Any drone users on here?

[marty359]

Any drone users on here that want to share their footage?

I bought a Phantom 3 standard last week and I'm really impressed with it, especially the gimbal it uses. After flying it in 20mph winds on Saturday the footage was perfectly stable.

Not really had a chance to fly it apart from hovering around the garden as the weather has been wet or windy for the last few days but I got up this morning to sunshine and 8mph winds so took it up to 100 metres. I really do live in the middle of nowhere

And can anyone recommend any public liability insurance incase it falls out of the sky?



[YOUTUBE]A_glLFgFOlg?rel=0&vq=hd720[/YOUTUBE]

 

[renault12ts]

Not sure about the insurance but don't you need CAA training or somesuch?

 

[Rosso1]

Nice picture quality marty359

 

[John]

I get the feeling Marty's video creation / producing enterprise is evolving quite fast now.

You are wasted as a spark, you do know that don't you.

 

[davidjpowell]

Not sure about the insurance but don't you need CAA training or somesuch?

I'm looking into it. Bought a Drone that's sat waiting for me to have time.... DJ Phantom 3 Pro.

To use commercially (and the definition of commercial is quite wide - eg if you put adds on your Youtube footage) you do need to pass a course. I don't think it is particularly hard.

To use as a hobby the rules are less strict - but they still do exist, max heights not to use in built up areas etc. A lot is common sense (eg not next to Heathrow)....

 

[marty359]

I get the feeling Marty's video creation / producing enterprise is evolving quite fast now.

You are wasted as a spark, you do know that don't you.

Cheers John, I'm sure there's some lurkers on here that can do a much better job I like the editing side of all these vids and the youtube statistics on where their watched throughout the world.

I'm looking into it. Bought a Drone that's sat waiting for me to have time.... DJ Phantom 3 Pro.

To use commercially (and the definition of commercial is quite wide - eg if you put adds on your Youtube footage) you do need to pass a course. I don't think it is particularly hard.

To use as a hobby the rules are less strict - but they still do exist, max heights not to use in built up areas etc. A lot is common sense (eg not next to Heathrow)....

3 pro that looks a nice bit of kit but almost triple the cost of a standard and out of my toy price range. I need more batteries for mine 25 minutes of fun at a time is just not enough

Did you look into any costs of obtaining the license for commercial work?

I don't think I'll bother as it's just for a bit of fun for me, I go to the Terminal Velocity events but do them for free as I enjoy the editing, I don't monetize my youtube vids with music and the runways nearly 2 miles long so enough room to keep away from the spectators so I should be covered.

Just nipped out again with it and managed a 500m range with no problems and up to 120m for some sunset shots. I don't know why the maximum legal range is 500m because you cant see the drone at that distance and relying on the video link, it might as well be as far as the signal allows. I tested the return to home feature too and it landed within 1m of where it took off so again really impressed with it so far.

 

[BTB 500]

For 3rd party insurance the cheapest option is to join FPV UK:

What is FPV UK? - FPV UKFPV UK

As mentioned make sure you're aware of the rules & regs - there have been a few successful prosecutions in the last year or two.

I've flown r/c for 40 years and have done aerial photography since the '80s - back then with big fixed-wing models carrying 35mm SLRs. I've flown multirotors for nearly 6 years and currently have one set up for stills:




One for video:




Plus a few others for fun

 

[davidjpowell]

Cheers John, I'm sure there's some lurkers on here that can do a much better job I like the editing side of all these vids and the youtube statistics on where their watched throughout the world.




3 pro that looks a nice bit of kit but almost triple the cost of a standard and out of my toy price range. I need more batteries for mine 25 minutes of fun at a time is just not enough

Did you look into any costs of obtaining the license for commercial work?

I don't think I'll bother as it's just for a bit of fun for me, I go to the Terminal Velocity events but do them for free as I enjoy the editing, I don't monetize my youtube vids with music and the runways nearly 2 miles long so enough room to keep away from the spectators so I should be covered.

Just nipped out again with it and managed a 500m range with no problems and up to 120m for some sunset shots. I don't know why the maximum legal range is 500m because you cant see the drone at that distance and relying on the video link, it might as well be as far as the signal allows. I tested the return to home feature too and it landed within 1m of where it took off so again really impressed with it so far.

The license costs don't look insane at all. My biggest limitation is time... We will see.

Legally your required to keep the Drone in sight. There are more complex rules (which I think require an additional person among other things) if you are relying on the camera view...

 

[Dogbreath]

That is awesome Marty359
I want...!

 

[MancMike]

You can't fly it near any airports. It's not possible. The drone will decend, and ultimately land, within a radius of any airport.

 

[BTB 500]

Legally your required to keep the Drone in sight. There are more complex rules (which I think require an additional person among other things) if you are relying on the camera view...

The requirements for maintaining "direct unaided visual contact" are a bit daft. The CAA's interpretation of this is up to 1600' horizontally (500 metres), but only a quarter of that distance (400') vertically.

However if you are flying FPV (relying on a video downlink) with a "competent observer" watching the aircraft you can go up to 1000' AGL:

http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/1168.pdf

So a pilot is only capable of seeing 400' up, but an observer can see 1000' ...

Note that aerial work is excluded from this.

 

[John]

I like the editing side of all these vids and the youtube statistics on where their watched throughout the world.

I've found this a bit odd with my clips on YT.

Something like 15 different countries around the world have watched them.

Incredible really.

 

[BTB 500]

You can't fly it near any airports. It's not possible. The drone will decend, and ultimately land, within a radius of any airport.

That's only true of certain DJI models, and they only have 'no fly zones' set up for some major airports ... definitely not all.

 

[MancMike]

but true of the OPs drone, to which I was referring.

 

[BTB 500]

Ah, ok. Pretty sure the P3 allows you to fly in Atti mode though, in which case you could block (shield) the GPS antenna and fly it anywhere you like!

 

[davidjpowell]

DJ No fly zones... DJI - Fly Safe: No Fly Zones

in the UK it looks like airports and football clubs mainly...

 

[marty359]

that looks a fair size, what does it weigh? and forgive me if I'm being too nosey but what do you use it to film?

That is awesome Marty359
I want...!

Ha ha exactly what I thought when I saw footage from one at the last TV event

You can't fly it near any airports. It's not possible. The drone will decend, and ultimately land, within a radius of any airport.

I didn't know that, does it work by the latitude, longitude and a radius of the area pre loaded onto the drone?

Ah, ok. Pretty sure the P3 allows you to fly in Atti mode though, in which case you could block (shield) the GPS antenna and fly it anywhere you like!

It has an attitude mode but I'll stick to the GPS settings for now, I like knowing it will return home if something goes wrong I cant remember the other setting but if it sees enough satellites there's a follow me function that I might try later. I wish my version had the follow me where you tap on the screen and it locks onto the chosen object rather than following the controller.

Some great links you're posting up chaps

 

[BTB 500]

that looks a fair size, what does it weigh? and forgive me if I'm being too nosey but what do you use it to film?

It's around 500mm (diagonal between motors), and weighs about 2kg. The Y6 I use for stills is a lot bigger - 900mm and 3.1 kg. I don't shoot an awful lot of video, just mooching about really I do more stills ... have covered some events I've been involved in and shot some pictures for a book (all unpaid as I don't have a CAA permit). At the moment I'm mostly flying the little quad (180mm and 340 grams). It's very fast and aerobatic - I mostly fly that FPV using goggles. It gets very small very quickly otherwise

As a long time r/c modeller I enjoy building and tinkering ... always got some upgrades on the go. The 3D gimbal on my quad is home-made from plywood The Phantom series are outstanding value for money and perform really well straight out of the box. They do have a bad reputation though due to a small number of owners doing stupid things with them, hence ...

I didn't know that, does it work by the latitude, longitude and a radius of the area pre loaded onto the drone?

Basically yes. It only knows about the bigger civil airports though, and a handful of other sites.

It has an attitude mode but I'll stick to the GPS settings for now, I like knowing it will return home if something goes wrong

The failsafe mode should be a last resort and isn't infallible. If you have no GPS reception it won't work (obviously), and in the worst case if you have corrupted data it will fly off in a random direction never to be seen again (google 'phantom flyaway'). Really you should get used to flying in Atti mode, just in case you need it one day. Although home-built my bigger copters use DJI Naza flight controllers so have many similarities. The Phantom 1 and 2 actually used standard Naza flight controllers running slightly modified firmware.

 

[marty359]

Excellent Bill thanks.

And a good point regarding flying using GPS.

 

[Alfie]

Great footage.

This is an area im very interested in. Ive ordered a Lily and am still waiting for delivery (nearly a year now!).