My first drone flight :)

[wmrcomputers]

Just flown my drone for the first time.....

Incase anyone is interested, it's a DJI Phantom FC40, priced at £366. It also has GPS and a failsafe return to home feature which I've proved works in the video.
Enjoy!! (I did)

 

[proactive]

I so have to get one of those, you lucky devil

 

[wmrcomputers]

I so have to get one of those, you lucky devil

I wouldn't quite go as far as lucky. She's still barely speaking to me.

Hang on a minute.... YEAH.... REALLY LUCKY!! lmao

 

[wmrcomputers]

If you live in the area you'll have to meet up with us over there and see it in action. Quite incredible!

 

[Glam]

That looked good. Now, everyone on here knows I am far from being brain of Britain, and I won't ever win Mastermind, but what stops it from crashing to the ground once you've turned it off? You may have said elsewhere, but I can't remember.....x

 

[wmrcomputers]

It has GPS on board and knows it's precise location in airspace. It shoots up to 20m (to clear most houses etc) and then guides itself back to the location it set off from before slowly landing.
Quite clever but you have to be sure it locks a home point before taking off.

When I'm on holiday at Mablethorpe this year, I plan to send it as far out to sea as it goes looking back at the beach. Now THAT'S going to take me some guts! lol

 

[bpelectric]

Nice bit of kit , i can see it has commercial use i could certainly find a use tracking overhead lines

Won't be long before Big Brother has thousands with night vision

 

[wmrcomputers]

I didn't get to use it again today as I've been in hospital, but I'm hoping to be back on my feet enough by Friday. Need some practice time before my holiday

 

[proactive]

Hope you're better WMR.

I wonder how it would cope in the wind?

 

[wmrcomputers]

Hope you're better WMR.

I wonder how it would cope in the wind?

Reasonably well. There are so many sensors including the GPS, magnetometers and IMU's that it can maintain it's position pretty well under most conditions. Even if it drifts it corrects itself whilst flying in GPS mode. Seriously strong wind you wouldn't fly in anyway unless you were the kind of person that has a £20 note tree at the bottom of your garden (my kids seem to think we have)

 

[proactive]

If you have one of those then it's time to come scrumping round yours...

 

[wmrcomputers]

Haha

 

[Darren]

Is the field were the Cottonfields club used to be ? i ask because watching the vid it looks like i can see the old house i grew up in on Lister Road.

 

[wmrcomputers]

That's the one my friend, yes. The last new houses I hover over before coming back over the field the first time in the video were built on the site of the old club

 

[Darren]

Things have changed a bit since i left Cottonfields in 1982 still nice to see the old house i lived in.

 

[wmrcomputers]

I can remember my brother having his wedding reception at the Charnley club, and now my Sister In Law lives on the site. Just like I used to be a DJ at the New Vic pub and met my wife there... now it's a chemist that sells me the headache tablets. Who'd have ever believed it!

 

[Gramaisc]

Start practicing with the Coton Fields seagulls - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28262942 .

 

[wmrcomputers]

Couldn't find any, but I tried......

From above my garden on Blakiston street towards the allotments and Pennycroft flats.

Then facing towards read avenue and the new building site....

and finally towards the Rec / Prospect Road shops....

and not a gull in sight!

 

[Sir BoD]

Very much enjoying this thread, keep it up wmr. I was reading the reviews of the FC40 on Amazon, and this made me laugh, but probably shouldn't have.
"Very unhappy, this expensive item flew away on the first attempt. I have no recourse as I am expected to prove that it was the phantom at fault, how is that possible if it is gone. I do have eye witnesses that where there, as we followed all the details on utube posted by djs. The phantom was non reactive the moment it took off. I can believe that I can not do anything about this."

 

[wmrcomputers]

Sorry, but for now the thread won't continue as I decided to sell it already... everywhere was sold out which allowed me to get a quick sale and most of my money back. Nothing at all wrong with it, but decided there were more important things I should be doing with my money for now.
Now I know that I can fly one, I'll wait till I'm in a better position financially and buy the Phantom Vision+ 2 with a better camera, gimbal etc.

The fly-away issue is USUALLY caused by people who are too impatient to read the instructions. You have to calibrate the magnetometer whenever the phantom is used in a new location (basically if you moved from Stafford to Birmingham it would need doing again). It takes 30 seconds, but a guy on a video I found online did an experiment to prove that the cause of fly-aways was that. Unfortunately such idiots are giving the phantom quadcopters a bad name, yet they are possibly the best out there within the home-user market.