Reports from Fiji - aerial photography

I had brought my quadcopter (a SteadiDrone QU4D) with me to take some aerial photos.

First Landing Resport

Vuda Point Marina

That went very well at first, but then the wind picked up to 25kn or more while the drone was up, and it got blown out over the reef. I tried to fly it back home but it was already 500m out and I couldn't really see it anymore. Then the telemetry link failed and with no way to tell it's position and orientation I send it up before flipping the "return to base" switch.

The drone slowly fought it's way back to Uli and me, but when I took over control again trying to land it it got turned around and blown out to sea - again. The camera hanging on the gimbal below the drone acts like a wind-vane and is a liability in these conditions. Impossible to fly by hand. Again I flipped the "return to base" switch, but this time the battery ran out and the drone crashed into the sea. "Noooooo" cries followed from the Marina Restaurant, where a crowd had gathered to watch the flight.

Fortunately the drone fell onto the reef, and the tide was almost out, about 20-40cm of water left. So I grabbed my kayak, paddled over, and began searching, helped by two other guys. 30 minutes later we found the drone and I took it back to the hotel room at First Landing Resort next to the marina to take it apart, clean it, dry it, and treat it with CRC 2-26, an insulating anti-corrosion spray (like Corrosion-X). Don't try this with WD-40 or the like, first of all it'll eat some of the plastics, and second it's conductive and that's not good for a microcontroller board.

Four days later - looks like flight controller and radio etc is still functional. I connected it to battery power and then the computer and everything is recognized and blinks and beeps nicely. But the battery that went down and the speed controller for the brushless motors are toast. I ordered a new speed controller ($37), which has arrived in the meantime but it requires some soldering and I haven't gotten around to do that yet. Maybe today.