Just a few musings from the new guy.

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Hi, I am the new guy. My name is Dennis, I'm 6' 225lbs, blue eyes br..... wait, what? sorry wrong site.

I'm actually a helicopter mechanic working on UH-72s for the Army in Germany.
Any-who, I just got a P2V, my first quadcopter. I've had a few airplanes and cars but never a helicopter or multi-rotor. I flew a friends micro and had a blast. So I decided to jump right in and buy an expensive one. LOL. I like photography and thought this would be a nice addition to my camera addiction, I mean hobby.
The main thing I worry about is if the government is actually going to do anything to restrict the flying of our quads more than they already have. I live in Germany right now, but I am returning to the states in December. So did I waste $1000? If I can't fly anywhere, what good are they?
Another thing is the term "DRONE". I think this is a big part of the problem with our hobby. The word drone conjures up images of FLIR footage of insurgents meeting Allah and Hellfire strikes. Even the term UAV is a little harsh because of the medias portrayal of military unmanned aircraft. I would really like to distance the quads from both words.
Also I know there are plenty of threads about the legality of using them to for revenue, but what are your thoughts on just posting videos on Youtube and making money that way? Is it the same as going out and getting paid to film something for a third party?
Another idea I had, I have a lot of ideas, some good, some not so good. But is there any way to record the flight telemetry from the iPhone display onto the video? That could be used for some interesting shots.
Thank you for your attention, I'm sure I'll come up with more ramblings. Discuss.
 
Well first off as a former army guy myself I'd like to say hooah! As for the questIons there's a lot of great people here that can help you out better than I can, but from personal experience I don't regret buying my phantom at all. In fact I recently bought my 2nd phantom after losing my previous one due to being careless and flying it out too far and not having enough time to come back before my battery died. Don't let curiosity get the best of you lol. As for having issues with the public, I haven't had a negitive experience yet. Most people that see it are very interested and wanna know more about it. Anyways, that's all I got for now, oh and welcome to the forums!
 
Probably a waste of time setting up a business taking aerial video or photos. That market is already crowded and getting more crowded by the week.

If you're a good heli mechanic, try to use some of your technical know-how and develop cool little gadgets for the Phantom like tiny motorized winches that can deliver a payload to the ground while the Phantom hovers 50 feet in the air. This could be a cool way to rescue kittens stuck in trees. Maybe invent some kind of flare that can be shot out of the Phantom over the location of a dead body or injured person to assist search-and-rescue teams pinpoint a lost soul.

I'm a forward-thinker --- and the truth is that aerial photography gets boring REALLY quick and eventually people are going to want to do more things with their UAV's. Remember when computers came out in the 70s and most people thought all you could do with them is play Pong and maybe crunch a rudimentary spreadsheet? We need more "think outside the box" type of people like you and me to move this drone industry forward. Take a few videos with your P2 but I'm sure you'll prove me right when I say it's a fast track to boredom and selling your Phantom on Ebay at a loss.

Sorry to be harsh but us drone enthusiasts need to innovate or our hobby will die a quick death ---- I believe Steve Jobs said that around 1981 about the PC industry.
 
Mad Mitchie 88 said:
Probably a waste of time setting up a business taking aerial video or photos. That market is already crowded and getting more crowded by the week.
We need more "think outside the box" type of people like you and me to move this drone industry forward. Take a few videos with your P2 but I'm sure you'll prove me right when I say it's a fast track to boredom and selling your Phantom on Ebay at a loss.

Sorry to be harsh but us drone enthusiasts need to innovate or our hobby will die a quick death ---- I believe Steve Jobs said that around 1981 about the PC industry.
I have no intensions of using it for a business, I was referring to the FAA and the commercial use of quads. You're getting paid either way, directly from the client or indirectly from Google for users watching your videos.

I am thinking of a few ideas for mods,just need to figure out the electrical load and the payload capacity to get some of these rolling.
I doubt I will get tired of it quickly. I tend to stick with my hobbies for a while.
 
planedr said:
Hi, I am the new guy. My name is Dennis, I'm 6' 225lbs, blue eyes br..... wait, what? sorry wrong site.

I'm actually a helicopter mechanic working on UH-72s for the Army in Germany.
Any-who, I just got a P2V, my first quadcopter. I've had a few airplanes and cars but never a helicopter or multi-rotor. I flew a friends micro and had a blast. So I decided to jump right in and buy an expensive one. LOL. I like photography and thought this would be a nice addition to my camera addiction, I mean hobby.
The main thing I worry about is if the government is actually going to do anything to restrict the flying of our quads more than they already have. I live in Germany right now, but I am returning to the states in December. So did I waste $1000? If I can't fly anywhere, what good are they?
Another thing is the term "DRONE". I think this is a big part of the problem with our hobby. The word drone conjures up images of FLIR footage of insurgents meeting Allah and Hellfire strikes. Even the term UAV is a little harsh because of the medias portrayal of military unmanned aircraft. I would really like to distance the quads from both words.
Also I know there are plenty of threads about the legality of using them to for revenue, but what are your thoughts on just posting videos on Youtube and making money that way? Is it the same as going out and getting paid to film something for a third party?
Another idea I had, I have a lot of ideas, some good, some not so good. But is there any way to record the flight telemetry from the iPhone display onto the video? That could be used for some interesting shots.
Thank you for your attention, I'm sure I'll come up with more ramblings. Discuss.

Welcome! Try to have fun with your new quad and fly safe of course. Take videos and enjoy.
 
As a reponse to last question about displaying telemetry. You certainly can. Check out this guy's great video for the overlay that is possible with the two products I link to below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aqFo6l48HI


I just purchased the Flytrex core: http://www.flytrex.com/shop/products/fl ... trex-core/, which you can add on to your Phantom. It records all that telemetry, and more. It creates a GPS flight map, displays distance travelled, etc.. You can then edit this data into your videos using Dashware: http://www.dashware.net/portfolio_tags/flytrex/
 
Perfect! That's exactly what I was looking for. And just a heads up, my wife now hates you. :lol:
 

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