This post is just an observation I made and I’m not saying that accident don’t or cannot happen.
I see a lot of posts on the drone groups (especially on facebook) of people crashing their drones. About 80% of the time the drone or software is blamed for the crash.
I think complacency in most cases is the culprit. People get to comfortable and complacent with each flight so they push their drone beyond its limits, or they fly at locations such as densely vegetated forests (without proper obsticle avoidence systems), or they fly in unsuitable weather conditions, or they do not perform the basic set-up, checks, calibrations and updates before each flight.
What do you think? It would be interesting to hear your opinion on this?
Exactly, I see it time and time again in my day job. Either lack of attention to basics, or ‘It didn’t go how we wanted because of (insert easy to anticipate problem)’.
‘Did you anticipate and plan for (easy to anticipate problem)?’
‘Er, no.’
‘That’s why you now look stupid’
I think many put too much faith in the automated features. Like some Tesla owners who have come unstuck when they let the car drive itself and expect the onboard computer to stop them running down a cyclist on an unlit road, which one Uber driver found out to her cost when she killed a cyclist because she’d put the car into self drive mode so she could play an online game.
Automated features, such as GPS position hold and obstacle avoidance, are great but you should also have an understanding of their limitations and a knowledge of what to do when they don’t work.
Which is why I’m grateful I learnt to fly using apm based quadcopters, and knowing how to set them up, with the ability to switch to “atti” mode when needed, and how to fly in atti mode.
ATTI mode is my preferred flight mode when flying camera drones, while using GPS Position Hold for waypoint assisted flights and holding the drone steady while adjusting exposure settings or taking long exposure stills. I think that’s why I’m currently having a less than stellar experience with the Mini2 because at a relatively broad PWM value the GPS Hold feature is wanting to take over.
Complacency was certainly the cause of my one (so far) crash. Flying backwards while trying to frame a shot was never a good idea I’m convinced the damn tree went for me.
When I was parachute training the risks involved were fairly obvious and the steps put in place to minimise those risks were clearly explained.
Injury in the sport tended to form a pattern - novice jumpers on the first two or three jumps then nothing until around 100 jumps when incidents began to happen. Things then quietened down util 1000 jumps or so when again there was a marked rise in incidents (and fatalities)
This was explained as inexperience for the novices and complacency for those with 100 jumps to their credit. The parachutists had experienced jumps in various weathers and from different heights, at various venues and with a mix of partners. They felt themselves experienced and comfortable with the sport. The natural fear of falling through the air was dulled and, as a result, precautions and obsessive checking of kit and conditions had become lax.
A short, sharp lesson when in their “hundreds” whether through their own misfortune or the experience of someone known to them renewed their interest in following the rules and practices essential for self-preservation and this seemed to continue until the "done it all"stage, typically around 1000 jumps when both complacency and the search for bigger thrills again caused an increased number of incidents.
By being aware that “a little experience is a dangerous thing” it may help to stop you having an incident through becoming to comfortable in your flying
I’m convinced the damn tree went for me.