We have visited this location in Asturias, northern Spain many times before. The first time we hauled the Phantom along the rocky beach, it ended up not just overcast, but a complete ‘white-out’. We had valuable practice flight but no usable video from the attached GoPro Hero 3+.
This morning was different – good light at sunrise and a very light breeze. We had to make the most it and Be was keen to make her second flight…..
Some DJI Phantom 2 technical bits. The red lights were flashing ‘slowly’ – meaning the battery is at 30% power level (as photo above, in ‘normal’ flight – it’s green). I knew this and wasn’t overly worried, we had at least 5-6 minutes flying time left. Time to get a nice shot of the Phantom with the seastack in the background. I grabbed the compact camera and Belinda was in charge of manoeuvring the Phantom into position.
Unfortunately, we missed the next phase – red lights flashing ‘rapidly’ – 15% power level. And then we unknowingly entered the 3rd phase ‘auto-landing’. A good feature – except for the rockpool directly underneath. A moment of panic came upon us. By some miracle there must have been a little juice left in the battery because a last ditch attempt at pushing the throttle stick upwards gave it enough height to catch it and safely switch off. I’m sure my shouting of “Go up!” repeatedly helped as well.
Lucky escape, lesson learned.