Out of the hangar…
Haven’t done any flying since New Year, so long overdue to send the H into the sky again. This session included my 200th flight with my craft, which remains gloriously uncrashed so far, so very pleased about that. Fortunately I’m back in time for Spring, and there aren’t many places that look better from above in Spring time than Ashford Hangers, high in the hills of Hampshire.
…and over to the Hangers.
So I donned my walking boots, hiked the couple of Km there, and went and got us some of that in the nice afternoon sunshine…
It was a perfect day for such an enterprise, wind was there, but only gentle gusts even so high above the surrounding landscape. Only saw 2 other passing walkers in the entire time I was there, so had this wonderful wide open space to myself – not even the horses that usually live in the field to the left were there today !
The skies were busier. There was a moderate Red Kite presence (a hunting pair, then a separate group of 4) that gave themselves away by their loud and constant alarm calling, but I patiently waited for them to move off, and so there were no problems for either of us. Both the planes that arrived on the scene while I was in flight I heard in good time, and was able to get fixes and vectors on very quickly thanks to the clear skies and open environment. Both were well above their minimums, as was I under my maximums, and vectors were not coincident so there was no need to abandon my panoramas for emergency maneuvers…
Green on the Ground
Last time I was here it was the end of Autumn, so trees had no leaves, and it was all looking a bit miserable. I resolved then to come back in the Spring, and what a difference that, and some decent sunlight makes. It’s all looking VERY green and Springly now, and very attractive from above.
Flight Moves
This sort of location is perfect for the H’s independently rotating camera, which I tried to use here to give the impression that we were doing slow controlled spiralling tubles through the sky over the sweeping hillsides below. We did get a little windier later which slightly compromised that, but generally very pleased with the results there, which would have been quite hard to get with any other UAV.
The Long Goodbye
This session included my 200th flight with the H, and I am beyond impressed that we have made it that far without any crashing – certainly it has surpassed the records held by any of my DJI kit, so I consider that a good move with hindsight. But today, 5 years or so after its first release Yuneec has announced it is discontinuing the H, something I thought they’d do as soon as they released the upgraded H+ around a year ago. So that’s sad news for us H owners, as batteries and spares will now become a lot harder to source. But I love the machine, and will invest in some spares for it with the aim of keeping mine going for at least another 2 years, and then I’ll probably upgrade to an H+, or whatever Yuneec have replaced that with ! I also have my eye on the Autel Evo, or its replacement if Autel would only sell and support them officially in this country – I do keep asking, and they keep saying they will ! :)
Happy flyings – I’ll be doing more of this in the coming decent weather hopefully…
Aero J
