From the Field
Three Things I’ve Learned From Drones
And the stories behind the lessons — including the flight that landed with 48 seconds of battery left.
I instruct on drones and in airplanes, so I get plenty of opportunity to teach aviation. Every so often, aviation turns round and returns the favour. Here are three lessons drones taught me, and what happened to teach them.
Lesson 1: There Are Many Ways to Forget Gear
Picture the scene. We are at the office loading vehicles for a flight three hours away, and two hours from the nearest Walmart. The checklist is out and we are working through it.
Jack: “Tablets, check. Cables, check. Micro SD cards… hey Jill, where are the SD cards?”
Jill: “Oh, good call — they’re on my desk.”
Jill meant: they are on my desk, so now you know where to find them. Jack heard: Jill knows where they are, so she will grab them. You can see where this goes. We arrived on site with no SD cards.
The lesson: having a checklist, and even using it, does not stop you forgetting things. Our fix was to assign packing to exactly one person — usually the pilot in command unless delegated. One person, one responsibility, no ambiguity about who is fetching what.
Lesson 2: ATTI Mode Can Smell Fear
Do you know a great time to fly in ATTI mode? I can tell you when it is not. I was on a narrow dock with railings either side, a storey above the water, wind blowing, about 20% battery remaining. The GPS connection kept dropping, throwing the aircraft into ATTI where it drifted with the wind and needed constant correction.
It worked out. I landed without incident. But between that flight and the one in lesson three, my heart still jumps whenever the DJI low-battery tone sounds.
The lesson: make your practice sessions the hardest flying you do. Fly near structures and trees and watch how the aircraft reacts. Try every flight mode and confirm you can bring it home in each. Practise reorienting yourself when the aircraft is distant. Then, when it happens on a job site with a client watching, it is familiar rather than novel.
Lesson 3: The Sun Is an Obstacle
Not in the way a tree is, but it can be just as limiting. There have been several flights where I was grateful for cheap, non-polarised sunglasses — non-polarised so you can still read a tablet screen — but none as memorable as the boat flight.
We were launching from the back of a boat. To do that legally in Vancouver Harbour we had to be out of the airspace and back on deck by 6:45am, ahead of HeliJet’s first arrival. Time was tight and we were getting the last shots as the sun crested the mountains behind us.
We had been using the aircraft’s lights to hold orientation and line of sight. Then the sun caught every window downtown at once and I lost visual contact. Shortly after, the aircraft lost GPS, flipped to ATTI, and the video signal went intermittent. Then the low battery warning started. By the time we regained line of sight and flew back — with help from return-to-home — I landed on the boat with 48 seconds of power remaining. It was 6:44.
The lesson: think about where the sun will be, not just where it is. Beyond sunburn and dehydration, it directly affects your ability to maintain visual line of sight — and it does so on overcast days too.
Bonus Lesson: Weather Happens to Drones Too
This one happened to a former student rather than to me. Late November in Vancouver, low overcast and mist, temperature just above zero. An experimental builder put a new aircraft up to test its handling. Hovering, he noticed the motor note change.
He brought it back assuming a configuration problem. On inspection, there was ice adhering to the underside of every propeller. The small pressure drop as the blade produces lift was enough to take the local temperature below freezing, and the humidity did the rest.
Remember learning about icing risk in ground school? It genuinely happens. Watch and listen for changes in how the aircraft performs.
Learned something the hard way yourself?