The setting was stunning. Tall limestone cliffs towering out of the water. Beautiful green water. Small beaches in carved out, hidden alcoves. Gorgeous lagoons surrounded by the rock faces off the coast of El Nido, Philippines. I was giddy with excitement.
The boat tour guide said that many people lost their drones in the tall rock structures. He didn’t explain why. I assumed it was because they couldn’t see where they were going while flying and the drone crashed.
I unpacked my drone, set it on the stern of the boat and powered it on. We were anchored away from the shore and rock faces. All was good. The drone lifted off and I captured the stunning beauty from the air. I turned in the video and backed the drone through a lagoon corridor. The video footage was breathtaking.
The landing was a little shaky since the drone detected an unstable surface below since the boat was rocking and it was a tight landing space on the back of the boat. After a couple of minutes, I was able to set it down perfectly. So thrilled I was able to capture the scenery! It was my 20th flight!
The boat went around the island to another spot. This alcove was much tighter and had rock faces on most sides. But there was this hidden lagoon that you had to crawl through a tight opening in the rock to see. I thought it would be stunning to fly the drone over it from above.
When I got back on the boat, I set up the drone and was ready to fly. But I noticed before I ascended drone the GPS signal was weak since a message on my screen popped up. I thought that was ok because I could see it.
The “ok to launch” message was yellow so I decided to ascend. The drone hovered at about 10 feet above the boat but an error message came on the screen saying I should return the drone since the GPS did not work. I had never seen that error so I tried to bring the drone back down.
But then the drone started to not respond to my controls. I tried bringing the drone down, but then it started going sideways. Woah. I carefully tried to bring the drone down but it continued moving further away. It quickly became apparent that I had no control of the drone. It was now above water surrounded by limestone rock faces and was acting erratically. Seconds later, the drone started darting toward the rock face and there wasn’t anything I could do but watch in disbelief. My drone was going to crash.
…..
Six-months prior, before I left on my work sabbatical, I considered buying a drone to capture amazing scenery of the places I would visit. But my assumption was that the drone would be large and fragile. And one more thing I would need to lug with me around the world. I wanted to pack as light as I could.
When I celebrated New Year’s Eve north of Auckland with my friend Kate who I met on my cruise to Antarctica, her friend had a drone. I thought it was amazing. However the drone had a large case so I again thought the drone would be one more thing to carry so I dismissed the thought again.
And then I got to Bali and traveled up to Ubud with my friend Glady. As we were swimming in the pool, Glady’s friend got out his new DJI Mavic Air. It was DJI’s latest drone that was so compact and about the size of a shoe. And while it expensive, it seemed within reach priced around $1,000. The case was so small that it could fit nicely in my backpack and I wouldn’t have to worry about packing it in my luggage. I could easily make room.
I was sold! When I arrived in Manila, I found a store that sold the Mavic Air and bought my first drone! Amazing. I bought the Fly More Combo since it came with two extra batteries. I left for the northern rice terraces (click here to see my posting and video about the stunning rice terraces with some drone footage included) later that evening so I would find a place up north to learn how to fly it. And on the way up north, I used the Wi-Fi to research some of the cool features of the drone.
…..
In seconds, I helplessly watched my drone beeline for the side of the cliff. I tried to pull the reverse control. No response. I tried to pull the ascend control. No response. It was like my drone was possessed. Like someone else just maliciously overtook the controls and was laughing into the crystal ball like the wicked witch of the west getting ready to capture Dorothy as she tapped the edges of her fingers together. “I’ll get you my pretty”.
As a child I remember having a remote control car and being able to control the four-wheeled toy was liberating. I was in control! I could choose where to drive it. And buying the drone brought back nostalgic feelings of controlling a toy. Being able to experience the thrill of being at the controls. Only flying a drone was much more awesome. It was exhilarating taking this tiny lightweight object that was the size of my hand when folded up and seeing the four tiny propellers lift the entire drone into the air. The only issue was that this drone was not an inexpensive toy.
I arrived in Banaue, Philippines, ready to hike 4,000 rice terraces. The night before the hike, I unboxed my new toy and turned it on to make sure it would power up. A couple software/firmware upgrades were needed but after a couple hours of downloading the updates over slow Wi-Fi, it looked like the drone was ready to fly. I packed the drone in it’s small case that fit nicely in my backpack. I was ready to fly the drone over the beautiful ride fields of Batad.
After a two hour hike, we arrived at a stunning waterfall buried in the beautiful mountains. It was a perfect setting to capture drone footage. (But maybe not the best place to practice flying a drone). After setting up the drone and powering it on, I grabbed the controller for liftoff.
Some local kids came over and sat next to me anticipating the flight with excitement. I tried to ascend the drone, but another firmware upgrade message came up on my screen. It became clear that I would not be flying next to the waterfall. I was bummed. A local woman came over and asked why I didn’t fly the drone in broken English. I told her the drone needed an upgrade and I hadn’t even flown it yet.
The next day, I upgraded the firmware and took the drone to a local basketball court since it was a flat surface – there weren’t too many flat open surfaces in Banaue. I set up everything, connected my phone to the controller and powered it on.
Success!! Liftoff. So cool. I practiced taking off and landing. And going side to side and up and down. And then I figured out how to control the “gimbal” with the help of my Filipino friends who were my cheerleaders throughout my inaugural drone flight. The gimbal is the camera attached to the drone. And you can move the camera angle up and down from the controller.
Now that I had some basic flying experience, I wanted to take the drone out and fly! We went to the beautiful Banaue Rice Terraces. I launched the drone from the road and took it out over the stunning terraces. Each battery only holds 20 minutes of flight time and I had three batteries.
I was able to fly the drone out over the terraces for a while. At one point, I visually lost sight of the drone since it blended in the landscape when it was further away, and I freaked out saying, “dude, where’s my drone?” My friends freaked out also. Then I ascended the drone high and we could spot it. It was a scary moment but that is the feature of the gimbal so you can see where the drone is from the controller.
….
My drone crashed hard into the side of the rock face just above a group of people and tumbled about ten feet into the saltwater below. I was about 20 meters away standing on the boat. I could hear the people all gasp and say “oh crap”. The drone isn’t waterproof and certainly salt water is worse than fresh water.
I couldn’t believe it. I has just gotten the drone. And then I felt so stupid. I should have listened to the tour guide. And I was really thankful the drone didn’t hit anyone. It was the first time I really thought drones can be dangerous. And I was also really embarrassed. Come on dude, can’t you fly a drone?
Someone standing nearby plucked it out of the water quickly. I got lucky! It was a local guide. He held the drone dripping with water above his head as he slowly walked out in the shallow water to my boat. I thanked him for grabbing the drone quickly!
At first glance, the the external parts of the drone weren’t damaged too badly. One propeller broke and there was a couple gouges in the plastic at the back. But no cracks and no other scrapes. I began to think this could be promising.
I immediately removed the battery and poured fresh water over the battery terminals on the drone. The wet battery needed to be properly disposed of since this is now irreparable. And I began drying the drone with my T-shirt. I shook water out of the drone and then positioned it so the wind from the moving boat would help dry out the inside.
I remained calm. There wasn’t much I could do. What was done was done. I tried not to let the situation ruin my day and the rest of my island hopping tour but I was bummed. I had no clue what to think. I tried to remain optimistic thinking since there was much damage that it wouldn’t be a total loss.
About three hours later the boat cruise returned to port and I found someone on the street selling rice. Maybe it’s a sign that everything will be ok. I bought a bagful since the rice will absorb all moisture. I took the propellers off and placed the drone in an airtight bag with the rice. I read up online about similar situations and most writers said to leave it in the rice for three days to fully dry out.
Three days later it was the moment of truth. I pulled out the drone and dusted it off from being in the rice. I reattached the propellers and put a new battery in. I turned the drone on and the lights all came on as it usually did. I got a little excited as I thought I may get lucky!
I hooked up the controller and turned on the DJI interface. And then the errors popped up. Multiple ESC errors came up. I had no clue what that was so I googled it and turns out the error is not good. It basically is the motherboard for the drone. The backbone that operates the system. It was fatal. My toy was done.
I had prepared myself for the bad outcome. But it was still disappointing. I felt so stupid to buy such an expensive piece of equipment only to break it a couple weeks later. And I thought back to how it happened and felt it wasn’t all my fault. I contacted DJI the manufacturer to see if they could repair the drone and they said any water damage is irreparable. I am in the process of sending them the cached system data so they can review to see if the drone did something it shouldn’t have. So we will see what the outcome is.
More than likely, if I want to have a drone again, I will need to purchase an entire new unit. I am not sure I want to spend the money again and take risk of the drone crashing again. I probably wouldn’t fly it over water again but it would be tempting. I saw the other day they are making waterproof drones so maybe I will wait until it is affordable to purchase.
The drone was certainly a blast while it lasted. It is a fun toy that should be handled with extreme caution since it certainly can be dangerous. I am bummed about the outcome of my drone but I can’t change the situation. I guess it’s a story that I can chat about in the future. And I still contemplate getting another one since the viewpoint from above is one of a kind. Since I am traveling for a while, it may be worth investing in another but obtaining insurance (if that is even possible) will be something I look into.
Have you crashed a drone? Would love to hear from you to see if you were able to get the manufacturer to fix it. Shoot me an email at cory@thereiscory.com or leave me a comment below.
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Dude. I also crashed my mavic air in El Nido, just last week! Hahaha! Tour A, small lagoon. Standing on shallow water, hand-launched on Vision mode (i was asking for it), and while in mid-air, it suddenly switched to ATTI mode and started drifting in the wind. I couldn’t control it effectively. Until finally it crashed into a rock face and fell into salt-water. And yes! Flying over water is tempting, I have done it a looot of times (having lived in Cebu, surrounded by beautiful islands and beaches) and I thought I was prepared for anything. But not this time. I sent it to a trusted local repair shop (in Cebu City, PH). They have sent me photos of the internal electronics and basically told me that ‘THIS IS BAD’ but I have yet to hear their final assessment. I have already abandoned all hopes of it getting resurrected. If ever I am getting another mavic air, I am never flying again without a solid GPS lock. I guess we both learned an important lesson on flying UAVs, and a very expensive one at that. Cheers mate.