- Jun 12, 2014
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- 32,560
Founding Member
Anybody else have one? I just got the Phantom 3 standard. 600 clams for the drone, some extra props, an extra battery, and a hardshell backpack that carries it all around.
It came fedex today and it took about an hour to charge the batteries, get the app installed on my phone, bolt on the rotor guards (training wheels), and figure out how to wirelessly connect everything and get it ready. Then I drove to a nearby field that I figured was big enough to avoid catastrophe and fired it up.
Super freaking easy to "fly." I say "fly" in quotes because you aren't so much flying it as simply telling it where to go. I'd imagine if you want to sport-fly the thing like racing through a forest it would take some time to get the hang of it, but for just moving about, climbing and descending, etc its pretty intuitive. If it starts to get crazy you just let go of everything and it stops on a dime and hovers.
After one battery worth of flying at the field (about 20 minutes) I came home and flew it around outside the house to torment my dogs. Pretty easy to keep it about ten feet off the ground (out of jaws reach) and move it around the yard. The flying part gets so easy after a while that you can concentrate on pointing the camera.
There are advanced modes which let you automatically fly around preprogrammed paths or orbit around a fixed point, etc. These let you spend more time using the camera for filming. I'll play with those a little tomorrow. Anyway if someone has some drone tips lets hear them.
It came fedex today and it took about an hour to charge the batteries, get the app installed on my phone, bolt on the rotor guards (training wheels), and figure out how to wirelessly connect everything and get it ready. Then I drove to a nearby field that I figured was big enough to avoid catastrophe and fired it up.
Super freaking easy to "fly." I say "fly" in quotes because you aren't so much flying it as simply telling it where to go. I'd imagine if you want to sport-fly the thing like racing through a forest it would take some time to get the hang of it, but for just moving about, climbing and descending, etc its pretty intuitive. If it starts to get crazy you just let go of everything and it stops on a dime and hovers.
After one battery worth of flying at the field (about 20 minutes) I came home and flew it around outside the house to torment my dogs. Pretty easy to keep it about ten feet off the ground (out of jaws reach) and move it around the yard. The flying part gets so easy after a while that you can concentrate on pointing the camera.
There are advanced modes which let you automatically fly around preprogrammed paths or orbit around a fixed point, etc. These let you spend more time using the camera for filming. I'll play with those a little tomorrow. Anyway if someone has some drone tips lets hear them.