I bought myself a drone this past Christmas and I was learning how to fly it. It did not go well. I was getting better with the controller. Then I switched to the controller app on my phone. There was more learning to do there.

One of the instructions I missed said, "don't try flying it on windy days."

On the Monday after Christmas, it was windy around here, I took it out to the back yard to practice some. I gave it the up command on my phone and up it went. I tried to give it the down command but it did not respond, and the wind pushed it to the front of the house where I lost sight of it momentarily. I ran around to the front to watch it disappear behind the neighbor's house across the street. There is a "safe land" button on the phone app, so i pushed thaat and it came down in my neighbor's neighbor's fenced in backyard. I had to go around the block to see it in the back corner of his yard. I gave it the up command, up it went and again the wind pushed it around the back side of the house, across the street and heading for some tall trees. Tough choice here, let it get lodged in a tree 50 feet up or try and land it on the canal bank 50 yards farther north.

I opted for the canal bank, so I pushed the "safe land" button but it wound up in the canal. I thought it wasn't going to be a problem. I thought the canal was only a few feet deep. I can attest it is much deeper than the 3 feet I thought it was. It is more than 8, possibly 10, some speculate - even more like 20. It it is full of critters. Turtles are one thing and alligtors are another. At 68, it is hard for me to be climbing in and out of a 17' canoe. I was out in a canoe looking for it with a 4" diameter PVC Tube, about 10" long, with a lexan lens for viewing the bottom. The silicon adhesive I used is good, but it didn't completely seal the water out, and then there was a reflection problem. Looking down the tube was like looking into a mirror 10" down in the water. So I went and bought a mask and snorkel, thought about the possibility of gators and haven't been back. The water is turbid, full of water grasses. There is a dam about 500 yrds east of where the drone went down, and one is not allowed within 30 yards of the dam. There may be a gentle flow toward the dam. They periodically open the dam, from what I understand.

I got the drone with the intention of using it to search for lost rockets from a bird's eye view of things. that was short lived.