...and Away

Another flight around the neighborhood with the DJI Phantom 2 and the GoPro3+, but this time augmented with FPV (First Person View) -- or so I thought and depended upon. I lifted off and headed toward the nearby mountain. I had flown over this way before with my original Phantom -- and I thought I got close, but really didn't. Depth perception at a half mile or so is a tricky thing. With FPV I could get close and know I was close. All was good.

Then I saw what looked like a condor flying to the west, so I turned to see if I could get it on video. As I turned, the FPV video feed got real choppy. I could still see stuff, or so I thought, so I pointed the bird back in our general direction (or so I thought) and started flying home.

Sadly, I wasn't going home. I was flying along the mountain line (this shot). I saw my error and corrected my fight -- again, or so I thought. By the time I reached houses, I couldn't see the bird in the air nor hear its whir. I was getting a choppy signal, but not well enough to make out where I was.

A little background: The DJI Phantom 2 has supposedly 20 minutes of flight. Practice has it at less than that -- more like maybe 17.

Unable to find the thing or figure out where it was, I called to the trusty wife to look at the FPV screen to help me figure out where it was and what direction it was pointed. She had no clue either.

Since I didn't know if I had gone too far south, or too far east, and time was running out, at 15 minutes I turned off the remote and said a little prayer. Before doing so though, I pointed the camera at the ground in hopes that if it did run out of juice and go down, I could see the lay of the land, go open google earth and find that spot, and then go retrieve the bird.

A little more info on the DJI Phantom 2: If it ever loses contact with the remote, it is supposed to return to its takeoff location and land.

Even though the remote was switched off, I was still getting the video feed. I could see it stop the hover I had it in and start moving in a defined direction. As it flew, my video signal got stronger and stronger. Finally I heard the familiar whir of the engines. I started recognizing landmarks in the feed and I looked up to see it coming my way. It dutifully took a position above the takeoff point and started its descent. I could see the guide lights blinking yellow -- running low on power, but not critically low yet. It came down smoothly, and landed a foot or two maybe from where it took off, then the engines shut down.

You gotta love that tech. Thank you, engineers, wherever you are, that came up with that recovery option for us flyers too stupid to keep the bird close enough to see it.

BTW, the red and black lines in the upper left are the FPV video cables, not properly secured behind the camera. I can't make them tight because the gimbal has to be able to move to keep the camera level. I have to come up with a better plan though of how to keep the wires out of the view.