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When I watched that I thought that it has been very carefully edited to make it look a lot more exciting than it appears to be. Yes it's impressive that a octocopter can drag a person across a lake but it's really not the most efficient way of doing it.
 
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I got one a couple of years ago, a little Syma X-5 with a (crap) camera.

tb-quadcopter-syma-x5-4-channel-24ghz-rc-explorers-20860-MLM20198235942_112014-O.jpg

I used it for getting footage of a piece of land I was managing to help monitor tree growth, etc. (honest! I wasn't 'just' playing with it!)

Some of the trees around the boundaries are quite mature... so it'll probably be no surprise that a sudden gust of wind left the damned thing hanging in the very top of a large Sycamore tree. :(

I then spent the next 5 hours trying to retrieve it. First, by getting the longest pole I could manage to try to reach it (cutting down, trimming a willow... lashing willows together etc.) then throwing things at it (sticks, rocks, gardening tools...) then progressing to long lengths of twine with various weights on the end, whirled around my head and thrown at it, all comically unsuccessful.

Eventually, drawing on hours of (what I had until then thought to have been 'misspent') youth, I decided to make a bow and arrow to shoot the twine over it...

The first bow was just crap. The second snapped. But the third... serviceable for my purposes. :)

The string tied to the arrow needed to be laid out perfectly so it didn't snag, which took a few attempts to get right... finally, I managed to get the string shot through the tree just under where the quadcopter was dangling, and after some precision 'jiggling', I managed to twang the little bastard free! Well, free enough to bounce onto the next branch down. But encouraged by this success, I persevered... until finally... finally... it was back in my hands. :)

Then it hit me: I'd had a lot more fun getting it out of the tree than I'd ever had flying it. :mad: :facepalm:
 
I got one a couple of years ago, a little Syma X-5 with a (crap) camera.

tb-quadcopter-syma-x5-4-channel-24ghz-rc-explorers-20860-MLM20198235942_112014-O.jpg

I used it for getting footage of a piece of land I was managing to help monitor tree growth, etc. (honest! I wasn't 'just' playing with it!)

Some of the trees around the boundaries are quite mature... so it'll probably be no surprise that a sudden gust of wind left the damned thing hanging in the very top of a large Sycamore tree. :(

I then spent the next 5 hours trying to retrieve it. First, by getting the longest pole I could manage to try to reach it (cutting down, trimming a willow... lashing willows together etc.) then throwing things at it (sticks, rocks, gardening tools...) then progressing to long lengths of twine with various weights on the end, whirled around my head and thrown at it, all comically unsuccessful.

Eventually, drawing on hours of (what I had until then thought to have been 'misspent') youth, I decided to make a bow and arrow to shoot the twine over it...

The first bow was just crap. The second snapped. But the third... serviceable for my purposes. :)

The string tied to the arrow needed to be laid out perfectly so it didn't snag, which took a few attempts to get right... finally, I managed to get the string shot through the tree just under where the quadcopter was dangling, and after some precision 'jiggling', I managed to twang the little bastard free! Well, free enough to bounce onto the next branch down. But encouraged by this success, I persevered... until finally... finally... it was back in my hands. :)

Then it hit me: I'd had a lot more fun getting it out of the tree than I'd ever had flying it. :mad: :facepalm:
Backatcha take a bow
 
This is the most amazing drone footage I have ever seen. It's breathtaking stuff. Go full screen and be wowed!



(*as seen in the bandwidth thread)
 
*bump*

I've just bought a DJI Phantom 3 Standard :cool:

I've set it all up, connected everything and am now ready to go flying.

Anyone got any tips, advice, experience or opinion they want to share?

Cheers :)
 
*bump*

I've just bought a DJI Phantom 3 Standard :cool:

I've set it all up, connected everything and am now ready to go flying.

Anyone got any tips, advice, experience or opinion they want to share?

Cheers :)
Cool!

Post some videos when you get the hang of it.

And don't crash in to the sea
 
This is the sort of thing that I'm hoping to do. For myself, and also for local yachties for cash. There's literally no boat owner who wouldn't like a drone film of their fine vessel voyaging forth, being heroically helmed by them :thumbs:

I reckon I can rinse them :cool:

Just need to be careful not to crash it into the sea :hmm:

 
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Have fun! I suspect you will need a Permissions for Commercial Operations certificate for that, which in turn will necessitate training for and obtaining a CAA Approved Drone Licence. Something getting on for £2K.
 
*bump*

Anyone got any tips, advice, experience or opinion they want to share?

Cheers :)

I've been flying drones commercially in a change of career since being made redundant about 2 1/2 years ago - if you've got any questions or want to go flying in London I can often be found on Wormwood Scrubs testing out new things I've built - give me a shout :)
 
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Can you tell me what a general average job for you is like please?

Genuinely interested :thumbs:

Best answer I can give is it's different every time - maybe I haven't made enough connections in the media industry to have pure filming jobs to rely on but the general vibe might be a high profile live event one time, a roof inspection the next, a 360 degree video comes along and then an agricultural survey on the next... definitely not something I'd say is particularly regular or predictable, and highly weather dependant unless working abroad...

Today was a good day though, flying drones in formation synchronised to a bit of drum and bass for a live audience at Wembley... pretty fun!
 
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Best answer I can give is it's different every time - maybe I haven't made enough connections in the media industry to have pure filming jobs to rely on but the general vibe might be a high profile live event one time, a roof inspection the next, a 360 degree video comes along and then an agricultural survey on the next... definitely not something I'd say is particularly regular or predictable, and highly weather dependant unless working abroad...

Today was a good day though, flying drones in formation synchronised to a bit of drum and bass for a live audience at Wembley... pretty fun!
Excellent :cool: What windspeed is the limit? (In knots if poss please :thumbs:)
 
Drone racing looks wow.

Proper multi-faceted challenge. The skill of the racing, but also the engineering. You make your racer.

FPV headset where you’re seeing the real world, not a render.

And the audience can FPV with you, or watch from the outside.

 
Excellent :cool: What windspeed is the limit? (In knots if poss please :thumbs:)

Depends on the drone - my CAA permissions let me fly machines up to 20kg which handle high winds much better than something weighing as little as a FPV racer (<700g ish) or a Phantom. For commercial purposes you have to go by the manufacturers specs for max wind speeds in the manual, but as I build my own drones I can decide what is the limit and submit that to the CAA as part of my operations manual... realistically though I wouldn't bother flying in wind over about 15MPH (13 point something knots!?) as the footage would likely be shakey and rubbish due to the gimbal being unable to keep the camera steady. I have still flown in 50MPH gusts on top of mountains when the client demanded it though... the other answer is to fly up to whatever conditions make you feel unsafe or not fully in control of the craft.

There is a great app called UAVforecast that gives you realtime weather status on whether it's good to fly or not
 
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