Don't jump in.
G'day.
How's it going?
Well, this is Robert here,
and I thought I would chat to you all
about something a little bit different.
So let me take you back.
Let me set the scene, first of all.
Every year we go up to an amazing spot called the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve,
which is a huge area of natural bushland right at the tip of Australia, the very top there.
That's where we go with a big team from Australia Zoo and
scientists from the University of Queensland
to catch crocodiles, study them by attaching different tracking devices
and letting them go again.
This is something that dad first started years and years ago,
and it's since become the most successful and longest running telemetry study
of any animal in the world.
On last year's crocodile research trip, I used my drone to actually do a bit of a scout over the river,
and I was just having a look,
getting some footage and getting an idea of the health of this ecosystem.
But unfortunately, even after my many years of drone piloting,
I'm a fairly good pilot if I do say so myself,
I had a slight faux pas, shall we say.
Let's check it out.
It was a routine drone flight like any other.
Just going up and down the river like the hundreds of ones I'd done before.
But for some reason,
this happened, and whack.
I have no idea.
For some reason, it just cut out.
And you can see my absolute look of terror.
Now, what you have to keep in mind is,
this is an incredibly healthy ecosystem teeming with crocodiles.
I mean, it's full of crocs.
In fact, one of the biggest in the study, Drew lives right there in that waterhole.
So getting it back was a little less simple than just jumping in and having a swim and finding it.
Offscreen: Is it too deep?
Yeah, no. It's just a bit dark and tomorrow we'll be able to see it better, in the morning.
You could see in that last shot that little tiny light.
It's really faint, there's a little fish next to it.
That was the light of the drone still on.
And as we pull out, we can see that big wide shot.
Look at that.
Everyone sort of place their bets as to whether or not
I'd actually retrieve this drone.
So I decided to get the help of the whole team.
That's Harrison, one of the heads of our Croc Research Team.
And that's actually one of Dad's old boats.
This is a tidal ecosystem.
The river runs out and comes back in again.
And that means anything that floats to the bottom
is going to move around quite a lot.
That is not an easy spot to get a drone from,
particularly since there's a giant croc living there.
And right there I located it.
I actually used one of our crocodile capture poles with a GoPro,
a little camera on the end of it so that I can actually look in my phone
and figure out where it was positioned.
I then use ropes and even a little thing called a grabby grab,
which we use to put ropes on a crocodile.
Crowd: Yeah!
Robert: That's it!
Yes, I recovered this drone.
And what you can't see in that footage,
are the huge round of applause and yelling from everyone on the bank.
No one thought I'd actually retrieve it, but I did.
There was definitely a lot that went into grabbing this drone though.
It had so much footage on it,
and I knew I wanted to recover the drone.
So I decided I'd put it in rice.
That old chestnut, the old Pop It In Rice trick, and she'll be right.
And much to my surprise, it still worked.
It still turned on.
Alright, battery still works.
This rice works a treat.
Good to go.
Penny: It's still falling out.
Nah, it's alright.
Here I am testing the drone,
seeing if it's still works, seeing if it could still turn on and if it still had flight capabilities.
And now, while it couldn't really take off very well,
the drone was still completely functional.
It worked totally fine.
And
it was brand new, better than new.
So, if you have a drone,
what I've found is if you sink it in croc infested waters, it will come out working real well.
It's all completely functional.
The only thing is you just can't connect to it.
So, there might be something in there that’s not allowing it to connect,
but once that's fixed, you can fly it again.
So, I'll just have to get it sent in.
And here it is.
After all that, it's still,
you can hear that, it's still full of rice,
but it's still working.
It's got a little bit of algae on it.
It's got a couple of extra dings.
There's still rice falling out of it.
But have a look at this.
Still turns on.
What?!
After all that?
Well, there you go.
If you ever lose your drone,
if you ever fly your drone into a croc infested river system,
now you know how to safely get it back.
Except, except don’t. Except don't...
don't get in the water in crocodile territory.
Yeah, definitely not.
So we're very excited because right now we're in the midst of getting ready for the next trip,
and I think this time...
I'm probably not gonna fly my drone anywhere near the river.
I've learned my lesson.
I hope you've enjoyed that, though.
Reliving a very painful moment that ended up being a lot of fun.
See you later, guys.
Be careful with your drones.
Don't fly a drone in the water.
It's not fun.