Sounds like something grenaded in the transmission, from reports. One would expect this bird to have the best of maintenance, given its high-profile deployment. I wonder who Mr Srivaddhanaprabha pissed off... ![Scared :scared:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/scared.gif)
Hence my mentioning the gearbox. There have been several such "incidents" over the North Sea in recent years.
OTOH, a Russian oligarch's copter had a similar failure on takeoff a few years ago.
You sound like Jonathan Livingston Seagull when you you wax poetic about gliding.
I need to go find it again... a little simplistic, but good for the soul.
Seagulls are deceptive buggers - they lure you and then flap their wings. Buzzards are much more reliable thermal indicators, and have saved many many pilots from landing out and chatting to farmers.
A better comparison would be with Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry. He was an early, lyrically poetic aviator who wrote "The Little Prince" and also one of my guiding aphorisms: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman's Odyssey.
And that is definitely TEA related. Phew; got the thread back on course. ![Smiley :)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
FFI https://www.biography.com/people/antoine-de-saint-exupery-030816 or wackypedia
Yes, Curtis and the "Ring of Death" were the ones I was thinking of when I made that comment. Whenever I see stark, glaring incidents like this I think of them as a datapoint on some graph being plotted by Alan Moore.
Somewhere between this:
"Yes, there is a conspiracy, in fact there are a great number of conspiracies that are all tripping each other up. And all of those conspiracies are run by paranoid fantasists and ham-fisted clowns. If you are on a list targeted by the CIA, you really have nothing to worry about. If however, you have a name similar to somebody on a list targeted by the CIA, then you are dead." and this:
"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control. The truth is more frightening, nobody is in control. The world is rudderless." lies the truth. And that is even more terrifying than either scenario alone.
I first read "Le Petit Prince" when I was 10; my mother gave it to me as a distraction from... or perhaps to help me balance out... my then-singular obsession with reading the entire 1967 "Encyclopedia Britannica", which was bought for me as a birth present by my grandfather. I later actually slogged through it in the original french during my high school years. No idea how; I'm lucky now that I can remember the difference be tween "c'est la vie" and "la petite mort". ![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
D' Saint-Exupery was a fabulously soulful philosopher; I really need to revisit. *makes mental note*
The fact you speak this way about seagulls in this context suggests to me you probably never read Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It is a metaphysical story precisely about exactly that kind of pursuit of self-perfection; that was actually where I was going with my comment. There is no need to choose one over the other... both are valid sources of similar philosophical bent.
I think the helicopter committed suicide because it was forced to land in Leicester.
FPV is interesting me a lot at the moment but with drones. After playing computer games for many years (fast things like Q3A and UT) I’m finding that amateur radio is a bit slow, completely unreliable and slightly boring. TEA interest is far greater. Perhaps a new bucket list project needs to be selected.
LOL... but the football team was supposed to be one of the few GOOD things about Leicester.
![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
Yeah, FPV drones are my thing. I think I MAY HAVE posted about that a time or three in thread.
![Wink ;)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
Let me know what you're into... I'll try and give you some pointers. My focus STARTED OUT being to build a "portable" (meaning you could fit it all in an ordinary school-kid type rucksack) Aerial Photography platform (this was when DJi was JUST starting out, and nobody even knew what a Phantom was); the tech just wasn't mature enough.
Eventually as the tech matured, my interest moved towards "freestyle"; which is the form most of the videos I've posted are about. It's a lot like soaring... only I enjoy the "close proximity" with obstacles and environment angle. I get bored VERY quickly flying planks FPV; usually a couple packs and I'm looking for an empty field to go barnstorming in.
![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
Since then, the "personal aerial photography" market has become firmly entrenched... it is a huge industry, and no matter who or how our corrupt Congress tries to shut down all the amateur "eyes in the sky", we're going to see a massive increase in corporate skullduggery being caught on film. I personally can't wait.
![Evil >:D](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/evil.gif)
There has never been a better time to get into FPV multirotors than now... FC tech is actually "GUI Easy" and competition has resolved into a handful of major platforms, so cost of entry is low. You can get into a basic RTF/ARF acro rig for $100 + goggles and TX; a state of the art build as little as $300 + goggles and TX.
A-a-a-nd bringing it back to TEA:FPV mutirotors are a great way to apply amateur radio skillzz; we typically operate in all the amateur RF bands, from 800MHz to 5.8GHz, and there are crazy people reaching into other bands with experimental gear all the time... much of it eventually migrates into the mainstream, just as FPV started out at 900MHz-1.2 GHz, but is now primarily 5.8GHz. We started out with analog PAL & NTSC signal on those bands for low latency; now we have multistream HD Digital video with ever-decreasing latency.
It's a really exciting time to be an electronics hobbyist in this particular corner of electronics.
Plus, it's a great excuse to use toys like this (Though you'd probably build it from scratch
![Tongue :P](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/tongue.gif)
) :
![](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=557836;image)
mnem
Simplify.