Hello all...
I've been flying full scale and RC for about 30 years but just pulled the trigger on a P4P+. I'm not sure why I needed a drone other than to shoot some cool video now and then. One of the things that pushed me over the edge is that I got a quote for $600 to have a commercial roof inspection done on one of our commercial properties and found out that they do inspection using a drone flying a grid over the building. Now I can do it myself.
I went with the + for the bright screen and the integrated design. I figure if that turns out to be a mistake, I can buy a 4P controller. The + also has the built in HDMI for goggles.
One of my concerns is the Geo-fencing and no fly zone. As a full scale pilot, I have a lot of connections in the aviation industry. Our local airport authority asked me if I had a drone a few months ago. I didn't, but told them that a drone would not be able to fly near the airport. They told me not to worry, I had permission and I told them, it's not me, it's the drone. It won't even power up near an airport.
They asked around more and found that one of the airport employees had a DIY camera drone with a gopro running an Arduino based controller. He got some decent aerial footage around the tower, runways and ramp but the airport wanted better quality. His drone lacked the nice intelligent flight modes that make the commercial drones so stable.
They ended up hiring a videographer and a helicopter to the tune of over $10,000 for days shooting which yielded about 5 minutes of aerial footage.
My other issue is that I discovered that the local RC field is within 5 miles of a small county airport and was wanting to shoot some air to air video out there.
This has me thinking about building a drone. I figure I need a stable 3 axis gimbal, a controller/autopilot with some of the intelligent flight modes that the P4P has like tripod, POI, follow me and the ability to fly waypoints. DJI seems to have both, just not sure if their controllers, like the Naza-M V2 or N3 are plagued with the dreaded no fly zone thing though. They do couple to their Zenmuse cameras.
The A3 or N3 controller with Z3 gimbal and camera on a Flame Wheel 550 frame looks to be around $2000+-. Add Lightbridge and we're up to about $3000. There are other video downlink options, but I'm not sure you could find anything better than Lightbridge for the money.
Anyway, that's my story. I've been reading posts here and you guys really have this figured out.
-Ross
I've been flying full scale and RC for about 30 years but just pulled the trigger on a P4P+. I'm not sure why I needed a drone other than to shoot some cool video now and then. One of the things that pushed me over the edge is that I got a quote for $600 to have a commercial roof inspection done on one of our commercial properties and found out that they do inspection using a drone flying a grid over the building. Now I can do it myself.
I went with the + for the bright screen and the integrated design. I figure if that turns out to be a mistake, I can buy a 4P controller. The + also has the built in HDMI for goggles.
One of my concerns is the Geo-fencing and no fly zone. As a full scale pilot, I have a lot of connections in the aviation industry. Our local airport authority asked me if I had a drone a few months ago. I didn't, but told them that a drone would not be able to fly near the airport. They told me not to worry, I had permission and I told them, it's not me, it's the drone. It won't even power up near an airport.
They asked around more and found that one of the airport employees had a DIY camera drone with a gopro running an Arduino based controller. He got some decent aerial footage around the tower, runways and ramp but the airport wanted better quality. His drone lacked the nice intelligent flight modes that make the commercial drones so stable.
They ended up hiring a videographer and a helicopter to the tune of over $10,000 for days shooting which yielded about 5 minutes of aerial footage.
My other issue is that I discovered that the local RC field is within 5 miles of a small county airport and was wanting to shoot some air to air video out there.
This has me thinking about building a drone. I figure I need a stable 3 axis gimbal, a controller/autopilot with some of the intelligent flight modes that the P4P has like tripod, POI, follow me and the ability to fly waypoints. DJI seems to have both, just not sure if their controllers, like the Naza-M V2 or N3 are plagued with the dreaded no fly zone thing though. They do couple to their Zenmuse cameras.
The A3 or N3 controller with Z3 gimbal and camera on a Flame Wheel 550 frame looks to be around $2000+-. Add Lightbridge and we're up to about $3000. There are other video downlink options, but I'm not sure you could find anything better than Lightbridge for the money.
Anyway, that's my story. I've been reading posts here and you guys really have this figured out.
-Ross
