This weekend I took a couple of boys to the beach (family members) and wanted to get some video of them trying to surf and using a boogie board, (in some very poor surf conditions). Something unexpected happened, through the low resolution of the goggles, I mistook some other kid and hovered up close. As he turned to face me, I realized he wasn't the kid I was expecting and instead of a surfboard, he had a surf casting reel. He cast his lure at my quadcopter. I didn't really notice what had happened until later when I reviewed the video from the GoPro. In the slow motion section, you can see the lure whiz past just below me.
Anyway, he missed and I was lucky. I finished out the flight and landed unaware.. and will be more careful in the future!
Comments
FYI to Wingman and Richard, its even easier than that. Just right-click any youtube video and you can link directly to a time in the video.
Another quick tip - Dont fly close to people. That way when you have equipment failure you wont kill or hurt someone
I’m surprised that no one sees the side of the guy in the water. How would you feel if someone would fly up to you so close? Seems unsafe to me. I think people are “like that” because people “fly like that”. It sounds like you didn’t mean to put yourself in that position but once you identify situation how about moving back to a safe, courteous location? Being considerate to your surroundings will benefit everyone that enjoys flying FPV.
Thanks for sharing the video. Glad you didn't lose your vehicle, or have other consequences. In general, I think that with more, low-altitude flying objects in the skies we can expect many kinds of immediate responses by those who believe they are being threatened, or by those who simply want to see if they can do something before they have thought enough about potential consequences. The fisherman would probably not have tried to hit a bird with his lure (on the other hand, maybe he has tried that too!).
True that! That still stinks that people are like that, I mean I understand if he thinks his personal space was invaded but it seems like a very irrational response. I would of at least waved my arms in an attempt to "shoo" the flying machine away from me.
Thanks wingman, useful info.
Soviet, I think the odds are if he reeled it in that it wouldn't have hit him, but It would have ended up in the ocean, and It would have been a total loss, except from the GoPro which was in its waterproof case, if I could have gotten it without a too much of a confrontation.
just glad it didn't happen!
He cast his lure at your copter!? What was his plan when he reeled those spinning blades of death down right on top of him? That just seems like a silly thing to do.
Quick tip -- you can append a special string at the end of a YouTube video link to get it to start at a certain point.
In this it would be &t=0m50s
The incident is at 0:50 (to save you time).