Drones anyone?

wkearney99

Senior Member
I've had a couple of different RC heli and quad-copters for a while.  None of them were ever what I'd call 'friendly' to use.
 
The other day the deals website, Woot.com, had a special on refurb AR Parrot v2 drones, so I bought one.  Came in two days, nice.
 
Wow, this thing is actually EASY to use!  Make no mistake, remote control devices (flying or otherwise) are always a bit of a challenge to operate.  There's that whole 'spatial comprehension' thing.  As in, remembers that right and left are from the perspective of the cockpit IN the device, not where YOU are looking.  Flying downrange you're fine, but coming back... it's reversed.  Up over my roof, thirty feet in the air... wait, which is it, left, right, forward, ACK!  Thankfully I got it sorted and landed back safely on the ground.
 
Battery life is, like any gizmo, shorter than you'd like. I've ordered a second battery and will likely order at least one more.  8-10 minutes truly does 'fly by' when playing with this thing.  I haven't had this much fun with a new toy in quite a while.
 
I fly a TREX 450 rc heli to the extent of hovering and flying small circles in my yard. At least that was the extent of my abilities last summer, I haven't flown it in a year. I have a small Blade mcpx that I have been flying a little this summer but no time on the larger 450 model.
 
I'd love to try a drone with a gimballed camera.
 
Mike.
 
Not sure how the Parrot BeBop drone compares to the ones you all are talking about, but it looks quite impressive:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZdSMAG90Rs
 
Yeah, a gimballed camera would be nice.  But I'm not kidding you, the Parrot is REALLY easy to fly.  I've had my share of other RC gizmos over the years and I'm flat-out astounded how simple this one was to fly.  
 
I'd imagine with the addition of the GPS module it'll be even easier.  I can see setting up a GPS route for some regularly monitored stuff and just turning it loose.
 
How well do they handle wind?  My son tried a couple of the el cheapo helicopters (the kind with two counter-rotating rotors), which are still tricky to fly even without wind, but just a minor gust can tip them over and send them to the ground faster than a falling rock.  
 
I'd imagine it would depend on just how much wind you're talking about.  While flying there was a bit of a breeze now and then, the Parrot shifted and tilted on it's own against it.  That is, while I had it hovering the wind came up and the thing just adjusted on it's own.  Kind of remarkable to watch.  How that translates into 'more' wind, I don't know.  I'd be more likely to just fly another time rather than push the limits.
 
I'll add, my less-smart quadcopter did not possess the same features.  But, most annoying, it tended to have real trouble just maintaining flat trim.  That made it much harder to learn to use it when it was tending to wander around.
 
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