Drones and Crashing Them

Let me share with you a story of how my husband and I acquired our drones and how they got crashed!

Having a drone is one of our goals, mainly because we want to offer videography services and obtaining one means being able to give a different perspective to our clients. Drone footage is one of the requirements now when offering photo and video services. By the way, we stopped offering our services when I got pregnant, and then the pandemic came.

Drone 1: DJI Spark

It was in the year 2018 when we acquired our first drone - a DJI Spark. It was meant as a gift for our anniversary. We love traveling and it would be great to have a drone for some aerial shots.

Our first trip with the drone was in Bacolod and Sipalay. It was our 3rd anniversary and we stayed in a beautiful house on top of a hill somewhere in Cauyan Negros Occidental.

It was our first trip with the drone and it was also its first crash! I was the suspect for its first airdrop! Imagine my horror!

Crash Number 1

On our 3rd day in Negros Occidental, we decided to go to the shoreline down the hill where we were staying. It has a long beach so my husband being a fan of Peter McKinnon decided to give me the remote and said it would be easy for me to just press the side button while he runs on the shore just like one of Peter's videos.

I was just following orders but as I pressed on the right button and while James was running at the shoreline, I looked into where the drone was heading, it was my first flight and I had no proper training! It was my training already and then suddenly, everything stopped!

I saw the controller showing me a video of what looked like a tree, a dead one perhaps? No, it was a tree nearby the shore. I lifted my head and saw James was already on his way towards the tree. I don't know the name of that tree but it has lone green leaves with spikes on the sides. The drone dropped into the sandy ground, I ran towards James and he was devastated, he told me it was his fault and all I could say was sorry for what had happened. Fortunately, the only damage was the propeller and we have a spare one! The drone still flies although it looked like one of the motors got some sand on that remained functional!

Crash Number 2

Our second Spark crash happened in East Coast White Sand Beach Resort in Anda, Bohol, now called Parklane Bohol Resort and Spa. Our family had a mini celebration for my brother's homecoming. We took advantage of their day use promotion of Php 500 with Php 300 as consumable.

We had some family group photographs and James flew the drone. It was windy that day, so the controller was already suggesting not to fly high so as the drone was on its way back to home base, a tree branch caught it. It's funny because the tree was just above James.

Fortunately, it dropped to a grassy ground, thus, it didn't have any damage! This drone was a lucky one! It meant to survive!

Crash Number 3

My husband is from Oslob, Cebu. Once in a while, we would go to Oslob to visit the family and we would usually be checking out its tourist spots. One of which is very famous, Butanding or whale sharks. These whale sharks are already tamed, they are fed by boatmen. Tourists would swim nearby these gentle giants for around 30 minutes.

Recently, drones are not anymore allowed to fly in the area, except if one has a permit. As we don't have any permits, we decided to fly the drone a distance away from the main spot. We just need to get a wide view of the boats and if we could spot the whale sharks then that would be great!

We couldn't get a good angle and the shot was too far from the boats, our spot was in a cliff, it was an overlooking area just nearby, however, the drone's lens couldn't get a good view so we decided to retreat.

On its way back to the cliff where we were standing, James miscalculated the distance and landed the drone in a spot that is not flat so as it slid and was caught by some bushes, its already on its way to the great sea down below!

Immediately, James did a spiderman trick, he held to some bushes, made sure it was strong enough to hold onto, and miraculously took the drone by hand! Again, this drone was lucky!

Drone 2: DJI Mavic Air

In late 2018, we decided to upgrade to Mavic Air after calculating our budget, we went to Henry's in Ayala Center Cebu and bought the new drone. As I am already allergic to flying the drone, it was only James who could pilot it. I thought I can just use the old Spark for training myself, at least that's already a wounded warrior, I can afford to give it more wounds.

But we decided to hand down our Spark to my brother so he could take aerial shots in Bohol for my father's construction business. So, I had no means of training myself with flying the drone, but I was okay with it.

Crashing Mavic Air to the Sea

January of 2021, two years later, after this drone had no flights due to the pandemic, we had a photoshoot session with a friend. The location was in Parklane Bohol Resort and Spa, it's the old East Coast where James crashed Spark into a tree branch.

Our shoot went well, we were done and everything was safe until James decided to fly the Mavic Air one more time because he still has an extra battery. We had the fly more package so it comes with three batteries and an external charger which also can be used as a power bank.

The resort's view was mesmerizing, I can vouch for that. I love this resort, we keep on coming back in fact because of how relaxing the view is. The waters are clear, the shoreline is white sand, the resort is situated on a cliff which was developed well with stairs and resting docks.

Unfortunately, as the drone was on its way back to the home base, James didn't notice that it was already touching the water!

According to him, he had no idea it was already in the water, he was still pressing the down button! He just figured it out when he saw some water in the controller. That was surely heartbreaking.

I know it was hard to accept! I could have blamed him but I treasure our relationship than the material things. We have to move on from it but we also need the drone footage for our client. When the drone dived into the sea, it was already getting dark, so it was hard for us to rescue it without the light.

And so, James had to recover it the early morning the next day. We learned that there were locals and resort staff who tried looking for it that morning but couldn't find it. They said some fishermen that night might have taken the drone, still, James tried and dived. After ten minutes, he found the drone! We were glad that we recovered the drone and the footage was still intact except for the last one which was corrupted, still, we were thankful we have something to deliver to our client!

Conclusion

Having material possession like the Mavic Air is a blessing, although we bought it with our money, we know that we are just stewards of it. So, we have to be good stewards, James learned his lesson and we believe that if something is taken away, a better one will come in God's time.

For now, we bid goodbye to the new one and said hello to the old Spark.

xoxo,

mommy jean of momentswithmatti

Love harder than any pain you've ever felt.