Comm-Check…## …UHF Comm-Check…
When flying machines crash, it is very often because of weather conditions ignored by people who had every reason to know better.
We were at Meteora, a spectacular region of towering mountains of sheer stone, topped with a number of monasteries. This place is not mentioned in the literature of Classical antiquity. It came to be settled by Christian Monks in the 9th Century, as they suffered increasing persecution. At first, the monks lived in caves, but starting in the 14th Century CE they build large monasteries. Access to them was by ladders, which could be pulled up, or by baskets and nets hauled up thousands of feet by ropes.
It is said that they changed the ropes “only when God willed them to break.” Yikes!
This place was clearly the inspiration for The Eeyrie in Game of Thrones, and was the setting for the James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only.
It is the perfect place to get drone-video. I had brought two little drones with me, each a DJI Mini 4 Pro. (I had two due to some confusion with DJI’s customer service… not complaining!)
Our AirB&B was the most elegant and well-appointed I’ve ever beheld, and in addition to a profusion of very friendly cats and some charming other guests, it had a perfect view of the spectacular landscape.
We woke up on Tuesday to see fog rolling over the mountains. Beautiful! Get out the drone!
These drones cannot fly in rain, but… it wasn’t raining! It was just foggy! So I flew Drone B off across the plain and up to get stunning aerial video, panning across the foggy cliff faces. It looked great on the remote’s screen. Then…
Signal weak. Cannot transmit video. Then, a few moments
later, Drone no longer connected.
When one of these drones losses connectivity, it is supposed to come home. So I waited, hoping it would soar out of the mist and land. But, alas, after 35 minutes, beyond when the battery could possibly have lasted, I had to conclude that “Droney McDroneface B” was lost forever.
Lesson learned. I have another, with which I will be more careful.