I've Lost My Drone somewhere up there

Just arrived home now. I have GADC in the head unit of my car, so could see the messages come through.

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No one likes a show off :rofl:

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???

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Surely someone videoed this?

image

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By drone, too!

Yeah they vidoed it, but that drone got lost in a tree

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Same tree - higher up! :stuck_out_tongue:

We used 30m of 4mm nylon rope that I brought, tied to a section of 2" steel tube, and gaffer taped to a dough knead hook. But since the Mini SE was 13m up, we had to get it above that - which wasn’t working. Each time, either too short and/or wrong direction.

So I then gaffer taped a 4 foot piece of round cable conduit to the M2P, so it was sticking out the front. The plan was to get up close, and nudge it out. But there were too many little branches about, and the M2P was unstable … even did a front flip at one stage.

The second plan was to move the conduit so that it was central to the bottom of the M2P, i.e. 2 foot out the front and 2 foot out the back. Then place the hook on the front, and take it and over the Mini SE. Tim’s mate was the spotter shouting out how much clearance. Tim was feeding the rope out, making sure it had enough slack. Once over and clear of the Mini SE, I then turned the M2P 180 degrees, and reversed away. The hook then slid off the front of the conduit and down into the branches. Tim then pulled on the rope, shaking the tree for a minute or two, and it finally dropped down into much lower branches, probably about 4m. From there Tim grappled it down with the rope.

One of the hinges had snapped, not sure if this was done during the crash or rescue. But Tim tested the drone in the car park and it works 100% fine.

He’ll upload some photos later.

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This :point_up:t2:

THIS!

…is what you call dedication :rofl:

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I love love love these stories. Bravo you all :slight_smile:

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Cracking job though guys, very well done :bowing_man:t2:

I can’t see where you are based, but I’m in Cambridge and climb big old trees.

Just in case you are round the corner! Drone Rescue — Jim Cromwell

Jim

WHAT A MAD MORNING A GREAT RESULT

A massive thanks to @clinkadink without whom this would not have been possible.
It has been a learning exercise (see below).
Thank you guys for all of your helpful and uplifting suggestions, I would like to add a few based on today’s experience.

Plan A - The heavy metal thing on a long rope… aka “Swinging the lead”. A great idea in principle, would have worked first time if the drone had been at 14m… I really don’t think that was right, My guess that it was significantly higher.
More weight needed.

Plan B Swing the lead +
Plus a dough hook… yes you read that right. The idea being that this is like a one pronged grappling hook. Extra weight + extra effort = extra height… further distance = less control (sorry mate… I hope it didn’t hurt). Gaffer tape is beyond excellent. The adhesive strenght turned this simple device into a two adult rope swing!

Plan C (hang on to your seats) the Proboscis


A meaty Mavic with a piece of 20mm conduit designed to push the Mini SE out of its lodgings. ‘Pokemon’ didn’t quite deliver.

Plan D “Air-tree Rescue”
This has to be seen to be believed and I can’t overstate the courageous flying skills of @clinkadink.
On attempt 3, the rope was successfully deployed over the evil branch from hell and using one of the methods from above “Shakey shakey shake shake” the drone fell… to the next branch down…

Where finally the combination of swinging the lead (minus the now stuck-in-the-tree dough hook) and pokey pokey got the drone out.

Incredble?

Not as incredible as that when a fully charged battery was put into the drone… it only worked… as though nothing had happened.

Brilliant!!

Lessons…

  1. DJI Quick Shots are crap and must be avoided… learn to fly instead
  2. You should always have a weight and a rope in your car no matter how suspicious it looks
  3. Duck Tape is indispensable

Thanks again… the best possible result

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100% agree. Your mate, Alex was it? … we both agreed that looked more like 20m. Put it this way, I had a 10m ladder and it would be about half way up - not that we resorted to that, thankfully.

Nah, my GADC cap is like a shield of steel :wink:

Really chuffed you got it back, and great to meet you both :+1:

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Here is my airdata for that last flight, where I flew about a metre above your Mini SE and released the hook.

Mini SE = Yellow
M2P = Red

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Excellent !!

Yeah 17.6… that’s more like it

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How did you cope flying at such low speeds?! :stuck_out_tongue:

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@timxjr1300 … here’s a link to a new battery door replacement. Works out at about £6 delivered, but you’ll have to wait a few weeks as it comes from China :+1:

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