Welcome Inspire Pilots!
Join our free DJI Inspire community today!
Sign up

Prop balancing with a hydro wire

Joined
Jul 15, 2015
Messages
347
Reaction score
96
Location
Prince Edward Island, Canada
This afternoon, I flew for the first time, since the firmware update. My time was limited, so I wasn't interested in photography, just flying to bring my both batteries down to 5%.

With only six flights under my belt, all with the previous firmware, my anxiety level was high, especially having read about "strange behaviours" others were experiencing. Also, not being a fan of topping up batteries, I was starting my flights at an 85% charge. I had read of others starting their flights at less full charge and running into issues with premature power loss. Knowing this only served to heighten my anxiety.

I went to a friends to fly. His property, is 200 feet by 2000 feet with hydro wires running down one of the long sides and one of the short ends, about 50 feet high. Having flown there my previous six times I was quite familiar with obstacles presented to me.

I had done my IMU calibrations at home and did a fresh compass calibration on site. All values were normal, so I hesitancy lifted off. I hovered about nine feet off the ground and waited for the worst. It sat there in one spot. I tried both sticks, all maneuvers, everything was good. It flew perfectly! I contuned to flying until it it went into auto land mode, at which point, I manually hovered until the battery reached 5%.

Relieved, I stuck my second battery in. Again, it performed flawlessly! I continued flying back and forth lengthwise at full throttle and when the battery reached 35% I worked it closer to me but continued my back and forth motion. On one of the back and forth motions, I heard what sounded like a baseball card on bicycle spokes. I HIT THE HYDRO WIRE!!! Yet, it continued to fly! I continued to take the battery down to 5% and landed. I walked over to it and discovered how lucky I was. (photo enclosed)

I must have have horseshoes up my ying yang!
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    964.1 KB · Views: 54
  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 55
yikes, thats pretty lucky it just broke the end off and was able to keep flying. i had a similar experience when i was hovering about 2 feet up and my dog tried to eat my inspire, she doesnt mess with it any more and lucky for her i didnt have carbon fiber props on it, that wouldve been bad probably. where are you from if you dont mine my asking? Ive never heard anyone call a power line a hydro wire before.
 
she got cut a little on her lip or tongue i think, couldnt really see the cut but there was a small amount of blood. Shes a doberman so she didnt really care much, she doesnt try that anymore though,haha! Im sure if i had the carbon fiber props on it wouldve been much worse, they are much stiffer and wouldnt have broken, slicing her deeper im guessing.
 
yikes, thats pretty lucky it just broke the end off and was able to keep flying. i had a similar experience when i was hovering about 2 feet up and my dog tried to eat my inspire, she doesnt mess with it any more and lucky for her i didnt have carbon fiber props on it, that wouldve been bad probably. where are you from if you dont mine my asking? Ive never heard anyone call a power line a hydro wire before.
she got cut a little on her lip or tongue i think, couldnt really see the cut but there was a small amount of blood. Shes a doberman so she didnt really care much, she doesnt try that anymore though,haha! Im sure if i had the carbon fiber props on it wouldve been much worse, they are much stiffer and wouldnt have broken, slicing her deeper im guessing.
Lucky, could have been a lot worse..I was just thinking about "hydro wires". I suppose we called them that because in Ontario, before the nukes were built, our electricity came from Niagra Falls, generated from water. They called it hydro electricity and I guess what followed was hydro poles and hydro wires
 
Lucky, could have been a lot worse..I was just thinking about "hydro wires". I suppose we called them that because in Ontario, before the nukes were built, our electricity came from Niagra Falls, generated from water. They called it hydro electricity and I guess what followed was hydro poles and hydro wires
Fair enough, I figured that was the case after looking at the picture(had no clue what you meant before seeing that though, haha!), i was just curious where you were from as Im in the USA and have only heard them called power lines, regardless of where the power comes from.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
22,277
Messages
210,655
Members
34,333
Latest member
marve84