Drones can't swim
Posted on February 15, 2024 • 3 min read • 565 words
You probably already knew, but for me, it was quite a thing: “Drones can’t swim.” Now I know, unfortunately having become wiser through damage and misfortune.
The Day
It’s been almost three years, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was a fantastic day. It was around 24 degrees Celsius, or about 75°F , fairly little wind. All in all, it was a great day for boating and flying the drone.
I went a bit of boating with some good friends. And of course, the drone comes along. I bought a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone. This wasn’t my first drone. This always had the same fate as my other drones.It was the first time for me to let the drone take off from a boat, let alone a moving boat. One thing’s for sure: Your home point (the point where your drone returns to) is almost certainly not the point where you are. So, you have to keep your wits about you. Nevertheless, it’s fun to do. You can follow yourself on the boat, fly away, fly back, that kind of thing. And if you’re daring, you let the drone fly through the boat. I wasn’t that daring, so you definitely won’t see that in the video.
The Accident
What you will see is a drone thinking it’s a duck or a submarine. As so often happens, you quickly get egged on by your friends. I’m not at all saying it’s their fault. I ultimately did it myself, but still.
It went wrong when I made a dive towards the water from above. Above land, it’s not a problem, so I also saw little issue in doing this over water. The drone would stop in time, right? Well, no.
To this very day, I’m not entirely sure why it went wrong, but the dive was not interrupted by the altitude sensors. The drone went underwater. I feared the worst for the drone.
I saw myself jumping overboard to go and save the drone and provide first aid. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary. I was incredibly relieved when the drone resurfaced on its own. Everything seemed completely fine.
The Aftermath
Unfortunately, I had celebrated too soon. Everything seemed okay, but it was absolutely not. The drone suffered from all kinds of weird sensor error messages, the gimbal (the thing that the camera hangs on and ensures stable footage) was making all kinds of spastic movements. Hoping it would go away once the drone had dried out, I packed it away. Upon returning home, I dried everything, in rice, of course, but it didn’t help. Every time I wanted to take off, the drone indicated there was something wrong with a sensor. Externally, there was nothing to see.
Luckily, I had purchased DJI Care Refresh with the drone. This is a kind of insurance where you can have the drone replaced if something’s wrong with it. I was without the drone for a while, but ultimately I got sent a new/another drone. This drone still works to my full satisfaction.
And have I become more cautious with my drone? Uh, maybe a bit? But ultimately, I still try to make interesting photos and footage. And in doing so, you do less smart things at times, like playing submarine, or letting yourself be followed while skating.
