Hi all.
I'm very new to the Inspire 1, I've had it around a week now and have been flying it every chance I get. Up until this morning my confidence has been building with every flight, the aircraft has been doing exactly what it's told and has been a dream to learn to fly with. It was time to try something a little more daunting and fly over an area that I wouldn't be able to reach if it came down.
I got up just before dawn and headed down to the coast where there are some beautiful marshes that look really interesting from above. Wind speeds were a little higher than I'd flown in until today, I'd say around 10 - 12 m/h. I ran through my normal checklist, props secure, calibrated the compass, P mode, GPS good etc, all looking good. I normally start my flights by lifting off and doing a few test manoeuvres just to check everything is looking good.
I pushed the Inspire up to around 2 ft but the moment it left the ground it started heading off backwards at a steady pace, it was nose to the wind but it wasn't the wind pushing it because it was pitching back. The inspire had around 30ft of gravel roadway behind it and then a saltwater estuary so I had to act fast and instinctively tried to drop it back to the ground rather than take it higher and let it fly out over the water. In hindsight I probably should have just tried to correct the movement and brought it down that way but some panic was involved lol
As it touched the ground it was still pitching back so the rear legs touched ground first, it stood up on it's rear end and looked like it was going to flip but I ran up and grabbed it and then shut it off using the remote. The only damage was one of the props lost a tip and there are some minor scratches on the landing gear where it danced across the floor.
The biggest damage was to my confidence I think, I was tempted to call it a day but I decided not to give up. I replaced both rear props and took the Inspire to some softer ground and tried again without recalibrating the compass just to see if that was the problem, this time it held position and flew like a dream, no problems whatsoever!
The scary part is that I don't know what went wrong, it's certainly knocked my confidence somewhat. I know I'm going to make mistakes and have to learn from them so maybe i missed something here.
Any tips appreciated (pun intended).
Thanks
Paul
I'm very new to the Inspire 1, I've had it around a week now and have been flying it every chance I get. Up until this morning my confidence has been building with every flight, the aircraft has been doing exactly what it's told and has been a dream to learn to fly with. It was time to try something a little more daunting and fly over an area that I wouldn't be able to reach if it came down.
I got up just before dawn and headed down to the coast where there are some beautiful marshes that look really interesting from above. Wind speeds were a little higher than I'd flown in until today, I'd say around 10 - 12 m/h. I ran through my normal checklist, props secure, calibrated the compass, P mode, GPS good etc, all looking good. I normally start my flights by lifting off and doing a few test manoeuvres just to check everything is looking good.
I pushed the Inspire up to around 2 ft but the moment it left the ground it started heading off backwards at a steady pace, it was nose to the wind but it wasn't the wind pushing it because it was pitching back. The inspire had around 30ft of gravel roadway behind it and then a saltwater estuary so I had to act fast and instinctively tried to drop it back to the ground rather than take it higher and let it fly out over the water. In hindsight I probably should have just tried to correct the movement and brought it down that way but some panic was involved lol
As it touched the ground it was still pitching back so the rear legs touched ground first, it stood up on it's rear end and looked like it was going to flip but I ran up and grabbed it and then shut it off using the remote. The only damage was one of the props lost a tip and there are some minor scratches on the landing gear where it danced across the floor.
The biggest damage was to my confidence I think, I was tempted to call it a day but I decided not to give up. I replaced both rear props and took the Inspire to some softer ground and tried again without recalibrating the compass just to see if that was the problem, this time it held position and flew like a dream, no problems whatsoever!
The scary part is that I don't know what went wrong, it's certainly knocked my confidence somewhat. I know I'm going to make mistakes and have to learn from them so maybe i missed something here.
Any tips appreciated (pun intended).
Thanks
Paul
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