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OK so I recently won some money that I'm going to use to buy a drone. Hoping to have it in time for OMGWTFTRBBQ in late June. My budget is about $1500. Does anyone have any experience with drones, which ones are reliable, not prone to communications loss/crashing and can be flown using ones phone. I know that the phantom series is a nice drone, my daughter's marching band has one. Just looking to see what else might be out there and if anyone has a recommendation.

I've flown the DJI mavic pro and it is dead simple to use and fly compared to something you build yourself and takes pretty amazing pictures even in moderate wind. Do you have experience with flying drones? Whether or not you do, my vote will probably be for the Mavic Air: https://store.dji.com/product/mavic-air ... &vid=38961
See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdUryRvNmgs

I have a little BS $100 drone that I've gotten....OK at flying. But real drone experience? No

DJI products are your best bet for a photography platform. The mavic fits most people's needs well enough.

As for communication issues, that is a matter of pilot understanding and preparation. You can tell it how to react if it loses signal. The safest method is actually for it to stop and hover. People most often lose them after flying behind an obstacle, which is irresponsible, and then it flies into the object trying to return home.

If I can ever make it to attrbbq I'll bring my drone army.

If you want it for photography, DJI is going to be your best bet. For truly automated flying, I've heard lots of good stuff about the discontinued 3DR/DIYDrones stuff but don't have any first hand experience. For just goofing around, I actually would suggest you get one of those cheap <$100 packages that idchafee mentioned to see if quad flying is something you'd really be into. Parrot is a good choice for relatively low end, phone friendly quads. That goes double if you have little to no R/C aircraft experience.

Flying a phantom isn't like flying a real non auto multirotor so you Don't really need an entry like a 100$ non GPS model. The only thing that matters with the, essentially automated, DJI products is that you actually read and fully understand the instructions.

Flying a DJI product is not like flying anything else. It will hover within a few inches accurately, and the newest models have obstacle avoidance. As long as you don't make really dumb decisions, as decided by the manual and common sense, you won't crash.

Not interested in DIY, but I would like to be able to take decent video and watch that video live on my device as its flying.

idchafee wrote:

Not interested in DIY, but I would like to be able to take decent video and watch that video live on my device as its flying.

Bah, you're just looking to steal signs for the cornhole torunament.

Captain Ned wrote:

Bah, you're just looking to steal signs for the cornhole torunament.

I do think it would be majorly cool to get some shots of the beach and fireworks

Heiwashin wrote:

Flying a phantom isn't like flying a real non auto multirotor so you Don't really need an entry like a 100$ non GPS model. The only thing that matters with the, essentially automated, DJI products is that you actually read and fully understand the instructions.

Flying a DJI product is not like flying anything else. It will hover within a few inches accurately, and the newest models have obstacle avoidance. As long as you don't make really dumb decisions, as decided by the manual and common sense, you won't crash.

I can back this up. My buddy has a DJI Phantom and when it's set to GPS mode it literally flies itself. You're basically just telling it where to move when you control it. It will keep itself still in altitude and lat/longitude even with wind. For camera work these things work great. There is a manual flight option but it's still nothing like flying a remote control airplane or helicopter as it basically still wants to hover but will not maintain it's position. I think there's a good reason the DJI products are popular.

Acidicheartburn wrote:

I can back this up. My buddy has a DJI Phantom and when it's set to GPS mode it literally flies itself. You're basically just telling it where to move when you control it. It will keep itself still in altitude and lat/longitude even with wind. For camera work these things work great. There is a manual flight option but it's still nothing like flying a remote control airplane or helicopter as it basically still wants to hover but will not maintain it's position. I think there's a good reason the DJI products are popular.

https://www.dji.com/phantom-4-pro

Is that the one?

That's the one i used to use as well, but the portability of the mavic is a feature that outweighs most of the benefits of the phantom series for casual users.

idchafee wrote:

Acidicheartburn wrote:

I can back this up. My buddy has a DJI Phantom and when it's set to GPS mode it literally flies itself. You're basically just telling it where to move when you control it. It will keep itself still in altitude and lat/longitude even with wind. For camera work these things work great. There is a manual flight option but it's still nothing like flying a remote control airplane or helicopter as it basically still wants to hover but will not maintain it's position. I think there's a good reason the DJI products are popular.

https://www.dji.com/phantom-4-pro

Is that the one?

That's the newer model of the one he has, but yes.

I also have a DJI and while its wonderful you need to be aware of the software that's on it. DJI enforces its no-fly zones on you through the GPS software/ Geo map. Of course this is a good thing AND bad because the zones are not precise as they should be but show up as blobs whens mapped out.

I live close to a military installation which is a no fly zone. Its about 4 miles, straight line distance, to its boarder from my house. Because of the software I cannot actually fly my DJI at my house because its in a no fly zone. I've been filling out DJI unlock zone method to get my address and surroundings removed for well over a year now, still nothing.

And the rest i'll leave for Google because it goes against forum rules.

Tanker did you check air maps and make sure. When you say border do you mean the border of the facility or the airspace which would be much larger

Also I mean the real vfr charts, not drone fly maps.

Heiwashin wrote:

Tanker did you check air maps and make sure. When you say border do you mean the border of the facility or the airspace which would be much larger

Also I mean the real vfr charts, not drone fly maps.

Yes to the VFR charts, and airspace, it extends beyond the boarders of the military base in the VFR Charts too. :/ In fact when I look at military installations its the norm.

My guess is that it's intentional. I had a hard time explaining to a irresponsible Paramotor pilot that he couldn't fly in the middle of Detroit because of airspace issues so he would head to the slight edge of the classified airspace and takes off there. A good gust of wind, or a loss of orientation, and he would be right where he wasn't supposed to be.

Point is, they're probably set up where you can't reach all the way there on purpose.

Not saying I agree with the idea of limiting a high dollar product like that. There's a reason I tend to recommend building your own if you have the patience and time, but I can understand their reasoning.

That's an interesting thought. I live under the final approach to Midway Airport, I wonder if its a no-fly zone?

Probably wouldn't matter anyway, if I tried to fly it at my house my loon neighbor would probably shoot it down. He already keys cars that park in front of his house, what's shooting down a drone?

Back when I had mine, at airports it would follow a formula to stay under the landing pattern. So if you were across the street an airport you could fly up to 75 feet, and it tapered up over a few miles. I think most airports 2 mile floor allow for 1000-1500 feet so I reckon it's reasonable.

Heiwashin wrote:

Not saying I agree with the idea of limiting a high dollar product like that. There's a reason I tend to recommend building your own if you have the patience and time, but I can understand their reasoning.

There are ways around it, to which I have done. And I stayed well under 400 ft. and was in complete control. But for the most part I tend not to skirt the rules and understand clearly why its a no-fly zone. (Boy would I like to fly over the Tank Gunnery range and get a few aerial videos. That would be soooo cool.)

As an fyi, in case you havens noticed, all GPS directions for military installations were pulled a couple of years ago. Ask siri, waze, android, etc to route you to building 4 on Ft Hood Texas it will take you to the main gate and thats it.

idchafee wrote:

what's shooting down a drone?

A CHALLENGE!

Glorious wrote:

idchafee wrote:

what's shooting down a drone?

A CHALLENGE!

One I'm sure he'd gladly accept. Every block has one. He's ours.