Alright well I was done, since this thread is about someone else's repair issues, but since you've asked/challenged... here are the problems I see with your logic.
1. Nothing bad has happened ≠ nothing bad will happen
Such a claim doesn't make any more sense here than it would elswhere:
"I've been driving a car for 15 years now and nothing has happened to me. Therefore driving cars is completely safe"
Seen an accident ever?
"I've been playing russian roulette for 5 rounds now and I'm fine so far, therefore it's totally safe!"
Cmon...double or nothing.
Since your anecdotal (and fortunate) lack of incidents seems to have you believing the first of those statements equals the second, let me show you (with apologies to the squeemish) why
even that much doesn't stand up;
And that's just the DJI stuff...plenty more, and I didn't even look very hard;
2. It's not "if," but "when," and "how bad." Problems happen. I have to assume anyone saying otherwise hasn't flown RC very long because that was the first thing I was taught. The "when" is fundamentally hard to control, but "how bad" can be largely a function of the exposure you as a pilot have allowed. You figure out what you're willing to sacrifice and meticulously ensure damage is limited to that when something goes sour. Ignoring, for the moment, that you guys bewilderingly seem to value your chinese mass-produced toys more than you do your own extremities...let's look at it on a purely financial basis:
How many stitches you think it takes to exceed the price of your entire phantom? Hint: as of a 2013 report, the average emergency room stitch was around $500 (I know you wont' take my word for it so
NY Times) Foot the bill for even a minor brush with the ER and I suspect that phantom is gonna look a lot more expendable to you.
Or maybe it's time you value... "Hands are self repairing. Motors are not." Arguably true depending on your tolerance for scars but how long is it gonna take you to swap that motor out? 2 hours? Can you heal that fast?
Is it
really so hard to believe that a gust of wind, minor correction, FC glitch, structural failure, or whatever else could divert that drone you were trying to catch into your arm? Or Face?? And when that happens, what do you stand to lose?
3. There is a difference between practice and recommendation. You guys seem to forget that in an open forum like this, you're speaking not just to me, but to
everyone...at all ages, with seconds to decades of experience, and everywhere in between. So let me reiterate again, because I think this point is being missed or ignored:
It's not your own practice that I'm drawing issue with. Insofar as you're putting no one else in harm's way you can do whatever you want, I'll be right there defending your right to do so.
It's the public advocation of the risky practice that I see as irresponsible, and it genuinely surprises me to be in an apparent minority here. You guys have kids? Want them catching one of these things? Try to keep that in mind on the forums here. That's all I ask
And if somehow all of the above is falling on deaf ears than I'll appeal to your pride as pilots with this; if you can't land that thing on the ground in one piece, should you be flying it in the first place?
(EDIT: I had misquoted MarkEt..sorry)
