Tony E wrote:Doug...sorry for your loss.....I just got my phantom and I am thinking that flying her off the deck of my Mac would be spectacular!!! How did you loose yours? Do tell the story and maybe you can prevent others from doing the same:) thanx
LAST FLIGHT OF THE PHANTOM
I'm always looking for new ways to get different picture/video views. I Saved up change for two years, ordered my Phantom. Got it in early summer. Spent free time in evenings learning to fly it. Got some great video flying along my horses as they galloped and hovering amongst them while they ate... ( I learned control and they learned to ignore the whirring noise that sounded like angry bees)
I practiced taking off and retrieving from my hand. Got quite good at it.
Finally, I was ready to perform a maiden flight in Twin Forks Cove, Mark Twain Lake. Galactica was at anchor, the weather was hot and still...
I readied everything. Months of practice with this $500 baby hanging my old GoPro Hero was culminating to this moment! My wife was below. I started powering up the remote. She was still below, telling me to wait.
I cut two 6" (15cm) long floats out of a swim noodle... blue to match the mother ship... the slipped onto the Phantom's land bars perfectly--after all, if I landed in water, we didn't what to damage it!
I started to zip tie them on and then decided... no, I practiced without the weight and air resistance of foam floats... I'll fly it first to make sure before making them more permanent.. I'm a smart feller after all...
I powered on the go-pro... called down to Angie to come up!!
She was cleaning up the cabin... "come on...I thought to myself, I'm going to do a flyover and a 360 around Galactica anchored...nobody will see the mess from cooking breakfast..."
I powered up the Phantom.... called down...
"Just wait" I was told... I had two months of practice... I can wait 10 minutes I told myself..
So I set the phantom on the companionway hatch...
Now, at this point you're probably thinking. 'dang....the thing slid off into the water...'
Noooo, the hero in this tale was overcome by geeky impatience...
The phantom was sitting pretty on the hatch cover which looked like a helicopter landing pad on a larger vessel....<geekiness engages...> Galactica has a flight deck!!!
So, I powered up the blades...
Now, normally I would hold the phantom in my left hand and was able to handle the throttle/lift joystick with my right hand... had gotten quite good at it.
Ignoring carefully practiced flight plan, I launch the phantom from the 'flight deck' hatch cover... Not practiced on taking off from solid objects much and unknown dynamics of the blue floats. I gave the phantom a lot more juice.
It shot up... right into the steel upper shrouds where the phantom quad blades beat the copter mercilessly in a shower of pieces 2 seconds into liftoff...
I still see it in slow motion... Somehow, in the time that it took the main body of the phantom to drop from the upper rigging, I had ripped the controller from my neck, launched my self across the cockpit into the air, kicking the mainsheet traveler block at full run (later finding out that I snapped my baby toe bone cleanly in two) and dove over the side to catch the drone...
missed... splash...water in mouth and deeper... I saw the drone sink quickly out of sight...
--------- From the wife's point of view starting about the third or fourth time she told me to wait -------------------
WHHIIIRRRRRRRR (Phantom takes off)
....less then 2 seconds later...
crash...crash twang...clutter..
")(#*$%)(*$%... )*$#)(*$#()$#( )#)#)))!!! " yells cap'n Douglas
the boat rocks and shudders violent as I launch myself
BIG SPLASH
followed by me surfacing and coughing water with more sailor like words... "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M"
boat rocks again as I quickly climb back aboard... more of the seaman like heated conversations with the sky "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M"
I realize that $700 worth of 'toys was gone'...more of the nautical exclamations "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M"
The admiral comes on deck! Oh crap.... She doesn't have to talk like a sailor...a look and I'm scolded, busted, derided and put in my rightful place...
Then I realize my toe is pointing the wrong way...I am a 10 year veteran... I let loose more military talk, "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M" though the admiral REALLY disapproves of this language...
In fact, there is about eight minutes of "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M"... sometimes, I amaze even myself...
I start picking up pieces of propeller and propeller guard, one of the blue floats which had fallen into the cockpit. then sudden silence...
I find my go-pro lens down, in its waterproof housing in between the cockpit cushion and the hull. Sudden GLORIOUS JOY! All was not lost!!!!
I have it all on video and 8 minutes of "SH*48857T Mo$(*%$her FU8*#$*$#*$NinG..D*$*$m D#*#$$M" audio... I cannot find enough bullhorn, cuckoo, beep sounds to mask out all of the colorful language on the video...
I found a Marine version of the phantom completely waterproof but hundreds of dollars more. I am afraid to ask permission to get one...
Doug & Angie
Galactica
, don,t know why he,s keepin it a secret 
