Let's talk about how to find a quadcopter, which could have been lost during the flight for a number of reasons. The disappearance of the aircraft can occur if a software glitch occurs and the starting coordinates were not recorded. Also, a hardware failure may occur in the drone device, which will make it impossible to return the flight device to the base due to the discharge of the autonomous power supply. Modern Innovations and other aircraft of the brand, in particular Phantom, Matrice, Spreading Wings and Inspire, have a built-in GPS module. This device allows not only to record data about the departure point, but also to completely control the location of the multi-rotor unmanned platform for the pilot.
How to find a quadcopter if all on-board search systems and modules responsible for the safe operation of aircraft have failed? To avoid this extremely unpleasant situation, it is necessary to perform a hardware check before each launch of the drone or install a tracker, which we will talk about a little later. Let's look at simple rules for using aircraft platforms that will help avoid losses of expensive equipment. First of all, before starting the copter, the pilot needs to make sure that the compass is working and perform calibration. This procedure will not take more than 2 minutes, but will allow you to confidently launch the platform even in unknown terrain.
It is also necessary to make it a rule to check the copter’s recording of starting coordinates. DJI devices will let the pilot know that they are ready to take off by signaling with lit indicators, and if a failure occurs, the operator will be able to correct the situation in time. The next thing the pilot needs to take care of, of course, is monitoring the charge level of the autonomous power source. It would be a good idea for novice pilots to check the operation of the drone’s forced return home function when starting up.
How to find a quadcopter using a tracker
Installing a GPS tracker on board a multi-rotor platform will significantly improve the security level of the device, as well as confidently launch it without fear of loss. You shouldn’t skimp on a tracker, since cheap models are an absolutely useless module on a drone. As practice shows, the accuracy of data transmission from such devices is very low, because the error can vary within several kilometers. Needless to say, if sometimes, being two steps away from the drone, it can be very difficult to find it. When choosing trackers, you should definitely ask the seller what search accuracy the module has, and whether it is compatible with the controllers of unmanned vehicles.
The tracker is easily installed on board the drone and can be secured with glue. For it to work, it is necessary to install a SIM card in the module slot, to which the pilot can make a call if the platform disappears. In this case, the question of how to find a quadcopter will lose its relevance, since when calling, the pilot will receive a message with the exact coordinates of the location of the flight device. The pilot will only have to go to the landing point of the device and pick it up. Agree, this is very convenient, especially since you don’t have to spend a lot of time finding the “lost item.” DJI quadcopters, for example, Phantoms or Inspire, in the event of an emergency, will automatically return to the base, provided that the pilot has checked the record of zero coordinates.
Accident at the Abrantes Fortress
The first accident happened due to my negligence back in Portugal. Before each flight, you need to calibrate the compass and rotate the drone in a circle. I did it. Before that I tightened the screws. Everything is OK, ready to fly. I press the take off button...
The device rises half a meter. One propeller flies to the side. It’s good that no one was nearby, otherwise he would have knocked out his eye. The quadcopter suddenly turns over and begins to spin the bottom break with its screws on the asphalt. He didn't want to stop with his head down. It took me a few seconds to grab it on its legs, turn it over and turn it off.
Scratched all the screws and slightly damaged the threads on the engine. Perhaps this incident influenced the latest fall.
Drowned!
It happened in Latvia. We drove from Jurmala towards Cape Kolka. We stopped by the road and dived into one of the forest clearings to the sea. On the way we ate blueberries. Wooden stairs led to the blue sea.
“Great place to launch,” I said.
Uncovered the winged friend. Now I carefully check that all the propellers have been tightened. I first started the engines at idle. He took off and hung in the air for a minute. That's it, ready to fly.
We are filming an epic take-off, this is when the drone flies back into the distance and films us. Oh, what a beauty! Red sand, a strip of coniferous forest, a blue sea and we, like ants, are moving further and further away.
- Misha, look quickly! – Lena said.
I looked away from the remote control and saw how one of the propellers flew away from the quadcopter several meters, and the device itself, wagging in a spiral, rushed into the depths of the sea. Everything happened in a split second. A splash on the water and he's gone.
I tried to remember the crash site by eye. Very quickly he took off all his clothes and jumped into the icy water. The 17 degree water shocked me and I forgot where the fall occurred. After searching for 10 minutes, I left.
I pulled on a T-shirt and jacket. Using GPS, I found the crash site and went looking again. He fell 65 meters from the launch point. I searched for half an hour, but the current carried him away somewhere...
If you are in those parts, the coordinates of the fall are 57.038821 23.412391 at staircase number 5.
Why shouldn't you buy a drone?
I carried it in hand luggage in a photo backpack. In addition, it had 2 cameras, Lenin’s laptop, chargers and batteries. The total was almost 6 kg. It's hard.
Lena’s backpack also grew larger, as my things and laptop moved there. In total, about 5-6 kg, instead of the usual three. As a result, we both carry almost 2 times more cargo when moving. Upon arrival, we threw the backpack into the trunk of the car. Without a car, you are unlikely to be able to carry a large camera bag everywhere. Personally, I found it very inconvenient to walk everywhere with him.
Constant bans and new laws
Every week you ask me by mail whether they find fault with drones at the airport? They haven’t found fault anywhere yet, but the laws in different countries are becoming more severe every month!
In Paris, a journalist was fined €1,000 for flying near the Eiffel Tower. In Norway, they threatened me with a fine of almost €800 if I let it go near the Kerag stone.
Rumor has it... In Germany you need €100 insurance for flights. In Austria you need to obtain a flight permit for €150 per year, take a drone piloting course for €300, otherwise a fine of €22,000!!! To post a video on YouTube you need an additional license. And I flew around Austria and didn’t blow my mind.
For Russians, this is all difficult to apply. If anything, it’s cheaper to throw the remote control into the bushes and pretend to be a vegetable, but there’s still a chance of getting fined.
In Russia you can still fly freely, but today there was news that in the coming year I will restrict it by law.
Nothing to shoot
From the previous paragraph there are many restrictions on flights. For example, in Europe it is prohibited to fly in groups of people. It’s scary to imagine if a propeller flew into someone’s eye, and a drone fell on a child’s head! It's dangerous to fly in cities, but city photography is the most beautiful.
Because of this, I almost never launched in cities, but it’s interesting to shoot forests and fields. You need to look for epic places to launch - mountains, cliffs, sea, lagoons, but this is not so easy.
Do not fly in bad weather
In Norway it rained most of the days, because of this I was able to start it only 4 times, and all this time I was carrying the quad in the trunk and carrying it from plane to plane!
In cloudy weather, shooting is also not very impressive. The shooting quality is at the level of a good mobile phone.
Spending on accessories
It didn't end with the purchase of a flying friend. I bought an additional battery for 12,900 rubles, a car cigarette lighter charger for 1,500 rubles, a reflector for the antenna for 600 rubles, a light filter for 1,500 rubles, a photo backpack for 5,500 rubles, a metal bracket for the phone for 800 rubles. Total already 22 thousand from above!
And you also need a powerful smartphone with a large screen or a tablet for 30-60 thousand! My iPad mini couldn't handle HD video, and the iPhone 5s has a too small screen. In short, I was flying almost blindly, that’s not the point!
Increased attention from others
Get ready for the fact that every launch will gather crowds of onlookers around you. Some of them will breathe down your back, cough in your ear and ask various questions: “how much did you buy it for,” “film me,” “show me what you can see on your phone.”
It takes a lot of time to launch
It takes me 30-60 minutes to find a convenient place, assemble everything, check it, launch it, fly for 10-20 minutes and put everything back together! And all this takes away valuable time during the trip. You can’t just take it out and put it away, like with a camera or phone.
Should I buy a drone?
You decide. Perhaps, while I’m saving up for a new quadcopter, the rules will become stricter and there will be no place to launch it in Europe. How do you think?
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How not to lose a quadcopter if it flies away and never returns
How to protect yourself from losing your quadcopter?
If you decide to buy a quadcopter, then choose a model with the possibility of auto-return: Phantom, Walkera QR X350, Quanum Nova.
These quadcopters have an auto-return and automatic landing mode in case of loss of communication or by pressing a toggle switch on the transmitter.
This is possible because a GPS receiver is used to determine coordinates.
You can also implement a similar trick in a homemade quadcopter. Usually they install a flight controller from Phantom - Naza with GPS, and the controller doesn’t care which quad to return to the starting point - factory or homemade.
Before takeoff, be sure to ensure that the quadcopter has tracked all satellites and is ready for use. It would also be a good idea to calibrate the compass (if you are more than 10 km away from your previous flight location); calibration is done in a couple of minutes; see how exactly - see the instructions for the quadcopter.
As a starting point (and landing place for auto-return), choose a place without trees, poles and wires at a distance of 15 meters. This will allow the quadcopter to land automatically without damage.
All of the above-mentioned quadcopters, when the battery sag, fly to the take-off point, and if it is impossible to reach it, they make an automatic landing. This is true if you fly far enough from the take-off point for interesting shots.
However, anything can happen, for example, unsealed electronics will fail after flying in the clouds.
The owner was able to find his quadcopter after a week of searching, while he recorded video on the ground, comparing frames of the video and the area in which the quadcopter fell.
How to find a lost quadcopter?
You can attach a GPS tracker to the quadcopter - then you will be able to find the quadcopter if the unexpected happens and the quadcopter flies away in an unknown direction or lands in the forest.
This GPS tracker has a built-in battery and can be attached to the quadcopter using 2-sided 3M tape or glue.
Watch the video of testing such a tracker - it shows both the flight of an aircraft model and the search technology.
Well, is it worth installing a GPS tracker for the opportunity to find a quadcopter that has flown away?
A better case is to avoid a loss of communication between the control panel and the quadcopter.
How to increase the control range of a quadcopter?
If you fly more than a kilometer from the take-off point (in cities this distance is shorter, in the fields it is longer), then your quadcopter will lose the signal from the transmitter and begin an automatic return.
It is better, of course, not to allow this to happen and to retain the ability to control the quadcopter, which means that a signal amplifier from the control panel is needed.
Quadcopter remote control signal amplifier.
The amplifier is positioned as “an increase in the flight range of the Phantom quadcopter,” but, in fact, it doesn’t care about the signal from which control panel it amplifies.
Using such a “booster” you can increase your flight range to 3-5 kilometers from the take-off point.
Compiled by Patlakh V.V.
No matter how hard quadcopter manufacturers try to use the latest technology, unfortunately, the fact remains that sooner or later almost every pilot faces the unpleasant problem “my quadcopter flew away.” Let's try to figure out why this happens, how to prevent it and what to do if the copter does fly away.
Currently, most quadcopters are equipped with a GPS function, which allows them to determine their coordinates in space, remember them and hold them if necessary. The same function allows for automatic “return home”, i.e. return to a point recorded using GPS coordinates in the following cases:
- loss of signal from the control panel
- low battery
- forced activation of the function
The section presents all models with automatic return.
It would seem that this is a panacea! He flew away, but promised to return! Why might this function not work? There aren't many reasons for this. In most cases, this is the launch of a quadcopter without recording the take-off point, and more rarely, a simple failure in the electronics.
I would like to note that they are the most reliable of all those existing today, but it is better to be on the alert...
Here are some tips so that you don’t have to be upset that the copter has flown away:
- Make sure your copter has recorded its take-off point. To do this, you will be helped by the indication of the quadcopter itself (it is different on different models, but, for example, with DJI it is traditionally a series of green lights before takeoff) and a mobile application, which displays a map and coordinates of the path in real time. If you have any doubts and are not entirely sure, it is better to restart the copter and once again make sure that the take-off point is recorded, and fly with peace of mind. Following this rule reduces your risks significantly!
- Calibrate your aircraft before every takeoff. This is especially true if you are going to fly to a new place. During transportation, the drone may be in close proximity to metal objects, which affects its compass, so if you do not calibrate, the quadcopter may behave inappropriately. In new versions of quadcopters, such as in, a smart mobile application will remind you of the need for calibration.
- Monitor your battery charge. Automatic functions are, of course, good, but, as practice shows, you can’t always rely on technology. Return the quadcopter in manual mode to the take-off point, let it be in your line of sight.
- Enter your contacts on the quadcopter. To do this, just stick a piece of paper with a phone number or e-mail on the quadcopter body. There are many helpful people in the world; perhaps they will find your drone and contact you immediately.
- Install a GPS tracker. This is a really great solution, because this way you can always track the location of your quadcopter. Whether it fell or flew away, at least you will know where to look. But this also has its drawbacks. If a drone falls somewhere in the forest where there is no net, the chances of finding it are exactly the same as without a tracker.
- Take screenshots of your smartphone/tablet screen over long distances. If a GPS tracker has not been installed, you will at least have the last coordinates of the copter's location.
What to do if the quadcopter still flies away? How to find a fallen quadcopter? How to find a quadcopter if it is lost? If you did not have a GPS tracker, then there are not many options - either it flew away (in which case the chances of finding it are close to zero), or it fell/landed due to low battery charge (in which case the chances of finding it are higher, of course).
How to find a quadcopter if it has flown away - the advice is obvious:
- Try to determine the possible location of the copter.
- Gather a team of like-minded people and start searching.
- Post an ad on forums, in VKontakte groups, perhaps there will be people who have seen or found your copter
- Keep an eye on advertisements for the sale of used quadcopters - your drone may end up in this category. And in this case, it can really help you if the drone is personalized, i.e. with some stickers or other distinctive signs so that you can easily identify it.
Safe flights! :)
