Greetings, from Tampa, FL!
I'm Joe, the unluckiest drone guy in the world (okay, perhaps I exaggerate). I've been fascinated with drones for years, but have been reasonably unlucky. I'll share my sob story quickly, and then hopefully can stay positive from this point on.
Short version: Bought a Parrot AR.Drone (v1). One fine day, while hovering 50' or so up, it just... Flew off. $300 gone.
Some months later, I got one as a present. I was flying it at the same park, and the exact same thing happened... Just took off.
Perhaps a year later, I finally decided to get another... Yes, I'm stubborn... And the first day, IT FLEW AWAY TOO. I was "ready" for it, and as it accelerated off, I tried to force it to land... Shut off the motors.. Use the Force and force it to ground.. Nothing worked. It just took off and was gone. I had my name and phone number written on the shell, but never heard from anyone. That's $900 in drones gone, and I was so mad that I swore off of drones entirely. I heard stories about RTH and other features on the Phantom series, but there was no way I was going to spend $1000+ on another drone and lose both it AND my GoPro (at the time, the GoPro-carrying models were out).
One day at Target, I saw an $80 drone with an "HD" camera. Ok, I can afford to lose $80.... In short order, I did. A gust of wind took it over some trees and that was all she wrote.
That's where the story would have ended, had there not been horrible traffic the other day. I had landed close enough to rush hour after a business trip and decided to wait out the traffic at the local mall... And Brookstone had the P3 4K on sale. They even matched the Amazon price of $600.. It seemed from a quick read of reviews that there *might* be enough flyaway protection from both a feature and customer support prospective.. So I bit. Of course, I tested RTH immediately, and despite the panic when it shot up to the RTH height (I was just waiting for a zippy maneuver to the nearby woods), but was pleased to see that it came right back and landed harmlessly.
So after a weekend of test flights, Youtube-watching, website reading, FAA registration, airport finding (you seemingly can't put two feet on the ground anywhere within a 3-hour drive without having an airport or 4 to notify...) and manual studying, I feel reasonably assured that the thing is going to do its best to ensure that it remains with me.. And so, I join you on this journey, with eyes wide open, and a 400' tether tying the P3 to my waist... Just kidding. Kinda.
I'm looking forward to learning from you veterans. Thanks for having me.
Joe
I'm Joe, the unluckiest drone guy in the world (okay, perhaps I exaggerate). I've been fascinated with drones for years, but have been reasonably unlucky. I'll share my sob story quickly, and then hopefully can stay positive from this point on.
Short version: Bought a Parrot AR.Drone (v1). One fine day, while hovering 50' or so up, it just... Flew off. $300 gone.
Some months later, I got one as a present. I was flying it at the same park, and the exact same thing happened... Just took off.
Perhaps a year later, I finally decided to get another... Yes, I'm stubborn... And the first day, IT FLEW AWAY TOO. I was "ready" for it, and as it accelerated off, I tried to force it to land... Shut off the motors.. Use the Force and force it to ground.. Nothing worked. It just took off and was gone. I had my name and phone number written on the shell, but never heard from anyone. That's $900 in drones gone, and I was so mad that I swore off of drones entirely. I heard stories about RTH and other features on the Phantom series, but there was no way I was going to spend $1000+ on another drone and lose both it AND my GoPro (at the time, the GoPro-carrying models were out).
One day at Target, I saw an $80 drone with an "HD" camera. Ok, I can afford to lose $80.... In short order, I did. A gust of wind took it over some trees and that was all she wrote.
That's where the story would have ended, had there not been horrible traffic the other day. I had landed close enough to rush hour after a business trip and decided to wait out the traffic at the local mall... And Brookstone had the P3 4K on sale. They even matched the Amazon price of $600.. It seemed from a quick read of reviews that there *might* be enough flyaway protection from both a feature and customer support prospective.. So I bit. Of course, I tested RTH immediately, and despite the panic when it shot up to the RTH height (I was just waiting for a zippy maneuver to the nearby woods), but was pleased to see that it came right back and landed harmlessly.
So after a weekend of test flights, Youtube-watching, website reading, FAA registration, airport finding (you seemingly can't put two feet on the ground anywhere within a 3-hour drive without having an airport or 4 to notify...) and manual studying, I feel reasonably assured that the thing is going to do its best to ensure that it remains with me.. And so, I join you on this journey, with eyes wide open, and a 400' tether tying the P3 to my waist... Just kidding. Kinda.
I'm looking forward to learning from you veterans. Thanks for having me.
Joe
