Maiden Flight! by RodS
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Description
Today was a frackin' beautiful day - 61 degrees, and light just enough breeze to be pleasant - a perfect day a maiden flight!
We packed up the new Inspire 1 and the Phantom and headed to the north trail head of the Blue River Trace Trail. All the pre-flight firmware updates have been done, leaving only the compass calibration to do - so the drone knows which is north, south, etc. Even though it "talks" to GPS satellites, it still has to 'know' which way it's pointing at any given time.
The calibration procedure is commonly called the "drone dance" as you have to spin around 360 degrees with the drone horizontal, and then again with the nose pointing down. I could hear Jo giggling at me as I performed this ritual.....
Anyway, the Inspire flew beautifully, and is every bit as easy to fly as the Phantom. Very responsive, and when hovering, she's steady as a rock. It's a tripod in the sky.
I started off in 'beginner mode' just to get a feel for the controls, and getting familiar with all the functions on the Ipad app. I didn't take her very high for this first flight, but she performed perfectly.
And it IS a 'she' by the way...... I know, because she 'talks' to me via the app - she says things like "Home point locked, ready for take-off," Gear going up," Maximum altitude reached" in this sultry, sexy female voice... :-D
The photos are sharp, well exposed, and there is no Go-Pro style fisheye distortion. These photos aren't all that spectacular, but it's a good indication of what this machine is capable of. The video (which I'll be posting in the next couple of days) is so smooth. I flew just a few feet over a field of prairie grass, and the video was awesome.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you all a quick look, and I'll be posting more photos and videos from both the Inspire and the Phantom.
Top photo by my wife, Jo - nice shot, hon!
Now, it's time to get back to the Girls' adventures before they strap a rocket pack to me and send me into orbit with Dan.....
Thanks for dropping by, and I hope everyone has a great weekend! And thanks as always for your wonderful comments and support!
Comments (32)
That's quite the toy and a great view of things, Rod! Thanks for sharing her first adventure with us :D
Can she do flips, somesaults and the like?
LOL - nope, no flips or barrel rolls with this one! :-D I may build a 250-class quad at some point, but I'll have to get a lot more practice before I even try flips with one of those.. :-D
Cool shots!!!... that little bugger can sure fly steady... I watched the videos and it's great!!... but be careful I believe Ranpha got wind that you have this and is thinking of making a little incursion and try out this drone for her self!! great shot, see you're having a blast with this drone... can't wait to see the video!!
Well, at least I finally found a way to entice her to drop in again! Ranpha can fly my drones anytime - but no strapping rockets to them.... LOL
VERY COOL!!!!
temps were pretty good here also, bit windy. and most likely not the weather for your cool craft (drone), Rod. just love how this camera on it gives you the sense of being up in a real chopper. almost give me height freigt my friend, cool!! love this, i want one also.. love how you can see the birds eye view of it all. cool first flight my friend, and many thanks for sharing.
Cool drone and capture, RodS-san!
Rod, it looks like the new one is working great.
What fun!
The distortion is the first thing I looked for and these shots are great! I'm jealous! You'll be having a lot of fun in the days ahead, the TnA girls might get jealous!
On the road again....;-) SUPERB COLLAGE ROD
"she's steady as a rock", there's a Douglas Adams joke in there somewhere I expect. Glad to see the fruits of your efforts coming through so well. I look forward to more spectacular shots like these.
Cool - Without a Crash!!!!!
Looking very good. Images look very sharp. Don;t expect to see you around much as the weather improves!
nice hobby indeed man,now you can take a few shot of the odd neighbour...on the craphouse and such.muahahahaha
EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!! Not my neighbors...... Bleah..... LOL
A big man's toy Have fun I wish you luck
I take it you didn't christen the maiden flight by smashing a bottle of champagne off her..... Such a cool toy!!
I can see hours and hours of fun! Great investment and she really does take great aerial shots! Now we all know how a bird feels!
Fantastic captures my friend !!!
"Eek! Coming in for a bomb run! Quick! Where's my SAM?" - T.Rex. Fantastic photos! Now we can buzz the guys buzzing us with their drones, but ours are MUCH smaller and less easy to detect or hit! Really appreciated you posting this. Really good image quality. But, II suspect it may well be abused(?) over nudist beaches and camps. Sigh. Human nature. But I bet it was a TON of FUN flying and photographing. The voice feed back system mimics that of fighter jets where a female voice tells the pilot of danger (the female voice is clearer and contrasts very much to the low background roar of the engines). Would love to see more photos! Keep up the good work! :-) Now, where's that 6 on the rating scale?
Fabulous captures Rod! Glad to see that she handles herself quite well I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise I know that you have 'cause there's magic in my eyes I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles Oh yeah little song dedication
Up up and away HotRod ... though hopefully not too far away! Have fun with it until they get banned mate.
Just watch yourself that we don't have to see your images coming from a cell somewhere. :-)
Wow! Fantastic new machine, Rob. Hope you have great fun and take lots of pics/videos. Great stuff!
This is soooooo cool. The Inspire is a fantastic multicopter. I love this and wish you all the luck in the world.....
Those are some phenomenal photos. I have a feeling that is going to be your favorite new toy this summer.
Great photos!
awesome machine and superb captures. for the price it better be excellent
Indeed - they don't exactly give these things away.... :-P
This looks like so much fun you almost have me going out to buy one !!! Great shots by the way !
Cool photos!!! You got a new toy.....lucky you!!! Now you can have twice as much fun!!! Nice job Rod!!
So much easier to find those stray golf-balls now. (Really need to work on that slice. Lol.)
LOL I tried golf once - I'm horrid at it! If I hit the ball straight, it gains a maximum altitude of about two inches. If I get it up in the air, it corkscrews over into the next fairway, and knocks some poor guy out of his golf cart.. :-P Horrid... Trust me, I'm much safer flying a drone! :-D