Yesterday, I headed to the beach to fly the mini-quad. I learned some valuable lessons.
- Take at least three drones with you if you have them. Two is one and one is none. Meaning if you bring a broken drone, if you did not bring a backup, you have nothing.
- test locally in all attitudes before going far. A hover is a not a proper shakedown.
- If hiking in the back woods, make sure the drone is securely strapped on to your backpack by multiple methods. One is none applies here as well.
- Check the forecast for wind. What a show stopper.
- check a map before walking into sand dunes.....walking an hour over countless dunes is tiresome. <---yes, pretty specific to me.
So I head out to fly yesterday and the beach was blown out. The winds were pushing my quad backwards in forward flight. Two of the three drones did not want to play nice after repairs. The third quad was flying with intermittent failures. All this after I walked an hour over dune after dune to get to the beach.
I had to retrace my steps because one quad fell off my backpack after squeezing through some bushes. In a panicked fever, I ran back towards the beach. I found my quad relatively quickly because I use very bright colors in the build. Bright yellow and blue electrical tape around the ESCs was a life saver.
I did what I could to make the day's video interesting. I did not capture much. I tried doing a quick touch and go on a dumpster with minimal success.
I created a group on Facebook for FPV pilots to share steemit posts so that we can support each other through up voting, resteeming, and following. Check it out here.