Well I decided to try my flying skills at flying quadcopters. No, they are not drones. Drones are used for surveillance and weapons delivery. My first quadcopter is manufactured by Horizon Hobby. It is known as the Blade 350QX2 and came supplied with everything to fly the aircraft. A little history on my experience on RC (Radio Controlled) flying dates back to the late 80’s I guess. I was really into flying RC gliders, especially the type that you took to a hill side and tossed it into the air hoping that you could find thermals to keep the aircraft airborne. Some days I was usually lucky enough to have an hour flight and really enjoy the peace and quiet of the whole experience.

Flying the quadcopter is a very different experience. The aircraft is small, maybe 16 inches in a diagonal and has four propellers to supply lift of the aircraft. This quadcopter has GPS built into it so if for some reason it gets to the point where you don’t know what direction it is going you can flip a switch on the controller and the quad will return to a spot within five feet of where it took off from. I’ve done this enough times to be more than impressed with it return home feature. The quad once in a while gets very high or far enough away that you don’t know which direction it is flying, having the return home feature is very handy.

I’ve crashed the quad numerous times only costing me new propellers. Usually just two of them. They sell for $5 for a pair (either Red – which are used for the front propellers or Grey – which are used for the back propellers) I’ve replaced the red propellers the most often.

After getting used to flying the quad I decided to add a small camera that could shoot video while in flight. Let me tell you this has been a work in progress. After seeing many of the videos on YouTube shot with a small camera attached to these quadcopters, there are many things to consider. Since the aircraft is being lifted off the ground with the four propellers and moved about the air, there is vibration created by the propellers that can ruin the video. So dampening of the support mechanism for the camera can be work in progress in itself. I started out with a small inexpensive camera and the quality of the video was as the saying goes “You get what you paid for” Don’t get me wrong, the video was okay, but there was some things in the images produced that made for poor quality. As I mentioned earlier. vibration can really mess up the quality of the image produced. The effect on the video is called the Jello effect and causes the video to appear like it was shot under water. So dampening the mechanism that holds the camera is very important.

The image above is of my DJI Phantom 3 Professional quadcopter. This drone is by far the best flying/video recording platform I’ve ever experienced. After my time flying the Blade 350QX2,  I upgraded to the DJI Phantom 2 Vision. This platform really gave me the appreciation of a quad/drone with a very stabilized camera system and the ability of the quad/drone to hover in place and shoot high quality images (12 megapixel) or HD video. The above photo of the Phantom 3 Professional adds 4K video to my photo/video capabilities.

As I mentioned in one of my other posts here on my website, you can check out my videos on YouTube by searching for my channel….do a search for Eddie Pierce. Happy flying if you are reading this as an RC Pilot or if you become interested and take to flight.