Before a Spark Pilot

[pmshop]

Before I was a Spark pilot, I flew Syma X5C and X8C.
Then I jumped to a Cheerson CX-20 but lost it.
I also lost one of the three X8C I had as well.
Then with some electrical component failures of the second CX-20 I got, I started building my own craft.
Starting with a 450 quad.
After the 450 was deemed "stable" for auto missions, I sent it out one early morning June 23, 2017.
It never came back.

I mapped out where it may have gone and asked property owner if I could take a walk about their flats.
Nothing turned up.

But about 18 months later (yesterday) a man approached me in the post office "Were you that guy that lost a drone and came out to look?"
I said yes and he said his grandson found it 6 months ago but he lost my contact info.

Total loss...

Except for the camera Micro SDcard:

It caught on fire in a cedar thicket but did not ignite the surroundings.
Lucky...all the way around...

 

[mano]

Cool that you found her at least, and she gave you one last thrill !

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Bittersweet... but better than never knowing. Did you have video of the crash and burn? Was kinda looking forward to that (Ya, I am sick puppy!).... its all part of the experience. I have lost my XS809HW twice already, crashed both times, no damage... lucky!

 

[firemansax]

Before I was a Spark pilot, I flew Syma X5C and X8C.
Then I jumped to a Cheerson CX-20 but lost it.
I also lost one of the three X8C I had as well.
Then with some electrical component failures of the second CX-20 I got, I started building my own craft.
Starting with a 450 quad.
After the 450 was deemed "stable" for auto missions, I sent it out one early morning June 23, 2017.
It never came back.

I mapped out where it may have gone and asked property owner if I could take a walk about their flats.
Nothing turned up.

But about 18 months later (yesterday) a man approached me in the post office "Were you that guy that lost a drone and came out to look?"
I said yes and he said his grandson found it 6 months ago but he lost my contact info.

Total loss...
View attachment 7976
Except for the camera Micro SDcard:

It caught on fire in a cedar thicket but did not ignite the surroundings.
Lucky...all the way around...

How far out was it out from you when it flew away?

 

[Koala Tails]

I was hoping to see it fail, did you figure out what went wrong? At least you know where it is now, even if that is in the trash.

 

[pmshop]

To answer all:
I was using the XiaoMi Yi camera, notorious for not capturing the last 30 seconds of a video if there is a camera power failure - battery knocked out of camera on crash.
The video was so damaged I had to use Remo Repair MOV 2.0 to recover.
Of all things the land owner left the drone in place for me to examine and I forgot to get a GPS snap of the location.
But best guess using Google Maps, 1.15 miles (1.85km) away from take off point.
The main concern was I sent the drone out too low on the pre programmed course.
That was not the case.
So the closest I can figure was prop failure/ loose prop - power failure or ESC failure that started the onboard fire.
The battery was knocked out of the center of the craft and was burned all in one piece, no "puffing" - all the internal foils were even & level as the original rectangular shape.

So indeed the mystery of did it hit the trees has been replaced with why did it catch fire?

 

[tmarez]

Before I was a Spark pilot, I flew Syma X5C and X8C.
Then I jumped to a Cheerson CX-20 but lost it.
I also lost one of the three X8C I had as well.
Then with some electrical component failures of the second CX-20 I got, I started building my own craft.
Starting with a 450 quad.
After the 450 was deemed "stable" for auto missions, I sent it out one early morning June 23, 2017.
It never came back.

I mapped out where it may have gone and asked property owner if I could take a walk about their flats.
Nothing turned up.

But about 18 months later (yesterday) a man approached me in the post office "Were you that guy that lost a drone and came out to look?"
I said yes and he said his grandson found it 6 months ago but he lost my contact info.

Total loss...
View attachment 7976
Except for the camera Micro SDcard:

It caught on fire in a cedar thicket but did not ignite the surroundings.
Lucky...all the way around...

Cool Vid,, good music too!

 

[graywoulf]

What a mess. I guess that there are no salvageable parts even though the motors look somewhat intact. Sorry that happend to you as I am sure you put a lot of work into that drone.