Easy Come - Easy Go Bye Bye

Yup, my Syma 8C Quadracopter got away from me again. The wind picked up suddenly and big trees in Kilohana Park blocked my view as it sailed out of sight. 

That taught me a lesson about sight lines. I usually walk to the middle of the field to fly and keep my sight lines open. This time the gate that is usually closed and locked was open - so I walked in. 

For whatever reason, I did not walk to the center of the field where I would have had clear sightlines no matter which direction the drone flew in. I was too anxious and didn't exercise proper caution given the wind direction and speed and making sure radio contact was solid by flying low and hovering before increasing throttle. 

I launched the Quadracopter and immediately had a problem kicking it into high power mode.  When I did manage to get a response, it suddenly sailed higher than I would've liked... I was unable to bring it down in time before a gust of wind quickly took it up over the trees behind my head, blocking my view, and causing me to lose sight of it!

Last seen it was confirmed to have passed over the Fire station. A fireman was unable to see it from the tower at the station.  I hiked in the underbrush behind there, for an hour, looking for the tell tale glow of its red and green LEDs; THAT WOULD HAVE FLASHED for at least an hour...no luck. 

It was now getting very dark. I had trouble staying on the trail, the footpath in the thick underbrush that led to several haeou's (Hawaiian ceremonial & burial sites) meandered back to the Highway.

I crossed the HWY and checked up on the fire road adjacent to Maui Meadows...nope not there...not that I could see at any rate? Maybe It crossed the highway and into Maui Meadows?

Its black with a spray painted fluorescent orange underbelly. It has an orange RUNCAM camera attached. My name & number are clearly printed on the body. A Cash Reward is offered for its return. Mahalo for any information. Pictured is a  SIMILAR DRONE with a different camera (the RUNCAM is rectangular)

Losing my Quadra copter at Baldwin beach: lucky me

I was lucky because I was at the right time in the right place to see a white truck pull up with a pod on the top that look like it might contain windsurfers poles. As the gentleman got out of his van, I went from the lifeguard station who offered no assistance, to speak with the van owner about what was in the pod and if I might borrow two poles.

He open the pod and took out too longplastic pipes  which were better! In the maui fashion he said feel free to use them just put them under the truck when you're done and went on his way.

I had some nylon rope that I used to lash the two poles together making about 16 we're actually 14 feet of pole just long enough I was hoping to reach the Quadra copter which I gotten trapped in a nearby tree, Thanks to both my inexperience and the strong winds I was flying in.

Even with this rig I was unable to reach the Quadra copter and Justin as luck would have it, a very tall gentleman with his child came out of the path. 

I asked if you might assist and it was successful! In short order he was able to knock the bird out of the drain for the tree branch were trapped and I was able to recover all of the course of 20 minutes. 

First Ever Light Painting With a Drone - Experimenting with Smoke Bombs

I'm Getting the Hang of flying the drone manually. It really helps to have painted half the underside bright fluorescent orange, in determining which way the drone is facing - especially in daylight.  My favorite time to fly is just at sunset and immediately thereafter. Mostly because the lights and therefore direction is more easily seen.

I have just started to try my hand at loops and figure eights. My favorite thing to do is maintain position in strong winds and gusts that come and go here on Maui.  There aren't that many "still" days. When there are, that's when I head to the expansive fields of the nearby golf course to take her higher and higher, again, using the wind as a measure of control so I don't lose her again.  I think those days of learning what to NOT DO are done.

I have posted a bunch of my early video's some made with the stock video camera, but most with the Runcam 2. Have a look. If any are locked out, that's because they were uploaded by mistake and will soon be removed. What you will see are many crashes and experiments. The latest being hanging an RGB LED light strip from the drone and flying over my Canon Camera laying on the grass nearby.  Here's the result of the first ever LIGHT PAINTING WITH A DRONE:

 15 second exposure with the shutter locked open - over which the Syma8C
with Runcam2 was flown.  That's the moon in the center of the image.

As if learning the fly and maneuver a quadracopter without GPS is challenging enough, I tied a smoke bomb to a rubber band and affixed that to the quad landing gear. I lit the fuse, launched the quad and much to my surprise, the prop wind blew the fuse out!

Second attempt! I put a length of string, about 8 inches, between the smoke bomb and the rubber band.  I rigged that onto back two legs of the drone. I put Dronie on a picnic table near my Canon Video camera set to record video. I lit the fuse, rolled the video and when the first sign of smoke appeared, I hit the throttle and off she went....

It looked great, even though the video is out of focus, you still can get the idea that at the right time of day, it would make for quite a show...especially if several different colors of smoking balls were dangling behind this super sailing ship!

I  wrecked my first Syma8C after too many "Learning Curves" not well navigated - until finally a motor gave way. We won't mention the irate homeowner who's house it came down on, after its third major escape! let's just say I really abused the bird but the plastic never cracked.  This time I got a call from a cop who returned it; sharing the temper of the "abused" homeowner. It obviously was put thru a thrashing in order for the plastic on two motor pods to be cracked and broken beyond repair.  But at $80 for "quadracopter flying lessons" and the fun of seeing one's very first aerial videos.... just can't be beat at any price!

I hope you enjoy some of these posted videos; the high flying escapes 

and other early flights from Dec 2015 thru March 2016

http://bit.ly/1MsYAUK

Syna8C Documenting The Kihei Bike-path

I'm getting pretty good at flying now - three months in. I still get confused as to which is the front and which is the back? This even after I sprayed half the underside of my black Syma 8, bright fluorescent orange -- to be able to better tell which way the drone is facing? Trying to see the lights in the arms, especially in daylight at a distance is not possible. The bright orange really helps.

From a distance this fantastic bargain of a bird, can get so high and so far away, so fast, that you really can't see which direction the drone is facing.  So you have two choices, maybe three. Fly local, in other words, if you begin to find it challenging to see, bring it in.  

You could also try to determine how your stick movements are affecting the flight, to try and figure out which way its going and or facing. At the distance the Syma 8C can be flown and controlled, its easy to have problems determining if its flying toward you or away from you. 

The saving grace is using HEADLESS MODE. If you have the presence of mind to hold the left hand switch at top of transmitter for three seconds, you will be able to steer the bird back, no matter what direction its facing.  There are some great tutorial videos on Youtube.

I'm finding that this "deal-of-a-drone" likes being in the air so much, it's difficult to get it down! Often I would have to cut the throttle completely...and let it drop say 10 feet, before punching the throttle back up to recover flight,  in order to quickly bring down the quad if it seems like its getting too far away. I repeat these maneuvers until the drone is close enough to better see and therefore better control. 

The other options to quickly bring the drone down,  is to put it into an extreme backward dive (toward you) and then reversing direction to stop decent and "flatten out."  Its a real trip learning and trying these maneuvers. The other thing you need to be aware of is INERTIA. This is no lightweight. You MUST take into consideration, velocity verses height with all these "diving" kind of moves.

I've had many a bounce on the pavement or grass - the latter of which I highly recommend for your learning curves. i.e. fly on a grassy park, golf course, or field where a crash landing won't do much damage.

I went over to Lipoa Street to film the crew making a new Kihei  bike path. Here are some of the images. There's a video too.  If you click the link below, it will take you to more aerial shots, including the video these images were lifted from.

http://creativity.com/phr/maui/droneimages/aerial1/index.html

Thanks for stopping by! Fly High! (but  don't lose your drone!)
Aloha,
MauiMacMan