Jen Grantham Photography
  • Home
  • About Me
  • My Work
    • My Work

      Time to Shoot Some Autumn Stock Photos

      September 25, 2018

      My Work

      Summer Feast with Crustcrumbs

      August 17, 2018

      My Work

      What I’ve Been Doing

      August 16, 2018

      My Work

      Brunch with Crustcrumbs

      April 12, 2016

      My Work

      I Crashed My New Drone

      January 24, 2015

  • Blog
    • Blog

      Time to Shoot Some Autumn Stock Photos

      September 25, 2018

      Blog

      Summer Feast with Crustcrumbs

      August 17, 2018

      Blog

      What I’ve Been Doing

      August 16, 2018

      Blog

      Brunch with Crustcrumbs

      April 12, 2016

      Blog

      Friday Favourites: Spring Colours

      April 3, 2015

  • Buy Images
  • Home
  • About Me
  • My Work
    • My Work

      Time to Shoot Some Autumn Stock Photos

      September 25, 2018

      My Work

      Summer Feast with Crustcrumbs

      August 17, 2018

      My Work

      What I’ve Been Doing

      August 16, 2018

      My Work

      Brunch with Crustcrumbs

      April 12, 2016

      My Work

      I Crashed My New Drone

      January 24, 2015

  • Blog
    • Blog

      Time to Shoot Some Autumn Stock Photos

      September 25, 2018

      Blog

      Summer Feast with Crustcrumbs

      August 17, 2018

      Blog

      What I’ve Been Doing

      August 16, 2018

      Blog

      Brunch with Crustcrumbs

      April 12, 2016

      Blog

      Friday Favourites: Spring Colours

      April 3, 2015

  • Buy Images

Jen Grantham Photography

Toronto stock photographer

Tag:

Drone

BlogFeaturedMy WorkPersonal Projects

I Crashed My New Drone

by Jen January 24, 2015
written by Jen
I Crashed My New Drone

I recently acquired a Phantom 2 Quadcopter with a H3-3D gimbal and a GoPro Hero4 Black.  And it was amazing.

20150124 Drone 0005

After it arrived in the mail, I waited all week to bring it up to my parents’ house, because I didn’t want to fly it in the city.

20150124 Drone 0004

I flew it as long as my two batteries would allow on Saturday, and the same on Sunday.

20150124 Drone 0011

And then I crashed it into a tree.

A few people have asked me, “what were you doing flying it like that in the woods, IDIOT?”

Let me explain what happened, so perhaps the rest of you who got drones for Christmas can learn from my mistake.

Firstly, I wasn’t really in the woods.  I was standing in an open area like the picture below.

20150124 Drone 0008

The drone was a few feet in front of me, hovering about 5′ off the ground (not moving), facing straight down my parents’ driveway.  There was no tree cover directly above the Phantom, and there were no trees behind it.

Secondly, I wasn’t controlling it!  Here’s what happened:  I launched the drone in my parents’ driveway and flew it around for a couple of minutes.  Then I landed, shut down the motors, picked it up, and carried it to the top of the driveway.

On the road, I launched it again, and positioned it at the top of the driveway.  I could see that there were 2 blips left on the battery indicator (25 to 50%), and I decided to land just to be safe.  As it was descending, the drone suddenly shot forward, and then straight up, and then straight ahead at high speed into the tree.  That’s what you can see in the video.

Mid-crash!

Mid-crash!

Why did it to that?  When the drone loses signal or has a low battery, it tries to auto-land within 2 meters of where it launched.  Unfortunately, it tried to auto-land within 2 meters of the PREVIOUS launch location.  If it had shot up in the air, turned around, and flown back to where I had just launched it, it wouldn’t have hit anything.  Instead, it tried to get back to the house, through the trees.

GoPro's last view before landing in a snow bank.

GoPro’s last view before landing in a snow bank.

Mistakes I made:

    1. Getting too confident too soon.  Although I found it very easy to fly, obviously I should fly in open fields only until I am an expert at all the controls!
    2. Not turning off the battery when I landed to reset “home.”  If I had turned it off, and then turned it on again before my second launch, the drone should have gone to the right place.
    3. Not knowing how to stop auto-landing.  There is a way to regain control of the Phantom 2 once the fail safe is engaged.  I had read about it, but as a beginner I was overloaded with information and I didn’t remember how to do it in the moment. All I could do was helplessly watch it crash.
Nooooooooooooo!

Nooooooooooooo!

When it hit the tree, the battery flew out, the gimbal and camera snapped off, and 2 props became mangled.  The Phantom shell was bent where the arm hit the tree.

I was optimistic that those were the only damages.  They were easy to fix, with no soldering required.  However, when I opened up the case, I also found that one of the ESCs was broken, which would require soldering to repair.

2015-01-14 14.35.27

Although I have never soldered anything in my entire life, nor assembled or disassembled anything more difficult than IKEA furniture, I decided I would repair the drone myself.  I did a lot of research and I watched a million (boring, oh so boring) YouTube videos about soldering.

As punishment (and to pay my repair bills!), I turned the process into a stock photo.

Woman fixing drone by Jen Grantham

Woman fixing drone by Jen Grantham

I almost gave up a few times (especially with the soldering), but I pushed through and was eventually able to fix it.

Repair Bill

Replacement Phantom 2 Shell:$59
ESC:$19
Propellers x 2:$30
Motor:$18
Zenmuse H3-3D Upper Bracket:$15
TOTAL: $141

Expensive mistake. But it could have been a lot worse!  I’m very lucky the gimbal – the part that holds the GoPro – survived with only $15 of damage (it’s a $400 part), and that the ceramic GPS unit didn’t break ($165 to replace).

And I’m very proud that I not only learned to solder, but that my repairs ACTUALLY WORKED.  I did a flight test today, and we’re back in business!

20150124 Drone 0001

And see? No trees!

Here’s to many new aerial videos and photos, and no more crashing.

January 24, 2015 2 comments
FacebookTwitterGoogle +PinterestTumblr

About Me

About Me

I'm a Toronto-based stock photographer, wife, and mom. I curate photos for a living.

Keep in Touch

Facebook Twitter Google + Instagram Pinterest

Recent Posts

  • Time to Shoot Some Autumn Stock Photos

    September 25, 2018
  • Summer Feast with Crustcrumbs

    August 17, 2018
  • What I’ve Been Doing

    August 16, 2018
  • Brunch with Crustcrumbs

    April 12, 2016
  • Friday Favourites: Spring Colours

    April 3, 2015
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

@2017 - PenciDesign. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign