Raging Rotors: Up, Up, and Away!
This past weekend was a sad one for me: I attended a small memorial for an Ares QX130 quadcopter. Granted there was ice cream and lots of laughs abound, but I think this tale bears repeating as it does teach a valuable lesson.
My cousin was lucky enough to get the quadcopter from ‘Santa’ this past Christmas, but it wasn’t until Chi-beria thawed that he started to fly. He was having a great time with it: bouncing it off every sizable object in his backyard giggling the whole time. Little did I know that his father was using it more than him. Well the sun was shining and the wind was OK, and my uncle decided to spend extra time trimming the quadcopter and make it as stable as possible all on his own. After about 20 or so odd minutes, he had it trimmed to perfection.
As he started to hover around his driveway and the bit of road in front of his house, a car was approaching the flight zone. In a gut instinct maneuver, my uncle gave hard throttle and cleared about 20 feet or so in the air to avoid collision.
…which is when the wind at the higher elevation took the quad and nestled it deep into the top of a 25 foot tall tree and it has yet to come down still after 5 days.
The moral? Never underestimate the wind. Take it from a guy born and raised in the Windy City: just because it’s a gentle breeze where you’re standing doesn’t mean its the same 10, 20, even 100 feet up.
I’d like to thank my uncle for demonstrating this lesson for us (since you planned that the whole time, right?), and would like to also mention his son is not letting him touch his new quadcopter ever. At least I have a Father’s Day gift idea!
The last of the Multirotor Build Project is about ready for viewing, just getting the last of the video down and waiting for the rain to stop to get a few more shots of them in. The Blade 200QX is coming in within the week so I’m really excited to unbox and give you my impressions on that as well. This will be a great summer, indeed!
Until next time, Stay Shiny and Keep Flyin’!
