Welp, guess I'm done.

[Dark Skies]

I am super pissed right now, so bear with any negative energy emitted by this post. Firstly, I'm a disabled vet with anxiety and depression issues. I bought a drone thinking it would be a cool hobby. I've rarely flown it because my anxiety told me something bad would happen. I left my comfort zone and took it for a flight today. Sure enough, son of a bitch, I managed to crash it into my idiot neighbors tree. I live in the country, my next door neighbor has several tall pine trees right on her side of the property line. Now it's stuck in the tree about 40 feet up. Do I have any options other than burning/cutting the tree down (which I'm seriously considering). Would a tree service company be any help. If I can't retrieve it, I'm done with this hobby - I'll concentrate on my gun and knife collections.

 

[DoubleG]

Hi...sometimes happens and, I will say, at least one time happens to everybody! Me too crashed an expensive drone colliding a tree...then I've reconsidered my flight capacities and learn to fly far enough from trees.
The recovery....depends, what drone are we talking about? Because I imagine that a company with a platform can have an huge cost compared to the drone value.

 

[Dark Skies]

Hi, thx for the reply. Honestly, it is definitely a "budget" drone , under $200 on Amazon, and you're right, if I could find a tree service company to do the job I'm sure the price would be well above that. It just pisses me off and frustrates me. The branch that it's stuck in is literally over my front yard, I feel like the tree is taunting me. As I said, due to my issues I let negative events like this really get to me, especially since I already had anxiety about flying the **** thing, then this happens and my negative thoughts are like, "Yep, we told you."

 

[phph001]

I am super pissed right now, so bear with any negative energy emitted by this post. Firstly, I'm a disabled vet with anxiety and depression issues. I bought a drone thinking it would be a cool hobby. I've rarely flown it because my anxiety told me something bad would happen. I left my comfort zone and took it for a flight today. Sure enough, son of a bitch, I managed to crash it into my idiot neighbors tree. I live in the country, my next door neighbor has several tall pine trees right on her side of the property line. Now it's stuck in the tree about 40 feet up. Do I have any options other than burning/cutting the tree down (which I'm seriously considering). Would a tree service company be any help. If I can't retrieve it, I'm done with this hobby - I'll concentrate on my gun and knife collections.

Trying to be positive. Is it stuck on a branch which can be shaken to get the drone to fall out? If so then the plan is to attach a thin string to a stone or ball and throw the ball so that the string passes over the branch. Attached to the other end of the string is a much thicker cord, which in turn is passed over the branch and brought down to ground level. You then shake the branch while 2 friends hold a net to catch the drone.

 

[Dark Skies]

Thank you for the reply. I actually googled "drone stuck in tree" and that plan of getting a line around the branch and shaking it was noted. I was gonna try it - I found a padlock I had laying around to use as a weight and grabbed a couple of skeins of light paracord that I was going to use but as I surveyed the location of the drone and did an honest self-inventory I realized there was no way I was going to physically be able to do that. See, it took a couple of days of looking, with binoculars, to actually find where the drone is in the tree. It's in a higher branch than I thought (closer to 50 feet) and that branch is directly above a larger branch, so it would take sone hella skill to toss the weighted line where it needs to go. I will say that I've come down from my initial emotionally charged reaction - found my Zen, found my center, aligned my chakras, whatever. The problem is that when - like me - you already think that things are going to go FUBAR and then they actually do, your brain is like, "I told you so, you idiot!" Also, since I'm a reclusive misanthrope I tend to anthropomorphize my devices, especially those that have some degree of autonomous function like a drone. If I had one of those robot vacuums I'd name it and thank it verbally for cleaning my floors. So, yes, I felt bad for the drone, being stuck up there in that stupid tree. Silly, I know. But, I've calmed down and come to some degree of acceptance - isn't that the final stage of grief? LOL. The drone will come down eventually, it's at the tip of the branch and we do get wind out here, luckily the predominant winds in this area blow towards my yard so if/when it gets blown out the tree it should land in my yard. Matter of fact, it's getting kind of breezy today, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully, the wind won't be accompanied by rain (can you dry out a drone that's been rained on?).
Okay, that was my original reply that I was going to post, now to update the update, I recently went outside to smoke a cigarette, and hot dang sumbitch, wouldn't ya know it, the drone was laying in my front yard. The wind came through for me and it never started raining so she didn't even get wet. Unsurprisingly the battery had popped out when she hit and it took a few minutes of searching to find it, but I did. More importantly, the drone was intact! I don't know what it's innards are looking like, but there's no external damage. The rotor blades are dirty, I guess it landed sideways or upside down, but that's it. Even if it doesn't work I still feel a sense of satisfaction at getting it back. I will clean the rotors, put a fresh battery in and see if it works and will make one more post to advise on that. Again, thanks to you for the response and the suggestion.
P.S. Even if it does work I will probably never fly the drone again after this emotional trauma! LOL

 

[Dark Skies]

Okay, last(?) update - I cleaned off the blades, used some compressed air to blow it off/out in case there was dirt in the battery compartment or the rotor motor hubs, and fired 'er up, and she works. I hovered it for a few seconds inside, in indoor mode, since it's still windy out, and it seems to be okay. It's talking to the remote and the phone app. I rotated the front camera up and down a few times to check the gimbal and that functions as well. Cool beans. For a budget GPS drone, it's a tough little bugger.
NGL, I was a bit anxious about flying it in the house - I was contemplating the irony of crashing it into a wall or ceiling and actually breaking it, after it survived its arboreal misadventure.

 

[DoubleG]

You were very lucky...

 

[phph001]

Okay, last(?) update - I cleaned off the blades, used some compressed air to blow it off/out in case there was dirt in the battery compartment or the rotor motor hubs, and fired 'er up, and she works. I hovered it for a few seconds inside, in indoor mode, since it's still windy out, and it seems to be okay. It's talking to the remote and the phone app. I rotated the front camera up and down a few times to check the gimbal and that functions as well. Cool beans. For a budget GPS drone, it's a tough little bugger.
NGL, I was a bit anxious about flying it in the house - I was contemplating the irony of crashing it into a wall or ceiling and actually breaking it, after it survived its arboreal misadventure.

I'm so pleased for you, and hope you will not give up. My first aeroplane flight (rubber power, not radio-controlled) was also straight into a tree. I persevered with self instruction and ended up writing an article "The foolish pilot" which was actually accepted for publication by a model aircraft magazine. The main message of that article was "Don't fly across the sun" but my suggestion to you now is "Keep it simple to start with". 1. Fly up to 20 feet and come straight down (you've done that one). 2. Fly up to 20 feet, fly sideways 20 feet, come straight down. 3. Fly up to 20 feet, fly sideways 20 feet, fly 20 feet at right angles, come straight down. You get the idea and you get to take the drone home that evening

 

[Dark Skies]

IKR, especially since.. wait for it.. it finally started raining here a few minutes ago. I would've been so sad.

 

[Dark Skies]

I'm so pleased for you, and hope you will not give up. My first aeroplane flight (rubber power, not radio-controlled) was also straight into a tree. I persevered with self instruction and ended up writing an article "The foolish pilot" which was actually accepted for publication by a model aircraft magazine. The main message of that article was "Don't fly across the sun" but my suggestion to you now is "Keep it simple to start with". 1. Fly up to 20 feet and come straight down (you've done that one). 2. Fly up to 20 feet, fly sideways 20 feet, come straight down. 3. Fly up to 20 feet, fly sideways 20 feet, fly 20 feet at right angles, come straight down. You get the idea and you get to take the drone home that evening

Thanks for the encouraging words, phph. Part of my problem has been that this drone has two lights on the front and two on the tail and they're all white, so when it's a ways off it's hard to tell which way it's oriented because I primarily see the lights. That's what happened here, it got close to the trees, I panicked and got disoriented and zigged when I was trying to zag, right into the branches. I'm going to try tinting the tail lights with a red magic marker and see if that helps. Thanks again for your thoughtful reply. And I will use that training exercise. I should add - lightly tinting the lights, I'm going to be careful not to color them so darkly that I won't be able to see them!

 

[N2001X]

Thanks for the encouraging words, phph. Part of my problem has been that this drone has two lights on the front and two on the tail and they're all white, so when it's a ways off it's hard to tell which way it's oriented because I primarily see the lights. That's what happened here, it got close to the trees, I panicked and got disoriented and zigged when I was trying to zag, right into the branches. I'm going to try tinting the tail lights with a red magic marker and see if that helps. Thanks again for your thoughtful reply. And I will use that training exercise. I should add - lightly tinting the lights, I'm going to be careful not to color them so darkly that I won't be able to see them!

So wyehnyou press the stick right to shift the drone toward the right, then if you observe the llights moving right, the drone is pointing away from you. if it apears to move toward your left, it is pointing toward you. Easy, no tinting necessary.