Humber Ridge

It's been a lovely day although a lot more overcast than yesterday. I'd decided on an aerial shot of the lovely trees on the ridge at Humber so I walked up the abandoned part of Three Tree Lane to a gateway. There's going to be a bit of technical stuff about drone flying so feel free to skip forward.

I was under trees so take off wasn't straight forward. I had to go up, move forward and then climb to altitude before I headed off in the direction of the ridge. I was almost there when the controller announced that the home point had been updated. That couldn't be right as it was a long way from where the home point should be. I brought it home and launched again to get the right home point in. The drone needs to have an up to date home point so that if it loses communication with the controller or if the battery gets too low it can find its way back to you.

So off I went again and started to find the position I had in mind for my shot. It was then that the controller told me the battery level was low and it was returning to home. I was surprised at that because I'd expected the battery to last a lot longer. I watched the sky for it to return so I could put a fresh battery in but it didn't appear. I soon realised it wasn't coming and it had ditched somewhere.

These drones are so clever. There's a 'Find my Drone' app a bit like you might have on your phone. It told me where it was – miles away of course. I walked back down the lane, down the road a bit and down a farm track. I followed the track in the direction planned out by the app until I was in the area. Unfortunately it doesn't show any landmarks so its a job to know where to go next. The pointer tends to wave around rather than staying stable to allow me to establish the direction. I made a few false moves before I retraced my steps and went round the back of a hedge and along the edge of an oatfield. I knew if it was in there I'd have an awful job finding it, plus I didn't want to harm the crop. I eventually came back to where I had been and realised it was in a grass meadow, thank goodness. I walked on, managing to track the direction on the app and eventually saw it a few yards from where the app said. It's not that accurate and I'd never have found it in a field of crops.

So my blip today is not the shot I had in mind. It's one I grabbed quickly before the drone went down. I'll get the one I wanted another time. Perhaps.