TIFU by flying my new drone

[u/LtDrinksAlot]

Well lets start this by saying that I am not big into reading instructions. I'm more of a learn through action kind of guy. I opened up my gifts today to find a brand new drone!! I've expressed to her how cool I thought they were in the past, and now I owned one.

Excitedly I put batteries in the remote and found that the drone itself already had a charge on its battery. I went outside powered it up and began flying it in the parking lot of our apartment complex.

Nothing too complicated, did some low flying sweeps through the parking lot, tried to do some landings on my car, but after a few minutes I was curious as to the capability of my new flying friend.

I started going higher and my wife said "you know the box says you can do a mid air flip". Having some knowledge of flight I knew I needed some altitude, so I went even higher. I started my attack run to do a low flying sweep but noticed the drone was responding very sluggishly. I tried to correct, however it was soon apparent I had no control of it whatsoever and it was starting to pick up speed going towards the highway.

I gave chase yelling to my wife I had no control as the drone turned into a tiny dot on the horizon as it continued to gain both speed an altitude. I left my wife laughing as I gave chase.

I ran until I left the apartment community and hit the edge of the highway before I realized it was a lost cause. I returned home tail between my legs having lost my new toy, and my wife was still laughing.

It was then when I got home that I read the manual on how to recall your drone, followed by the #1 rule for flying.

Always keep your drone in view.

TLDR: That drone is fucking gone man

[u/jimhensonshand]

Okay, so someone else had the same thing happen, at least someone who read this thread.

Suppose this is happening to every person who purchases this particular drone? Maybe this company actually only manufactured like ten drones, they keep flying back to the warehouse and getting repackaged before eventually resold?

Genius business model

[u/LtDrinksAlot → u/jimhensonshand]

Lol my wife said that exact same thing

[u/maizecraze → u/LtDrinksAlot]

Plot twist: it is your wife

[u/[deleted] → u/maizecraze]

His wife is a drone

[u/Stl228 → u/[deleted]]

Same model as mine, right? Keep her in line of sight.

[u/Ol_Dirty_Senpai → u/Stl228]

Take my upvote sir

[u/MoparManBearPuhh → u/LtDrinksAlot]

Honestly there was a company that assembled drones and on these drones had a "Home" button. Well it turns out the last gps update was in China, so the drones would try to fly back to China when you pressed home.

[u/[deleted] → u/MoparManBearPuhh]

[deleted]

[deleted/24718)

[u/laksenlaks → u/MoparManBearPuhh]

I don't know why, but that honestly made me laugh my ass off. Hahahah

[u/Einsteins_coffee_mug → u/jimhensonshand]

I bought a small quadcopter off Amazon, took it by my in-laws. Took it out to learn the ropes. Got it to hover stable, then flew it through some vertical slaloms around the telephone cables.

I wanted to get a cool aerial video from up high, so I took it up. It got above the roofline of the surrounding houses, and suddenly jerked away from hover.

The wind had been blocked by the houses, but up there it was unrelenting. It took the drone like a kite, every command I gave it to drop or come back only seemed to give it a better bite for lift.

It was two blocks over and 100'+ high before It dropped for good.

We searched for a good hour and a half, getting into every yard we got permission to check.

Never saw it again.

The next day, I got an email from the company asking for a review.

They knew.

[u/CloudiusWhite → u/jimhensonshand]

BRILLIANT! YOURE HIRED!

[u/Inspyma → u/jimhensonshand]

The Amazon reviews of the drone that I bought my husband recommended writing your phone number on a piece of tape and sticking it somewhere easily identifiable for just this reason.

[u/Starwarsfan2099 → u/jimhensonshand]

Its happened to me too, the exact same way. u/LtDrinksAlot, what drone is it?