Railfan Technology > Drone recommendation

Anyone have any experience with drones? Have been looking at the Blade but would also like info on the Phantom especially the 2 plus

Thanks
Gary

I can't offer you specific recommendations on drones, I can refer you to an excellent article on them. I was very interested in buying one but reconsidered after I had read the article. By the time one buys the GPS return-to-home system, the carbon fibre rotors, and the spare batteries, the drone almost doubles in price. What seemed like a fairly inexpensive fun experiment began to look like a major investment.

I also became conscious of anti-drone sentiment on the part of the public and perhaps the railways. Although I've seen a few good drone videos I've seen many poor ones that are so distorted by the wide angle lens of the Go-Pro as to be ridiculous. Yes, there are programs to correct the curved horizons of the drone videos but again they cost money and require time to learn.

The article link is:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/hands-reviews/introduction-radio-controlled-aerial-photography?cm_mmc=EML-_-Holiday-ArticleRoundup-_-140107-_-Body_Indepth_Guide-to-Aerial-Photography

KG

There are only two that are faa regulated and technically allowed to fly. Right now drones are regulated under model aircraft rules. But once drone specific regulations appear, all those non faa permitted designs will be grounded and people will be out a lot of money. As flying them will be a big federal offense . You also need licenses to be legal to fly too. Something you done Hear about. I was looking at them too until i did the research. Once regulation goes through, slot of people will be out a lot of money or jail. Also the number of drone and aircraft near misses is becoming a problem. If an incident occurs.....

The drones wont be grounded, proposed FAA regs are relatively favorable, biggest restriction will not being allowed to fly at night and staying below 300 or 400 feet (cant recall which)... Licenses will be required for commercial use, ie using a drone to take pictures of a home for hire for a real estate agent, but hobby use still will be ok.

Do a check online, lots of sites related to flying these with good information (yes I have read the latest proposed rules). Of course, the proposed rules could change, so keep that in mind.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/14 06:59 by skyview.

I'm guessing that after enough of these fall out of the sky
and damage people or things on the ground, some regulation of
the machines will be necessary, if not the operators as well.
Part of regulation may include insurance, which will limit the
number of people who fly these things.

John.

Well, I'll stick to your original question: I like my Phantom 2 Vision Plus, granted it's not the cheapest though.

David Locher
Fresno, CA
http://www.youtube.com/learnwithgern