A Drone Rescue

Good morning to all of you!

Now better than a month back, we were spending some time in the Golden Canyon near Apache Junction Arizona.

We spent 14 days there on Arizona State Trust land and really enjoyed our stay. I recommend it highly.

Our stay was in the Queens Valley area near the Superstition mountains. Close enough to town to get supplies, food, fuel, water and do laundry. Far enough out to be quiet and peaceful.

Our Dispersed / Boondocking RV site in the Arizona Golden Canyon

There were a number of other campers around. It’s a busy place with “snow birds” but it really was a great time.

Safety in numbers. Just how I like it.

While there, a few of the friends we met owned Off Road vehicles. In talking one afternoon about my DJI Avata FPV drone and it’s abilities to film as well as places it can fly, they suggested an area called "Box Canyon”. It was about a 2 hour (very bumpy) ride back into the outlying mountain range visible in the distance.

We scheduled a day and headed there to fly the Avata for some epic canyon style footage.

Well, while skimming a mountain face, attempting to go up and over it’s peak, the Avata hit a small desert bush and crashed…on top of a mountain.

Bummer.

After about 25 minutes of talking about recovery, it was determined we would not have time for me to hike to the top, if it were even possible, and make it back before dark.

The face, that portion of the mountain we could see, was a sheer cliff drop off. No way to scale it to the approximate location of the crash.

Before leaving, as a last minute attempt to make a decision as to whether or not to return, I flew my DJI Air 2s over the mountain to review the back side. From what I could discern, it did indeed look like there was a possible route up the back. However, through the lens of the drone, still very difficult to tell.

My friends, well, they thought “just leave it and forget about it…not worth the risk…”.

And then, there’s Joelle. She knows how little I like “giving up”. She knows how stubborn I am and how, almost like a Honey Badger, I will simply not relent or quit or give up once something is in my mind as to needing to be accomplished or gained.

It’s a curse.

Ask my kids.

They will recount story after story from my past on how I simply refused to give up when some situation or scenario should have bested me. It’s actually a running joke in my family.

This situation was no different.

So, the next day, with the help of said friends, we ventured allllll the way back out there allowing me to see if I could recover the DJI Avata.

Did I succeed?

It will require hiking into a trail-less wilderness, scaling up the back of a mountain wrought with loose shale type rock, peppered at every turn with cactus upon cactus.

You’ll have to watch the video to see the end result.

Thanks for being here. Glad you are a part of this family.

There’s a post coming on Thursday and in it, I am asking for your input and help.

Hope to hear from you.

Until then, enjoy this video.

rob out