Anyone who doesn't get this should watch the movie "Zulu"! I served in a Welsh regiment, and we had a lot of Davies, Williams, Jones, etc.

Phil (557)

No, these were pieces I arranged myself, and 'performed' on the PC. There is no way they could be taken as somebody else's recording. For example, one was a piece of piano music, which I had played by a brass quartet! The composer had been dead for about 300 years, so who's copyright did I infringe?

They banned me from uploading videos for quite some time over this...

How did you get it past the copyright police? They stopped me from posting videos with my own arrangements of classical pieces *long* out of copyright...

No problem. I'll keep my eyes open.

You can just ignore the RealSense stuff... My first one had it, the second doesn't. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, so I called them up. Turns out, the RealSense only functions when you are in 'smart' mode - ie. when you are controlling it relative to *you*, and not relative to the craft's own orientation.

I only ever tried that once, and it confused the heck out of me. Sometimes it seems to be relative to the direction the drone is facing when it takes off... I just prefer to fly it 'naturally' and not worry about that. This makes the RealSense totally useless to me. I looked around, but nowhere had I ever seen or heard it mentioned that it only worked in smart mode, and as you say, it *does* add a heck of a lot to the price...

I just checked, and I may have misled you on the price I paid. The first one (with RealSense) was $630, while the second 'plain' one, was $420. For a drone which was selling (I think...) at around $1500 at the time, quite a bargain. Paying the extra 50% for the extra capability, though, was definitely not worth it.

It always seems strange to me that a large organisation like the Central Bank of Nigeria has an aol address rather than owning their own domain...

Yes, I just received the same email.

"$4,437,299.20 to Wounded Warrior Project Inc."

It seems that those few pennies can really add up over time!

I work for the school district, and I know what the rules are there to prevent. I have permission from the school district's own police officer to fly anytime students are not present. Rules need to be read using a bit of common sense. A school with no students present is an empty building... Why would that need to be protected from drones?

I bought both of them at Amazon... I get daily emails from their WOOT site, and they come up every now and again, although I don't remember seeing them since I bought my second one. You could try the company itself, as they may have some for sale. Other than that, I'm afraid I can't help you. If they *do* reappear, I will post it here, as several people have asked about it.

They don't use an app. They come with a *large* controller which has a screen built-in. I believe it runs android, but I am not techie enough to try to hack it. It is big, but it works well. They don't require frequent updates, and they don't block you from flying because you are too close to some specified area. I live very close to a school, and the town here has no-fly zones around all the schools. Fair enough, I understand that. But I do a lot of flying way out of school hours, so I can just ignore that. From what I understand, DJI wouldn't even let me take off...

The camera is certainly on a par with the examples I have seen from other drones. I tend to shoot 4K video, and pull stills from that on the PC. There is quite a lag if you try to take still images. The quality is fine, although I am not shooting commercially of course.

They are bulky to travel with, certainly *much* bigger than a Mavic. A bit bigger than a Phantom too, I would say. There is a backpack available, which holds everything for real travel. Normally, it just sits on the passenger seat if I have to go anywhere pretty local.

I am not affiliated with the company, I just love their drones. I actually have 2 of them, both bought refurbished for around $400. I crashed my first one, and while it still works, one of the arms is a little 'loose', so I bought another.

It does frustrate me when the net is all abuzz with some new feature from DJI, when Yuneec has offered the same thing from the beginning. The new controller/screen comes to mind.

I have never flown with anyone else, and in fact, saw my first drone flying just a few days ago while driving. I had a Spark, which I sent back because it wouldn't work with my phone, or with the new phone I got specifically. The Typhoon doesn't require a phone, everything is built in. I have a nice little Hubsan, but the bobbing of the camera every time the craft changed direction drove me crazy. I really wanted something with a gimbal-mounted camera. Hence when I saw the ad for the refurbished Typhoon I jumped at the chance.

Their tech support is reputed to be good. I only had one occasion to call them, and they were very helpful - plus they spoke English! They are based in the US, I believe.

I read reports that the Plus version is better in many ways, but I have neither the funds nor the space for another drone! I imagine for real estate work, the ability to hover the craft and manipulate the camera independently would be invaluable.,

There is no place where someone can go see, and maybe try these different alternatives, unfortunately. I suspect if there were, DJI would not have such a commanding lead on the market!

This is all my opinion, of course, and is worth exactly what you paid for it. If there are any specific questions you have, feel free to ask. I will help if I can.

Have you considered the Yuneec Typhoon H Plus? I have the original H, and it is big enough to see way farther off than I would be happy flying it! I love mine, and the Plus is supposed to be even better... I believe that it is priced in the 'phantom' range, although I do not want to put up with DJI's antics, so have no experience with them. You do not need to calibrate the compass every time you fly the H, it has 6 motors, and will fly back safely if one fails, it has a rotating camera, so you can pan independently of the aircraft's motion, it has retractable undercarriage, to keep the legs out of the shot, no matter the angle...

Seriously, give it a look, sounds like just what you need!

Also somewhat interesting that a corporation in California is working to Eastern Daylight Time...

I will not get involved in the argument raging below - or ok, above when I post this - but I use 4K video all the time, from my drone and gopro. This gives me the ability to extract single frames to use as very respectable still shots. There is such a huge lag when shooting single images from a drone, that accurate shooting is all but impossible. With 4K, I am effectively shooting stills at 60 fps...

When I edit the videos, I downsize the output files, because yes, 4K files are too big to do anything with. I find 1080p is quite suitable, or even 720p if planning to distribute the files electronically.

It works for me...

No, I was fine. So was the car, really. It was 2 little old ladies (I didn't realise it at the time, but they were from my church, as it happens!). I stopped in traffic, and *BANG*. The car started rolling forward, and I didn't want to hit the car in front of me, so I jumped hard on the pedal, and *BANG* again. I guess I can give them that one, since my reflexes are probably faster than theirs. Then, I pulled over, basically on to the sidewalk, so we could see what had happened. They followed me up, then *BANG*, they hit me again! There was no airbag deployment, and no visible damage, but the final touch was, they wouldn't get out of the car, or even talk to me. I wanted to exchange insurance info, but they wouldn't wind the window down! I ended up giving them a "stern look", and just driving off...

All just part of life's rich tapestry!

I was once rear-ended 3 times in 20 seconds, by the same car! True story!