FPV Quadcopter Awesome Crash in River and Scuba Diver Recovery

[JAB1a]

Hi All,
Oh dear, my Quadcopter spent over 24hrs at the bottom of a river. Here are the results of the recovered footage and how the flight was meant to happen.


Best viewed full screen @1080p
FPV Quadcopter Awesome River Crash and Scuba Diver Rescue


Well after a good cleaning with distilled water and many days drying out, the damage was quite minimal:
1x 2200mAh 3S 25C Lipo - registered 0.05v. I had borrowed this from my spotter CamSump (sorry mate)
1x 20Amp ESC - it still ran the motor but at very low RPM and was twitchy
1x Sony PZ0420 Camera - Works perfect indoors but no longer reacts to light outside (white wash)


The flights in the video are in reverse order. I had a great flight and landed without issues, the battery alarm was not going off but I knew power was low. As I was taking my FatShark goggles off one of my spotters mentioned they saw a Common Crane (bird) in  a tree, so me being someone that want to capture everything via my Quadcopter thought I would ';just'; pop up to get a shot, Bad move!. I miss judge the speed I am descending and apply throttle too late.


About 10 minutes of underwater footage was recovered only due to the battery in the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition running out. The GoPro footage captured about 25 fish in total and had the sound of Lee (spotter) and I diving into the water in search of the Quad. Underwater we could hear the battery alarm and ESC';s bleeping away but could not pin point its location with only half a meters visibility in very cold murky water.


Thank you SO much to my friend Basil Brush (nickname) for coming to my Quadcopters rescue with his skills and Scuba gear, what a star. Also great thanks to CamSump and Lee for all their help and keeping me calm


Has anyone else had to recover anything expensive and electrical from a river that would like to share their story and whether the item still worked afterwards?

[Gav]

Love it.  Nice shot of a fish swimming by. 
Guess the gopro was inside waterproof housing then?

Great rescue mission mate.

[guest325]

Very pleased that there was not too much damage, amazing first flight loved every minute of it shame about the swimming episode but liked the under water footage, amazing these cameras are!!!

[kilby]

Haven';t had time to watch the bid yet, butbim pleased that you got it back.

Should send it to that awful TV programme and seebifbyou cab pay for the replacement out of their 250 quid payment.

Also a present for your diver mate

[Biffa]

Jab, you need to stop with the cracking videos - so yesterday

[dazza22]

great video , pleased not too much damage .keep up good work

[Jumpy07]

U need some flotation devices... got two of these on my TBS

http://www.water-buoy.com/

[FragglePete]

Lucky escape!

Dam you Jab1a!  ::) I';m going have to start pushing for my FPV gear now!  Great videos.

Pete

[JAB1a]

Thank you All,

@Gav cheers mate, yes it was in its case for a total of about 185g compared to 75g on its own, I would love to fly without the case but I know I like to push the limits and an exposed GoPro would definitely bare the brunt of a head on crash.

@DarrellW the quads back up in the air now....sods law its raining here now..typical. So glad the GoPro captured the scenes underwater, I was so hoping to get a face shot of me or Lee searching to it but we didn';t even get a foot on film, plenty of splashing a diving noises tho 

@Biffa, lol cheers mate, I will try harder next time Sir, honest 

@Jumpy thanks for the link, those tick all the right boxes but they cost and are a one shot deal, as a ';tinkerer'; I would like to make something that does the job but as cheap as possible and with home made craft :) I have a few idea';s I will test in the bath lol

@FragglePete, Hey good to see you on here Pete, star, looking forward to what you produce via FPV, get it brought mate  the guys on here are some of the best at what we do so they can help you no end!

[JAB1a]

Here are some more video';s of the recent crash. The first video contains some clips of fish captured on camera while the Quadcopter stayed on the river bed. The second video has more sound added from the day which makes it a lot more fun

FPV Quadcopter Underwater Adventure GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition
Best viewed full screen @1080p
FPV Quadcopter Underwater Adverture GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition


FPV Quadcopter Awesome River Crash and Scuba Diver Rescue With Sound
Best viewed full screen @1080p
FPV Quadcopter Awesome River Crash and Scuba Diver Rescue With Sound

[bongo]

glad you got it back and it wasnt too expensive a repair, and some really great flying right there, outstanding stuff

[Gaza07]

pleased you got your copter back and its now repaired awesome video as always     

[FlyinMarty]

Glad it';s home & dry (if you will pardon the pun) & there is relatively few broken bits.

[fazer86]

Glad you managed to get it back! Brilliant videos too. I wasn';t so lucky when I lost mine, wind took it into a tree (pilot error) and it fell down a waterfall into a gorge after hitting a few rocks on the way down. There was no way of getting down to it.

Ah well I can build another one now