, the flight was going rather smooth, there was only one seemingly minor but major issue. In shifting my attention between the remote and drone... I lost sight of the drone!
I knew roughly where it was, I knew which way it was oriented, but the trees on the other side of the canyon camouflaged it from my view. Try as I might, I could not locate the drone.
No problem, I thought, I will just pull up on the altitude and scan for it against the sky. My remote sounded off “maximum altitude reached”. I move the drone back and forth, I still couldn’t find it. The camera was holding steady, but the battery was slowly counting down. My drone was over a water fall and river hundreds of feet below, with a steep ravine on both sides. If I lost my drone here, there would be no retrieval.
With six minutes left on the battery, I decided to hit “return to home” and hope for the best. I was petrified that I would hit a tree or that side of the canyon, but I decided that if I failed to act, that would be the end result anyway.
The view screen showed my drone getting closer and closer to me, via the icon on the screen, but the picture did not appear to be changing, all I could see was distant trees. Due to the water fall and rushing water below, I couldn’t hear the drone either.
When the view screen showed the drone almost on top of me, I still couldn’t see or hear it. It wasn’t until the drone was on top of me via the icon, that I finally saw it. I immediately deactivated the return to home, and landed manually.
I was sweating bullets, but my drone was safe and sound.
Later, as I continued my trip, I found some other falls that were much more spectacular, and it was much easier to keep track of the drone. The second location, also had a nature trail that ended at the top of the first falls I had filmed. I flew there as well, and again, had much better view of the drone from that spot.
With the close call I had today, I couldn’t help but wish I had a spotter with me. If anything it would have at least decreased my anxiety. This experience also taught me that I don’t need to risk such dangerous shots, there are always other better places to fly.