Week 6: Rest in Peace Frisbee

After a long week of work trying to get Frisbee to fly, it was finally launch day.

And what a tragic day it was. It was March 29th, and the skies were grey. I woke up with a throbbing headache and spilled my orange juice at breakfast. There were still a couple days left for April Fools, but I felt like a fool already.

I made my way to the garage, and there Frisbee was, waiting for his maiden voyage. All of his parts were assembled and ready to fly. The flight computer stood proudly atop The Sandwich, with the power distribution board, ESC’s and battery mounted below. The propeller arms were secured (temporarily) with hot glue and zip ties while the motors had the 15 inch propellers attached. Frisbee was basically begging to be flown.

I connected the enormous battery and powered on my radio controller. Frisbee came to life, his buzzers sounding and lights flashing. I put him on wide open ground, and began experimenting with the throttle. To my surprise, everything was spinning perfectly! So then, I increased the throttle for takeoff.

And this is where it all went wrong.

Frisbee lurched up and suddenly rotated on his right side. Before I knew it, he lay upside down with the motors spinning uncontrollably, scratching on the ground. Nuts and bolts flew everywhere, and plastic bits cracked onto the pavement. Frisbee was in major trouble. I disarmed the electronics and rushed him into the emergency room (my garage) to assess the damage.

I was broken, and so was Frisbee. Me, in the figurative sense, and Frisbee in the literal sense. His arms shattered, and the propellers were all scratched up. The flight controller fell off and the GPS module cracked. Oh what a terrible scene.

And so, the rest of my week was spent in the emergency room operating on Frisbee. He didn’t make it. I had to do a ground-up rebuild.

I completely redesigned the propeller mounts to be far more durable so that they wouldn’t shatter. I tightened all the bolts with Loctite. I designed a new, stronger hold for the flight controller and Raspberry Pi, and I attached the carbon fiber propeller arms with epoxy (which is so strong!). I reprogrammed and recalibrated ALL of the electronics to ensure there were no shorts or glitches. I reconfigured the flight controller so that I could save the drone before another tragedy like this occurred.

Unlike many, I learn from my mistakes. After the devastating loss of Frisbee, I had to change my ways.

From this circumstance, like a phoenix bursting out of the ashes, arose Boomerang. She is Version 2 of my delivery drone.

I made sure that I tested her on grass for the first time. I took care in prepping her and securing all of her parts. And she flew like an eagle. She flew to heights that would’ve made Frisbee proud. She had some issues, like incessant yawing and sporadic thrust, but these were problems I could manage and hammer out in a few days.

I want to dedicate this post to Frisbee. I still tear up at the thought of him. Rest in peace Frisbee.