I'd forgotten all about this mighty rescue until coming here to look up when 70 had finally been updated on the flight log.
A couple of oddities I'm adding here for documentation purposes:
In all the woosh of today's news, I saw that the stats on the flight log had changed. Sticky fingers at JPL perhaps.
What's on there now for the distances:
70 1009 Dec. 22, 2023 260 ~853
71 1023 Jan. 6, 2024 0 0
72 1035 Jan. 18, 2024 0 0
Leaving the curious to wonder what happened to 71's forward motion?
From the Flight 71 thread: Horizontal Distance 71 m ~233 ft
From the waypoints log: 67.936 m, 222.887 ft
From the Flight Preview plan that fell way short:
Flight 71
Expected flight date: 01/06/2024
Horizontal flight distance: 358.3 meters
***
The story we are left with [from the Flight Log as-is] is that forward progress "ended" with Flight 70, although 71 was actually supposed to go forward by ~358 ft.
The last movement now given is a distance that is ~358.. in reverse.
🤔
Well I wouldn't know how it all went down; I merely observed the anomaly.
***
Had some strange, unexpected weather last night. Was supposed to be a little freezing drizzle becoming light rain along with warming temps so no ice build up...
... instead, everything was glazed over like a donut this morning. Yikes.
As dawn arrived I noticed that the huge ornamental grass (a lone specimen in a round clump, over 6 ft. tall) had curled outward all the way over to the ground in a circle, with some sparse shoots remaining upright in the center.
Oh look, a huge crown roast. That's what I described it as when I first saw it. I supposed it had to be just the right coating of ice to take that form. Weird how it had become a giant golden crown, a front and center focal point in the yard.
I've got pics, but couldn't find anything similar from the 'net to post.
Then imagine my surprise when I wandered back over here tonight.
...and after he posed for the pictures, he flew directly to "David"
How did the rotor(s) get broken?
Did it hit a rock?.........................