Happy Monday!  ~  256

I know, more birds.  Yes I have images of birds to show you today but the topic of my post this day will be about my wild experience with the Phantom 2 and the Zenmuse H3 – 3D gimbal.

For weeks I have waited on parts for the Phantom in general and specifically for the H3- 3D gimbal.  This gimbal was designed for the Phantom 2) 2nd edition, and mine is the first edition.  I had made it work but was not happy with it.  So finally Wednesday the adapter kit arrived and I spent yesterday afternoon completely reinstalling the gimbal, which meant putting new landing gear (extended to accommodate the adapter.)

I also took the top off because there were some things I needed to check and repair from the last time I was in there.  So about three hours of work and it is done.  I plugged it into the computer to recalibrate the gimbal and to make sure everything was okay.  I even checked the calibration of the controller and it looked to be in good shape.

Now here is where the chain of events starts that led to disaster.  I didn’t follow the correct procedure for calibrating the compass.  This has to be done anytime you go to a new location or do any rewiring.  There is a set of detailed things you have to do to ensure a proper calibration and as I rethought my calibration I realized I didn’t do it the proper way.

So, excited for the flight I gave Jeanne the goggles and I used a FPV screen and I took it up and flew it down to the little pond that is about 1,000 feet East of our house.  No problem I had full control and it was responsive to my control inputs.  I decided to bring it back and I noticed that it was not flying the exact way that I was expecting it to.  I lowered the altitude a bit and continued bringing it home.   Suddenly it took off and flew in a direction I was not expecting.   It also started losing altitude.  It was obvious to me very quickly that I had an out-of-control Phantom, so I shut off the controller to enter the fail-safe mode.

Nothing happened.  We waited ten minutes for it to come back and it did not.  So Jeanne and I got in the car to drive the neighborhood in the last known direction we saw it.  Fortunately a block away from the house I decided to go back and get the FPV screen in hopes of identifying where it was.  We drove around for 20 minutes  with no luck and I was already drafting a letter to the insurance company, in my head when the screen started flickering and then showed us a good picture.

I knew we were close and at first I said to Jeanne, it’s in a tree.  Then we looked closer and it was obvious that it was on the ground camera down in the grass.  Then Jeanne spotted it and I retrieved it.  🙂

The Hero 3+ Gopro camera took a direct hit and has a nice scar on the front lens casing.  Didn’t hurt the lens.  Bent the right side landing gear.  Broke off the transmitter antenna (I don’t know how we were able to get a picture) and broke a prop.  It probably hit the ground at full speed so I’m amazed there was not more damage.  I got it home, put a new prop on it, cleaned up the camera and fitted it with a spare transmitter and other than the bent landing gear it looks air worthy.  Perhaps another test (with more restraint) this evening.

Oh, yes I really wanted to see the video of the crash but no luck, apparently in my couldn’t wait to fly mode, I didn’t get the video turned on.  😦

That’s it for today.  I do hope you enjoyed the images of the birds.  If I do get to fly this evening I’ll post the results (good or bad.)   My friend Simon had some good advice and tips for me so I feel like I know what when wrong and how to keep it from happening again.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Monday and be careful.