NDL Forum

Not the UAV's that George flies....the personal, 4 prop or more drones for personal use....

Anyone have one?
What make, model, etc.?
What do you like, dislike about it?

What videos have you made with it so far?



I just ordered a DJI Phantom 3 Standard.
2.7K camera on it.
My buddy has the same one. I recommended it to my principal and now I am getting the same one.
Should be a lot of fun.

Was originally $799 when they first came out.
Down to $474 as I had BestBuy.com price match Amazon. We had $500 in BB Gift Cards.
Should be here Wednesday. Pretty excited, but I will be in Columbus all weekend for a coaching clinic at Ohio State, so will play with it next Saturday/Sunday.

I have never been into the whole UAV thing. I know it's my job and all.

I will say make sure you have extra batteries and chargers (ac and dc). I'm sure there would be nothing worst than only getting to fly for 20 minutes at a time and then having to wait around for however long it takes to charge them.

Yeah, ordered a second battery from Amazon.
23 minutes is longest flight time.
Will be fun to mess with.

I was amazed at the range of these things. This guy has one by my house where they do pee wee football practices and this thing was like a mile away or so. It was nuts. I guess there is an invisible bubble and it automatically comes home if battery runs low or loses connectivity. He was a pro at this thing. They are pretty awesome

Cnasty wrote:I guess there is an invisible bubble and it automatically comes home if battery runs low or loses connectivity. He was a pro at this thing. They are pretty awesome

most drones now have a "return home" code built in. If it loses connection with the controller, after so many seconds it will return back to a designated point (usually where it started at).

Yeah, it will go 400 feet up and then stop since that is the personal airspace limit. Outside of this and you are now in the commercial flight zone.
And they say it is safe to go 1 mile from you.
It has GPS built in, so when it takes off, it automatically sets that as it's home point and will return there once the batteries start getting low.

It has a follow me feature. I plan on taking it up in the air, setting me as a target on an ATV and it will follow me.
It also has a circle of interest feature where you can take it up and it will automatically circle the given point, so like a baseball field.

You watch it on your phone or tablet.


Here is a follow me mode video.

I'll say they're scary/weird as fuck to see buzzing around in a city/suburban environment. We had one "buzz" an incoming plane at LAX a few weeks back. And I've seen one driving to work that was flying over the freeway and it's weird as shit.

all I can think about is that south park episode.

dakshdar wrote:I'll say they're scary/weird as fuck to see buzzing around in a city/suburban environment. We had one "buzz" an incoming plane at LAX a few weeks back. And I've seen one driving to work that was flying over the freeway and it's weird as shit.

what's weird is living on the 40th floor of a building and seeing one fly by your balcony.

brings peeping tom type shit to a whole new level

DRiccio21 wrote:

dakshdar wrote:I'll say they're scary/weird as fuck to see buzzing around in a city/suburban environment. We had one "buzz" an incoming plane at LAX a few weeks back. And I've seen one driving to work that was flying over the freeway and it's weird as shit.

what's weird is living on the 40th floor of a building and seeing one fly by your balcony.

brings peeping tom type shit to a whole new level

Saw 2 of them cruising the beach while I was on vacation 2 weeks ago.

I think they're great/fine if you live on a lot of land or if you take them to a beach or park. But I personally don't want a neighbor of mine flying one around the neighborhood or in an area that is dangerous. If the one I had seen flying over the freeway had crashed onto the road (not sure how often this happens but it must happen sometimes) it would like have caused a wreck, which is highly dangerous.

dakshdar wrote:I'll say they're scary/weird as fuck to see buzzing around in a city/suburban environment. We had one "buzz" an incoming plane at LAX a few weeks back. And I've seen one driving to work that was flying over the freeway and it's weird as shit.

Buzzing a plane like that is a serious penalty. Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I live where there is a lot of land though, so I won't have to worry about that.
As of Jan 1st, you have to register them now too or it is an even bigger fine if you cause an issue and it is one that is not registered.

Make sure you don't fly within 5 miles (or 15 miles can't remember) from an airport.

Here is the regs covering UAS

https://www.faa.gov/uas/regulations_policies/

The_Niddler wrote:

dakshdar wrote:I'll say they're scary/weird as fuck to see buzzing around in a city/suburban environment. We had one "buzz" an incoming plane at LAX a few weeks back. And I've seen one driving to work that was flying over the freeway and it's weird as shit.

Buzzing a plane like that is a serious penalty. Hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I live where there is a lot of land though, so I won't have to worry about that.
As of Jan 1st, you have to register them now too or it is an even bigger fine if you cause an issue and it is one that is not registered.

It's a big fine... if they can find the person that did it.

I agree. It would have been very cool to have something like that where I lived growing up. Tons of open space, huge state parks and other places to go play with them.

I pretty much feel they should be banned in Los Angeles county though unless you're at the beach or in a city park. Population density just doesn't seem to go hand in hand with drone use.