Are there any drone pilots here?

MFDAC

MFDAC

Tractorologist
Senior Member
Member
My wife gave me what looks like a real nice drone for Christmas. I'm not sure that learning all the stuff required to fly it will be possible for this old geezer but gonna try! I always wanted to fly and this is probably the only way it will ever happen. Was hoping I could just turn it on out here in the shop and practice taking off a few feet and hovering. Don't sound like it's possible in a steel building though. It needs to connect with sattellites and depends on gps.

Then after more research the worst news came. Sounds like we live to close to the airport to fly it over my own property! Then the clincher is that Ellsworth AFB has a bigger no-fly zone that appears to cover our land too!

Dang that's a bummer! Still gonna learn how to fly this thing somehow! I've never flown a decent one before and would like to get where it can take a few pics and videos in areas where the feds ain't gonna haul me to jail for being a spy or terrorist---LOL!

Got any drone experiences or advice to talk about, guys?

DAC

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I have a sky viper that looks like that, Best advise, fly it in NO WIND conditions or you will be climbing trees to retrieve it. If it has a camera it's kinda cool. Mine has been stored for many years now. Lost interest.


 
larrybl said:
I have a sky viper that looks like that, Best advise, fly it in NO WIND conditions or you will be climbing trees to retrieve it. If it has a camera it's kinda cool. Mine has been stored for many years now. Lost interest.


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Seems like I kinda remember a tree rescue post sometime back Larry?

Thanks for the videos, Larry! Pretty crazy they all ended in a manner that made me think "all the humanity" LOL!

Supposedly the gps feature removes all the vibration and makes it flyable in breezy conditions. I watched several videos of this Holy Stone 700D and it was impressive. The pilots acted impressed too. Camera looks good, will rotate 90* up and down by rolling this wheel on the side of the controller. Camera is also mounted on soft rubber mounts.

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DAC
 
As I understand it if a drone is larger than .55 lbs. it has to be registered. I would say that you living that close to the airbase it might be a good idea to check it out. Those facilities could very easily be monitoring frequencies.
Don't want to be the scrooge but I don't want you to get in trouble either.
Go here for information on registration You need to register your drone with the FAA before you fly!
 
Yeah Chris, this one needs to be registered. It weighs in at 1.05 lbs. I didn't do it yet until I know if I might be able to fly it! EAFB is about 10 miles north but they have a lot of restrictions. SAC base that is preparing to be the home of the new B-21 bomber. Things are booming around here because of that too!

DAC
 
We have a tiny airport close to us that lands maybe 3 to 6 planes a week. If you contact the airport and ask they may let you fly.

I called ours and the guy said he didn't give a crap not to call again.

They are easy to fly. Basically fly themselves. I held mine out with one arm. Throttle up on the other till it hovers. Then you can fly up and down via throttle. Spin 360 degrees. Slew left or right. Go forward and backwards.

I take mine straight up and just shoot shots around my house. Its fun but got old real quick.

When I was still into it I spent a 1000 on a mavic drone. It was sweet. Shot 4k video. I flew it a few different places. Sold it to a friend for 800. I had 200 dollars worth of fun with it.
 
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Toomanytoys84 said:
We have a tiny airport close to us that lands maybe 3 to 6 planes a week. If you contact the airport and ask they may let you fly.

I called ours and the guy said he didn't give a crap not to call again.

They are easy to fly. Basically fly themselves. I held mine out with one arm. Throttle up on the other till it hovers. Then you can fly up and down via throttle. Spin 360 degrees. Slew left or right. Go forward and backwards.

I take mine straight up and just shoot shots around my house. Its fun but got old real quick.

When I was still into it I spent a 1000 on a mavic drone. It was sweet. Shot 4k video. I flew it a few different places. Sold it to a friend for 800. I had 200 dollars worth of fun with it.
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Well, maybe easy for a young guy like you Aaron---LOL! I'm sure glad no one was out in the shop with me this afternoon when I decided "how hard can it be---LOL!" All I was going to do was just rise it off the floor a couple feet and hover! Went through the steps and unlocked it. Blades started spinning like the directions said. Died in 10 seconds. Blades lock again if you don't take off in that amount of time. OK do the procedure again, blades spinning, give it a little throttle up it goes and takes off backwards and crashes into my engine stand about 10 feet from where I launched. The blades quit spinning so I went to go grab it and put on the blade guard it knocked off. Picked it up and the blades took off again and put a couple nice slices in my arm! Can't see it but there's a little cut on the index finger too. Somehow it shut off when I set it down. Got that bleeding stopped and went in the house to find a big band aid. My wife thought it was funny that the dang thing attacked me! She's the one that gave it to me so she must be thinking about the life insurance---LOL!
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This thing ain't gonna kick my butt! Well, famous last words! Fired it up and actually did a pretty clean launch and brought it down and landed! Took off again, and this time it came at me face level sitting on a rolling chair! I resisted swatting at it like being attacked by murder hornets! Ducked, it went by, got it to circle around and then tried to land. Must have hit forward as it crashed into a table. Knocked off two blade guards then it landed on the floor upside down still running. I hadn't read far enough about how to stop the blades spinning but was able to pick it up by the landing gear and flop it back on the cardboard "landing pad" I threw down. It was running at idle speed so I grabbed the book and found how to shut it down. Ain't no way to hit the kill switch without losing a finger!
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After getting it shut down I decided to do something that won't kill me so I made some signs for a customer!
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I survived that without trying to cut off any more limbs---LOL!

I better wait until it's nice enough outside and find someplace where homeland security ain't gonna haul me off to a federal pen for playing with a dangerous toy---LOL! Someone posted a while back that they felt like a monkey doing a football. Well I felt like the football today and the drone was the monkey!

DAC
 
"toy---LOL! Someone posted a while back that they felt like a monkey doing a football. Well I felt like the football today and the drone was the monkey"

I couldn't resist...
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Cat385B said:
Those signs you made up,,,,,

is that blood on the second one?
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Blood was all on the nearest dirty rag I found, Cat!

Pig said:
A video would have been GREAT! :cool: o_O:p

(glad you're okay, and signs look very nice!)
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Yeah for everyone elses' entertainment, Pig! I have one of those little SD cards around here for that camera but couldn't find it, thankfully---LOL! One didn't come with the drone. Thanks on the signs!

4getgto said:
"toy---LOL! Someone posted a while back that they felt like a monkey doing a football. Well I felt like the football today and the drone was the monkey"

I couldn't resist...
View attachment 32779
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That's me on the right, 4getgto---LOL!

Toomanytoys84 said:
Holy crap! That's a wild one. I flew rc helicopters for awhile. Maybe that's why I thought it was easy....
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I never did any RC stuff before this! Not even cars or buggies, Aaron!

DAC
 
I have a smaller one that I have flew several times. Then deer season came along and haven't had it out in a few months. Like has been said, NO WIND. The will not fly them selves either if you want to see it again. Keep the back end towards you. Mine has two red light to indicate the taill and white for the front. The rotation is usually controled by the left control. Once you rotate it all the controls are changed and everything get screwed up and it can be off to parts unknown. Learn to use the home button. I started flying mine in the basement off the pool table.
 
Ive flown RC planes, helos and drones for years, if you stay under 400', stay away from public parks or other areas where there may be alot of people, dont take pics of people you dont know, ask for permission to use private property, then for the most part nobody will care what your doing.

Best thing to do is join a local fly club... there you have the space and some people to help you get going in the right direction... without the hard crash and burn lessons.
 
chieffan said:
I have a smaller one that I have flew several times. Then deer season came along and haven't had it out in a few months. Like has been said, NO WIND. The will not fly them selves either if you want to see it again. Keep the back end towards you. Mine has two red light to indicate the taill and white for the front. The rotation is usually controled by the left control. Once you rotate it all the controls are changed and everything get screwed up and it can be off to parts unknown. Learn to use the home button. I started flying mine in the basement off the pool table.
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Lance Skene said:
Ive flown RC planes, helos and drones for years, if you stay under 400', stay away from public parks or other areas where there may be alot of people, dont take pics of people you dont know, ask for permission to use private property, then for the most part nobody will care what your doing.

Best thing to do is join a local fly club... there you have the space and some people to help you get going in the right direction... without the hard crash and burn lessons.
Click to expand...
Good advice from both of you. Thanks for the comments! Pretty sure I will be able to do some hovering and simple maneuvers with this thing here in the shop. Just got to approach it with a little more confidence! And let the drone bites heal up first----LOL!

I was a really good slot car racer but that just took eyes, reactions and one finger! Gotta work on the two thumbs thing controlling a bunch of different commands quite a bit---LOL!

DAC
 
Another you might wanna look into Doug, is a tether system. I've seen rigs for RC helicopters for first time users. They allow a person to get use to flight controls without letting the helicopter to "run away".
 
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