The X650 after it crashed.

The X650 after it crashed.

I am happy to report I received the following email…

David Bott,

My girlfriend told me this morning that where she is currently employed a drone type helocopter had crashed into there dust collector system!!

I had to go check it out….Long story short I googled the name on inside along with xaircraftx 650, i saw 68 videos on youtube matching my search results.. On the youtube page it had a link to Outside Our Bubble and thats where i’m at now… Ray Yoder is the business owner and he asked me if i could get in touch with you so you can come pick it up…

Hopefully this will help.

Phone for Ray is (removed)

…It was one amazing email to have received to say the least.  Even though the X650 is broken, I do have at least the parts back that I can reuse.  And even better, we have the video of it’s travels.

The Yoder family was wonderful and they all came around not only to see the X650 , but the video taken from it.

Yoder Family

Yoder Family

Below is the video of the flight.  But before you choose to view it expecting to see the crash at the end, it was not their.  The GoPro clipped off the last 15 seconds of the video when it crashed to save the file.  But the video itself is a nice flight over Amish landscape.  And you will see, 160 feet was the right choice in height. :)  I also added text comments throughout the video.  It’s 11 minutes long and covers 2.5 miles over Amish country side.

In the mean time when I did not think it would be found, I did start to build another UAV.  After all, we have quite a number of people following us and I wanted to be able to continue the videos.  (And it is a lot of fun and we meet a lot of people.)  I had a kit I ordered over a month ago so I pulled it out and spent all day last Sunday building the new X650Pro unit. I was able to build the frame, mount the flight controller, program it for flight, and even had it’s first test flight.  So, we will be back in the air soon.  Below are the photos of that process.

All in all, thanks to everyone that commented.  And yes, I am currently looking at GPS trackers. :)

Getting ready to build

Getting ready to build

Installing controllers

Installing controllers

Flight controllers installed.

Flight controllers installed.

Yea!  It is ready for programming.

Yea! It is ready for programming.

Getting the files needed.

Getting the files needed.

First test of the new X650Pro.

First test of the new X650Pro.

It Flies!  It Flies!

It Flies! It Flies!

Yes!  It is stable.  Just now need to fine tune and build the new brushless gimbal for the camera.

Yes! It is stable. Just now need to fine tune and build the new brushless gimbal for the camera.