Quadcopter

So I've had a rough few weeks.  So rough that I didn't really even have a chance to celebrate my birthday (actually, I was on a plane) so wanted to have something cool and new to play with.   I've actually wanted an RC airplane since high school, but figured that it would be an endless frutrating stream of broken wings and props.  Enter the quadcopter:  a RC flying machine with a much more shallow learning curve.    I have been reading about RC drones for a while, and recently a company called DJI that sells the flight control "brains"used in many multi rotors copters released their own quadcopter which is called the Phantom.  Everyone seems to love it, even if there are a few things that they got wrong.  I did a little research and at least in my opinion, for a quad carrying a HD Hero, the Phantom is the best deal going.  The GoPro is not the best for stills, but excels at video.  I picked one up from a local shop on the other side of town (http://www.flashrc.com/, HIGHLY recommended) , started the thing charging, picked up the kids, asked who wanted to see daddy's new helicopter, and interpreted their YAAAAAAY YES ME I WANT TOs as an affirmative.  I had watched all the tutorial videos except the advanced guide multiple times and started off gently.  I did not, however notice the fact that when you get an imperfect GPS lock, the copter does not use GPS to correct its flight, so hands off the joysticks=copter continues to coast.  So, long story short, on the second flight a mild puff of wind starts the phantom going towards the forest.  Worse still, it gets turned around so all the directions controls are now flipped.  It lofted slowly over the fence and crash landed in an immense stand of bushes.  Nice.  I put the controller down, and with the kids in tow began bushwhacking in my shorts and sandals.  That's when I noticed that this was no ordinary stand of bushes, but chest high stinging nettles with some blackberry vines weaving through them for.  Zoe tried to follow me without my noticing and she was soon crying from a nettle sting, and my arms and legs were starting to throb.  I brought the kids back to the chateau, got on my Carhartts (the ones I used to use when I was chainsawing stuff) and headed back into the sea of pain.  After stomping down a large area, I eventually found the thing deep in a nettle.  So not the most auspicious of starts, but it could have been a wall, I suppose.

Since then (Monday) I have done at least six flights and am getting better and better but still have moments of terror when the copter gets turned around and the controls are shifted by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.  I have to say though that this thing is amazing.  It will climb, drop and glide as fast (ok, much faster) than I am comfortable with and gets around 12 minutes from a fully charged pack.

Tonight I showed it off to Franck and managed not to crash it or injure either one of us, despite the lack of GPS lock again and a bit of wind.




I can't wait to do flyovers of cols, cliffs etc.  This is going to be amazing.