Took advantage of some dry and sunny if a little breezy afternoon to get some air-time. Kicked off with the Mavic Air which hadn’t had an outing for a week or so. Rock solid in a 14-18mph gusting wind. 2 batteries worth. Then put the Anafi up. Decided to bring it in as although set off with GPS allegedly fine as soon as it got airborne the message came up poor GPS signal etc. So at this point decided to bring it in manually and try again. As it hovered about 6 feet above the landing mat as I was making final adjustments my phone slipped out of the controller and the top edge was wedged and also the bottom edge wedged against the 2 sticks! The drone took off horizontally in the direction its backside was pointing, very low and at a steady speed as of course the controls were wedged in position. By the time I got the phone out completely the controller and phone of course had lost connection and the drone was no longer visible.
Fortunately since it was so low over scrub grass with a wooden fence and some abandoned rowing boats and the like in it’s path it couldn’t really go far.without hitting something thus avoiding heading towards the river - hopefully. Sure enough found it lying in the grass about 40m away. Not sure if it hit the fence it was near or just ate grass. Anyway apart from the arms not being in flight position no visible damage and gimbal since facing away from danger seemed fine. Couldn’t see any scratches or propeller chips so stuck it on the mat and gave it another go. This time GPS was fine and I adjusted the yaw speed which was too low and it flew like a good 'un for the full battery. Yet to check it out fully at home but the bird lives I think.
However I am not impressed with the default mobile phone connection on the Anafi. I find it very difficult to insert the phone in the first place. It is not feasible to just slide it in which is the way most videos show as the on/off and sound adjustment buttons are in the way so you have to prise the controller apart and then quickly push the phone in. Phone is a Sony Xperia L1 which is not particularly wide or thick but is as today illustrated an accident waiting to happen.
Fortunately I have a iPad Mini which I will now use with the iPad Mini Anafi mount which I got recently. This also has a lanyard connector part which will also secure the bottom edge of the iPad slipping and also a very handy insert for switching the conroller power off without having to remove the /phone/iPad and close the controller. Hopefully will be altogether more secure. May even get one purpose made for the phone as the guy who makes them 3D prints them to order if measurements supplied - I think.