Hello from Southwest Michigan

Joined
Sep 19, 2019
Messages
57
Reaction score
33
Age
56
A little back story.

My Canon DSLR 40D completely died right at finishing up a photo shoot of the local high school marching band last year. I didn't replace the camera so I was unable to take the group shots again this year. Instead they asked/hired someone else to fill in. The new photographer asked me if she had to climb up the scaffold to get the shot and I said yes; to get the whole group, you're going to need the height. A friend of the photographer chimed in and said she is afraid of heights. The photographer then says she has a drone and can take the shot with that. I said, that would be cool!

So the band is getting positioned and she flies her drone up and gets the shots needed. I see that drone and I tell my wife, I've got to get me one of those!

So after a week of reviewing on YouTube and reading up on drones, I decided to get a MJX Bugs 2 (b2c) to learn how to fly. That proved to be a wise investment of $46 (after gift card and some reward points), since within a couple weeks of practice I managed to hit two trees. The first tree, the drone survived to fly again; the second tree, not so good; broke a motor right off. (I was practicing quite well, keeping it controlled about 20 feet above me, but got a little too fast, I'll admit. Headed for a tree and I didn't account for the drift soon enough. Doh! I was not in the GPS mode and the drift got the better of me.)

I learned that, to fly for profit, or "in furtherance of a business", I need to be Part 107 certified. So I studied for three weeks, took a test prep course online (King Schools), and pass the exam with a 92%. Whohoo! Wow is that quite a lot of information. I really like reading the sectional charts, though. SkyVector.com is really cool to use.

Well, now the task was to find an awesome drone. My research led me to the Phantom 3 Pro. At this price point I can get into a very nice drone/camera outfit. I like the sophistication of the drone and the quality of the camera. I found an outfit for sale here in the classifieds and I am looking forward to receiving it within several days.

I must be a nerd, because I've read the user manual of the P3P all the way through and still pouring over it right now. Plus, finding threads in here to read and videos to watch, too.

I plan on continuing to practice, practice, practice flying so to become very proficient with the P3P.

For the short time I've been on this forum, it has been great; and I look forward to contributing in the near future.

John
 
Greetings and welcome to the forum John.
That’s quite an intro.
I’ve had 2 phantom 3 standards, and now have the P3A plus a spark to play with.
Both are great fun and take good pics and videos.
Enjoy it when you get it. Look forward to seeing your vids etc on here.
 
A little back story.

My Canon DSLR 40D completely died right at finishing up a photo shoot of the local high school marching band last year. I didn't replace the camera so I was unable to take the group shots again this year. Instead they asked/hired someone else to fill in. The new photographer asked me if she had to climb up the scaffold to get the shot and I said yes; to get the whole group, you're going to need the height. A friend of the photographer chimed in and said she is afraid of heights. The photographer then says she has a drone and can take the shot with that. I said, that would be cool!

So the band is getting positioned and she flies her drone up and gets the shots needed. I see that drone and I tell my wife, I've got to get me one of those!

So after a week of reviewing on YouTube and reading up on drones, I decided to get a MJX Bugs 2 (b2c) to learn how to fly. That proved to be a wise investment of $46 (after gift card and some reward points), since within a couple weeks of practice I managed to hit two trees. The first tree, the drone survived to fly again; the second tree, not so good; broke a motor right off. (I was practicing quite well, keeping it controlled about 20 feet above me, but got a little too fast, I'll admit. Headed for a tree and I didn't account for the drift soon enough. Doh! I was not in the GPS mode and the drift got the better of me.)

I learned that, to fly for profit, or "in furtherance of a business", I need to be Part 107 certified. So I studied for three weeks, took a test prep course online (King Schools), and pass the exam with a 92%. Whohoo! Wow is that quite a lot of information. I really like reading the sectional charts, though. SkyVector.com is really cool to use.

Well, now the task was to find an awesome drone. My research led me to the Phantom 3 Pro. At this price point I can get into a very nice drone/camera outfit. I like the sophistication of the drone and the quality of the camera. I found an outfit for sale here in the classifieds and I am looking forward to receiving it within several days.

I must be a nerd, because I've read the user manual of the P3P all the way through and still pouring over it right now. Plus, finding threads in here to read and videos to watch, too.

I plan on continuing to practice, practice, practice flying so to become very proficient with the P3P.

For the short time I've been on this forum, it has been great; and I look forward to contributing in the near future.

John
Welcome to the forum John!

If you are interested, click here for some tips that I often share with new P3A/P3P owners.

Cheers!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JoBe
Super! Thanks!

Edit: Wow, fantastic read. Good to know about the calibration issue and I understand it much better now; even made a change in my preflight checklist to accommodate this new info.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Oso
Welcome to the forum.
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching . ?
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,055
Messages
1,467,298
Members
104,920
Latest member
stovebayen