Have you flown/owned a drone ??...

Acutally, I meant, 10minutes total flight time in its entire life then thrown out . I Checked batteries, charged them, tried several times (over several different days), but the motors could never spin up fast enough to get it off completely off the ground.

To give you an idea on how sucky our australian laws are, In australia, you already need a license to fly drones if its for commercial purposes -> how are you going to prove that you did not make money from something? Or posting to youtube, might make you some $$$ which counts as commercial. Its only a step away from requiring a license if its in public area (not private property).

Something to consider:
- We recently made bicycles with motors illegal (think some engines allowed under certain instances....
- Unless they changed this since recently, I live 2+hours motorbike ride from my capital city. Its illegal for me to wear my NSW australian approved motorbike helmet in my capital city (must buy a new motorbike helmet before I cross the border into the capital city). Once I leave my capital city, its illegal to wear my capital city helmet in NSW. To ride around Australia legally, I think I need 3 or 4 different helmets, and I risk getting caught at each border crossing....
- if I touch a fishing pole, in public, without a valid fishing license, I could be accused of fishing without a license and fined. Dont laugh, its the exact same thing as someone sleeping in the back seat of a car and getting fined for drink driving which happens. They do not have to catch you in the act, just near enough and they can fine you.

Seriously, we need to have a fishing license to hold a fishing pole because wow, so dangerous... Yet there is no training, or education required, its a fee you pay, and you get the license for 12 months. They do not even tell you where you can and cannot fish.

How F***ed are we going to be later for drones when you realise that drones:
- can spy on people
- can crash / hit people on the head
- can drop objects, intentional to cause harm or injury
- can be a major hazard around airports, and or impede emergency aircraft (ie, police, "news", air-ambulance; I have heard people in the US getting in trouble for this...)

 

The "danger" is that they may have not collected money still in your wallet. Don't you know that it is a "privilege" to touch a fishing pole, not a "right"?

From a security standpoint, drones are scary devices that are right now limited by battery technology. As that improves and travel distances get longer and payload weights rise, we are going to have some real issues with the type of damages they can inflict by accident or on purpose. Just like we now implement missile defenses to try to prevent being hit by one, we may find ourselves surrounded by drone defenses at many locales.

 

I am planning to buy one soon.. very excited!

 

I have a drone and love it. Very fun to fly. I also have two helicopters (Trex 40 Plus DFC) as well as a miniature size. Very fun toys to play with, it's been interesting following all of the FAA rule changes -- used to be no license needed for any of them, and then they got popular!

 

I have built my own from scratch using guides online and parts from ebay. When built there is alot of tweaks and trial and errors but this allows you to really understand how the whole technology goes into the the whole hobby. Very interesting and fun hobby to get into, BUT it can get pretty costly once you get into it. Oh mine was built for FPV racing which gives a total rush when you looking through wireless goggles!!

 

How long does your battery last? Have you been able to make mods to get longer flight times?

 

Lol, we all have a child within, don't hold it back

I don't have one either, but sure I will get one one day. Its a toy, its a tool and its cool!

 

The one i built was too heavy thus making it hard to fly very stable so it would go through the battery pretty quick. I would get about max 7minutes with a 11v lipo battery. I purchased smaller escs but out of exitement and being very late, i welded - onto + on one esc and when i plugged in it insantly melted battery conection wire, motor went up in smoke and esc was fried. Now this was 1 month ago and it all has been benched and i didn't REPURCHASE a full kit yet. Thats what i meant when it can get costly . If your new into drone flying start with basic cheap startup drone get how it flies and moves around then get into the heavy stuff. This allows you to get a feel for the hobby if you like it or not with out spending a shitload on a DJI or fpv quad. But do take into consideration FPV and leasure flying are two different styles but learning the mechanics on how to manipulatr them in the sky its kinda the same. OH and OH yes you will definitly crash and break something, guaranteed

 

I am not surprised by the horrible flight times with the battery. I am currently involved with a Li battery manufacturer (not for drones) and it is a real challenge in making longer lasting batteries that do not explode or burst into flames. Li is such a volatile element partly because it has the highest energy density of just about any element we know of. We are going to abandon Li Poly soon because of it proven volatility (e.g., Samsung) and focus on Li Ion (prismatic) batteries due to potential legal liabilities. Will not be as light or perhaps as long lasting but much safer. Of course, this will add to the weight of drones if applied there, as well.

 

I fear the Lipo, i have warned my 11 year old son not to charge them with out me looking after them or knowing about it in fear they burst even if i use the charging bags.

 

My friend own one of it, just for fun and spying for his little brother

 

A friend of mine got a DJI Phantom 3 Pro which he let me fly and I promptly crashed into a power line, so I bought him a new one and kept the crashed one for myself. It's tough to find time to fly it around, and I'd really like to travel with it and get some cool scenic shots, but it always seems like a pain to bring it with when traveling.

Pretty fun all around though.. still scares me flying it when it gets far away and out of sight!

 

I think I will buy