With all the bad hype surrounding drone pilots, I thought I would start this post.
I have more hours logged with my P4 than I care to add without any crashes significant enough to cause anything more than a chipped propeller, and have had my share of close calls. Flyaways, hitting trees, uncontrolled spins, and have recovered from all of them. So I consider myself a pretty good pilot. A few months ago there was a baptism in my community church. One of the parents brought in a mylar balloon, and as fate would have it, it got away from them inside the church. It stayed up there several weeks, so last Sunday I asked the pastor if the balloon would be gotten down. The pastor told me that they normally need to pay a contractor to bring in a lift a few times a year to clean the rafters, and it would be taken care of then.... in August! I told the pastor that I could safely recover the balloon with my P4. That Wednesday after church services I met the pastor and recovered the balloon with my drone. I made it look easy. It's amazing what a few zip ties a coat hanger and some Ingenuity can accomplish. Since then, I have been contacted by other community groups to do similar aerial acrobatics.
How about you? If you have ever thought of donating to the community by using your drone, put down your experiences here. This could make for some good press for us UAV pilots.
I have more hours logged with my P4 than I care to add without any crashes significant enough to cause anything more than a chipped propeller, and have had my share of close calls. Flyaways, hitting trees, uncontrolled spins, and have recovered from all of them. So I consider myself a pretty good pilot. A few months ago there was a baptism in my community church. One of the parents brought in a mylar balloon, and as fate would have it, it got away from them inside the church. It stayed up there several weeks, so last Sunday I asked the pastor if the balloon would be gotten down. The pastor told me that they normally need to pay a contractor to bring in a lift a few times a year to clean the rafters, and it would be taken care of then.... in August! I told the pastor that I could safely recover the balloon with my P4. That Wednesday after church services I met the pastor and recovered the balloon with my drone. I made it look easy. It's amazing what a few zip ties a coat hanger and some Ingenuity can accomplish. Since then, I have been contacted by other community groups to do similar aerial acrobatics.
How about you? If you have ever thought of donating to the community by using your drone, put down your experiences here. This could make for some good press for us UAV pilots.