Crashed INSPIRE with new X5 using waypoints

[Lance K]

Today I was practicing with my INSPIRE 1 with a new X5 Camera for an upcoming shoot near Devils Tower Wyoming in 2 days with a British Ad Agency.

I set some waypoints so the drone would safely fly a route and I could control the camera. The intent was to practice flying between 2 low objects- a flagpole and a football field goalpost.

I however drifted in my waypoint flight pattern due to high winds... the drone flying the waypoints did not deviate- flying direct line of sight and smacked into a flagpole destryoing the drone and camera completely.

Some hard lessons
1) Make your waypoints recoding path true- as that is how your drone will fly.
2) Visually watch the waypoint setting flight path between any objects
3) Visually watch a practiced route of the recorded waypoint route prepared to cancel route if objects are present.

Anybody wanna buy a drone carcass?

 

[Lance K]

Could this been avoided with the INSPIRE 2 object avoidance capibilities?

 

[1buddyc]

Wow, that is really bad.. Condolences

 

[cryhavoc38]

I'd buy the carcass if the price was right

 

[Advexure]

Sorry to hear about the incident. My crashes with the Inspire 1 (none with I2 yet...knock on wood) have all been flying autonomous missions (all in AutoPilot with zero fault on AutoPilot software itself).

Yes, obstacle avoidance possibly could have avoided the incident but adding on to your lessons, the best thing I can recommend is testing waypoint missions very slow and repeat missions at slower and faster speeds to see how the mission performs. I always recommend AutoPilot for waypoint work as it offers far better features and capabilities than GO. With AutoPilot you can test missions in "Joystick" mode which allows you to perform a test mission as slow as you like to see how things perform and so that you can ensure proper clearance of any obstacles throughout the mission. See an explanation of Joystick below:



While it may be helpful that GO allows Waypoint flying I would highly recommend AutoPilot for the future if you do see yourself requiring requiring Waypoint flight often. (Litchi is another option that I'm not as familiar with so maybe someone can attest to a similar feature in their program). Testing a waypoint mission using the Joystick mission type can definitely help to avoid an incident in the future. Waypoint flying obviously opens you up to greater risk but I can attest from experience that having the increased capabilities of AP can only be beneficial to the overall operation.

I hope this information helps, and my condolences on the severely injured bird.

 

[Lance K]

Sorry to hear about the incident. My crashes with the Inspire 1 (none with I2 yet...knock on wood) have all been flying autonomous missions (all in AutoPilot with zero fault on AutoPilot software itself).

Yes, obstacle avoidance possibly could have avoided the incident but adding on to your lessons, the best thing I can recommend is testing waypoint missions very slow and repeat missions at slower and faster speeds to see how the mission performs. I always recommend AutoPilot for waypoint work as it offers far better features and capabilities than GO. With AutoPilot you can test missions in "Joystick" mode which allows you to perform a test mission as slow as you like to see how things perform and so that you can ensure proper clearance of any obstacles throughout the mission. See an explanation of Joystick below:

View attachment 13747

While it may be helpful that GO allows Waypoint flying I would highly recommend AutoPilot for the future if you do see yourself requiring requiring Waypoint flight often. (Litchi is another option that I'm not as familiar with so maybe someone can attest to a similar feature in their program). Testing a waypoint mission using the Joystick mission type can definitely help to avoid an incident in the future. Waypoint flying obviously opens you up to greater risk but I can attest from experience that having the increased capabilities of AP can only be beneficial to the overall operation.

I hope this information helps, and my condolences on the severely injured bird.

Any Chance you can over night a INSPIRE 2 to Gillette Wyoming for my shoot Thursday?

 

[Advexure]

Any Chance you can over night a INSPIRE 2 to Colgate Wyoming for my shoot Thursday?

Yes, we can make it happen. Give us a call at (855) 625-2055.

 

[Lance K]

Yes, we can make it happen. Give us a call at (855) 625-2055.

Thanks Dan working now with Travis to figure this thing out! You guys ROCK!!!

 

[elguapo]

I am sorry to hear about your loss.

I have an Inspire 1 V2 T601 complete in excellent condition (ready to fly out of the box) with X3 camera, 2 TB47 (about 10 charges each), 2 TB48 (1 only had one charge, can't remember what the other one has), RC, 2 Battery chargers, plus filter ND4 filter / ND8 that I have been thinking of selling to buy an Inspire 2.

 

[Tommcmick]

Ouch. Sorry for your loss. Get back up in the air soon some way or another. What are you choosing to do with the wrecked unit?

 

[Lance K]

I am sorry to hear about your loss.

I have an Inspire 1 V2 T601 complete in excellent condition (ready to fly out of the box) with X3 camera, 2 TB47 (about 10 charges each), 2 TB48 (1 only had one charge, can't remember what the other one has), RC, 2 Battery chargers, plus filter ND4 filter / ND8 that I have been thinking of selling to buy an Inspire 2.

Upgraded to the INSPIRE 2 thanks to. Advexure!

 

[Lance K]

Ouch. Sorry for your loss. Get back up in the air soon some way or another. What are you choosing to do with the wrecked unit?

The mess I sent back to DJI just incase they can fix it! Advexure styled me up with an INSPIRE 2 ProRes for my shoot tomorrow!

 

[Advexure]

The mess I sent back to DJI just incase they can fix it! Advexure styled me up with an INSPIRE 2 ProRes for my shoot tomorrow!

Happy we could help with the I2 setup, @Lance K. You the man. Talk soon.

 

[White Airwolf]

Sorry to hear about the incident. My crashes with the Inspire 1 (none with I2 yet...knock on wood) have all been flying autonomous missions (all in AutoPilot with zero fault on AutoPilot software itself).

Yes, obstacle avoidance possibly could have avoided the incident but adding on to your lessons, the best thing I can recommend is testing waypoint missions very slow and repeat missions at slower and faster speeds to see how the mission performs. I always recommend AutoPilot for waypoint work as it offers far better features and capabilities than GO. With AutoPilot you can test missions in "Joystick" mode which allows you to perform a test mission as slow as you like to see how things perform and so that you can ensure proper clearance of any obstacles throughout the mission. See an explanation of Joystick below:

View attachment 13747

While it may be helpful that GO allows Waypoint flying I would highly recommend AutoPilot for the future if you do see yourself requiring requiring Waypoint flight often. (Litchi is another option that I'm not as familiar with so maybe someone can attest to a similar feature in their program). Testing a waypoint mission using the Joystick mission type can definitely help to avoid an incident in the future. Waypoint flying obviously opens you up to greater risk but I can attest from experience that having the increased capabilities of AP can only be beneficial to the overall operation.

I hope this information helps, and my condolences on the severely injured bird.

I use FPV Camera for autonomous WP missions.
It is better than AP and litchi.
You should give it a try.
One should never use the DJI app, in my opinion, for waypoints as you have to do a manual set up at each location first which isnt as accurate as autonomous flying.
Plus you waste battery time doing it.

 

[The Editor]

I use FPV Camera for autonomous WP missions.
It is better than AP and litchi.
You should give it a try.
One should never use the DJI app, in my opinion, for waypoints as you have to do a manual set up at each location first which isnt as accurate as autonomous flying.
Plus you waste battery time doing it.

Interesting...... I would argue flying the mission manually first and setting each waypoint whilst the aircraft is physically at a location is far more accurate and absolute than prodding a finger/mouse on a map which may have inaccurate GPS references against it.
Also flying manually first means you are extremely unlikely to make a mistake on altitude or obstacles which may not show up on maps (cranes, trees - which grow!, buildings etc).
Just my take on autonomous flying....

 

[Ralph thompson]

I agree with Advexure, Autopilot is great. Although a bit basic for complex missions, my play it safe procedure is before flying an Autopilot mission is to simply fly straight up manually over the home pt and observe the high obstacles through the FPV display. As the drone climbs, the obstacle falls below the horizon. That tells you the height of the obstacle. I add 50' and make sure the waypoint in Autopilot is set to no less than that.

 

[White Airwolf]

Interesting...... I would argue flying the mission manually first and setting each waypoint whilst the aircraft is physically at a location is far more accurate and absolute than prodding a finger/mouse on a map which may have inaccurate GPS references against it.
Also flying manually first means you are extremely unlikely to make a mistake on altitude or obstacles which may not show up on maps (cranes, trees - which grow!, buildings etc).
Just my take on autonomous flying....

What about buildings growing too? Lol!
I find manual WP flying isn't as precise as you have to aim the camera at your subject each time and when you set the mission later, the bird pivots a bit at each WP and the resulting video isn't all that great! Where as autonomous missions set from your living room in FPV Camera or AP, tend to smooth out any abberations in camera angles at each WP and the resulting video can look a lot nicer this way.

 

[Ryan123321]

Today I was practicing with my INSPIRE 1 with a new X5 Camera for an upcoming shoot near Devils Tower Wyoming in 2 days with a British Ad Agency.

I set some waypoints so the drone would safely fly a route and I could control the camera. The intent was to practice flying between 2 low objects- a flagpole and a football field goalpost.

I however drifted in my waypoint flight pattern due to high winds... the drone flying the waypoints did not deviate- flying direct line of sight and smacked into a flagpole destryoing the drone and camera completely.

Some hard lessons
1) Make your waypoints recoding path true- as that is how your drone will fly.
2) Visually watch the waypoint setting flight path between any objects
3) Visually watch a practiced route of the recorded waypoint route prepared to cancel route if objects are present.

Anybody wanna buy a drone carcass?

I am so sorry this happened. If you had a hard case good for traveling though I would love to buy it off you.

 

[Cornscot]

One of the issues is, for Litchi certainly, the waypoint planning is done on a back-map of old satellite imagery. Certainly for a golf course I imaged recently the greens had moved, trees had grown etc which meant the aircraft did not actually fly the ground track I wanted for the video.

 

[White Airwolf]

Interesting...... I would argue flying the mission manually first and setting each waypoint whilst the aircraft is physically at a location is far more accurate and absolute than prodding a finger/mouse on a map which may have inaccurate GPS references against it.
Also flying manually first means you are extremely unlikely to make a mistake on altitude or obstacles which may not show up on maps (cranes, trees - which grow!, buildings etc).
Just my take on autonomous flying....

I guess you could look at it both ways.
A good pilot would verify height and obstacles though before hand would he not?