love this drone flying stuff !!!!

Yip agree hooked many years ago by the little syma's,,first real drone was the "detect x380 " still goes today but love the phantoms
 
Tried toy rc planes and helicopters starting about 10 years ago, then moved up to rc planes with real rc parts (kit style). My sent me a YouTube link about quadcopters and this new fangled "FPV"........ My brain exploded. Been doing everything rc since.

Better than hookers and cocaine, my wife says.

Enjoy and remember to never do anything to give this hobby a bad rap. We do NOT need any bad publicity! Keep your head in the clouds!
 
Yes. Many years ago I tried to join my brother in flying gas powered planes and helicopters. I did not have the patience to build planes, so purchased a gas helicopter - Shuttle XX if I recall correctly. Tried to learn to fly it for about 2 years and a lot of crashes before giving up.

Bought a Parrot AR 2.0 when they came out and was impressed by free flying, although range was very limited, camera so so, and blew away in any more than about a 5 mph wind.

Just over 3 years ago bought a P4. Was amazed at the photo and video quality, reliability, and how easy it was to fly. After 6 months I got my wife to try it and she got hooked. Bought her own P4. I've got over 80 hours of flying on my original P4 and it is still going strong.

We got into them at work and I became our "Drone Coordinator". Fleet includes several P3P, an Inspire 2, a P4P, three Mavic Enterprise, a Mavic Pro, and 5 recently acquired Mavic Minis.

I purchased my own Mavic Mini when they first came out and think it is a great unit for the price. I ordered another MM for my wife from Best Buy this morning.

They are all different and I enjoy flying them all. Every time I fly the technology impresses me and I can't wait to see where it will be 5 years from now.

According to Airdata, as of today I have about 212 hours flying time in.
 
I do enjoy flying. During this time of social distancing, it's something I can do alone to have fun while trying to improve my skills. Fortunately, there is a very large beautiful park nearby with many wide open spaces. I can fly there without getting close to or flying over other people. Upon occasion, a friend will meet me there to fly his Mavic, but we stay at least ten feet apart.
As a side note, I purchased a Phantom 4 Pro+ about three years ago after flying a cheap drone. Since then I have acquired a Mavic 2 Zoom and a Mavic 2 Pro. The Phantom is still my favorite. It's big, loud and flies great.

Stay safe.
Amerson 1.jpg
Amerson 2.jpg
 
I was given a Spark Flymore Combo at the age of 75 and enjoyed learning to fly a real drone, after playing around with toy drones for a while. I needed a bigger drone to use it as a bait dropper. Sold the Spark and bought a used Phantom 3 S and a Gannet X bait release system. Was due to go on a week long fishing trip today and try my newly acquired P3 and Gannet system, but alas we are in serious lockdown in South Africa and I cannot venture outside the boundaries of our house, except to buy food and medicines. It is not a new drone but it it works well, can carry a good size load far enough to drop bait in offshore fishing zones, takes great pictures and videos. While in lockdown I watch as many video tutorials on the P3 and drone fishing. Can’t wait for lockdown to end and go fishing.
 
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In Feb 2015 I saw this dude flying a DJI craft in Arizona, up in the hills of the Apache Trail hwy. When I saw him take is eye off the craft, and walk to his truck, while it sat their automatically hovering, my mind went bonkers. Background: I started flying RC gliders in 1966, I was 13. I've also tinkered in power planes, but it was too messy. Once I learned about the new capabilities of drones, I bought a P3P in July 2015. I almost bought a P2Vision, but luckily I waited and read the reports on P3P, which triggered my purchase. My drones go with me everywhere I travel. It's been a great hobby. I've only done a few commercial jobs, but that's not my passion, nor interest. The wife likes to show her girlfriends where we traveled with my edited videos with music.
 
anyone else?

Funny...I kind of lost my passion for pleasure flying, but I still enjoy flying professionally. Do I LOVE flying? Not sure. Do I LIKE flying? Absolutely. I can't think of a better job I can do well into retirement age. Of course, by then drones really WILL be "plug-n-play." But for now, as long as there are hoops to overcome and a bunch of crashes and "loss of controls," my reliable, rock-solid rigs will keep me working. "Hacking" is half the fun.

D
 
Me too! I love flying my drones. Being retired, I try to get out 3 to 4 times a week year round, more if possible.

Photography has always been a hobby especially landscape and astrophotography, so when drones started getting more popular I bought my first one in the summer of 2016, a Syma X8G (see my avatar) and modded it to carry a cheap aluminum gimbal and an action cam. That worked very well until I crashed it and messed up the gimbal (could never get it to stabilize again). Still have the drone and fly it occasionally. Later that year in December, I bought my P3S and then a year later my Spark. Still have and fly both regularly. I just bought blue MAS props for my P3S to try out (15% off Easter sale). Can't wait to get them.

I have been researching and considering the purchase of a Mavic 2 Pro especially since they are now $100 off, but what's holding me back is trying to figure out whether the M2P is worth 4X the cost of either of my current drones for me. The ever increasing restrictions, registration and licensing and the fact that I mostly take photos and occasional video all weigh against a purchase at this time.

Regardless, I do love flying my P3S and Spark. Even my Tello is becoming more fun to fly with the hard work of 3rd party developers that push its capabilities (It even has a Follow Me app now that works surprisingly well).

Chris
 

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