bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I'm getting more and more real estate work, and a few drone base missions, and recently my trusty old P3 had an altercation, and was ganged up on by a tree, and gravity. The ground soon joined the fray, and, well, while it still seems to fly OK, but the gps or compass must have gotten affected, because it won't hover still any more, the camera, however was not even that lucky. The ground really decided to kick it in the n#ts when it was down.

So, my choices are to go with what I want, a Phantom 4 pro (out of production, so it has to be used or refurb)
Mavic Pro (or Pro 2) I've flown a mavic, and with my tired old eyes, I just can't see it as well as the Phantom series, and I do take "line of site" seriously. (you wouldn't know it by the tree, but it wasn't but about 30 feet from me and I was flying backwards to do a dramatic reveal for a real estate shot, and the tree must have grown quickly, because I just looked at my screen for a second, and .... that awful sound that you never want to hear of one blade stopping (like one hand clapping)

Sorry,
I also noticed that I could afford an inspire 1 v2 either and maybe even a pro, which would be my dream UAV, but it has no collision avoidance, and after this weekend, that's becoming more important to me.

I can't swing (and not sure I would want to spend the $$) an Inspire 2.

So, for Mavic Pro flyers, is there anything that you do or can do that makes seeing the bird easier other than keeping it super close? Its embarrassing to admit when you get old enough, that seeing the bird is the main issue you have to worry about. If it weren't for being afraid of losing an expensive drone to a tree again, I would have purchased the Inspire 1 v2 by now. I'm leery of buying a discontinued model, so, that's why I'm grasping at straws on if there is a way to make them easy to see?

I did large checkerboard patterns on my old RC airplanes, which helped a lot, but I'm not so sure that would do much on that tiny body?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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!

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I will look into them, thanks. What do you think of their app? I don't care too much for the DJI app, so I find myself using the litchi app instead. Unfortunately, when I first looked at Yuneec, they didn't support external apps, and that kind of scared me off. I would appreciate some first hand knowledge if you'd like to share.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I did forget that I had seen the controller before. It does look like a handful, with a LOT of controls. I'm guessing that it's easy enough to take your hands off the flight controls, and then go onto the photo controls. I have to admit, the 12 mp sensor of the non Plus version wouldn't be an issue, because most of my photos are just used on web pages. What does concern me a bit is the collision avoidance differences on a $1000+ drone. If you say I might be able to get a typhoon H for $400, it wouldn't be (as much of) a tragedy like losing a high dollar drone.

Where did you find the refurbs for that price? I may just go that way and get my feet wet with Yuneec. I'm just not sure what's going on with DJI abandoning the Phantoms, which really filled a niche for people like me. Maybe finding a new platform now is better than later.

Thanks

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Laws/Rules are put into place for a purpose. If the town put a rule in place that there is no flying around a school, then you can not just ignore that! If the rule says you can NOT fly around the schools while it is during normal school hours, then you can fly after normal school hours. If it states you can NOT fly around schools then you can not fly at anytime. Rules can not just be ignored because you want to fly.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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?

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Well, at least there is some discussion in this section.... haha.

I think a big part of it is understanding the rules, and getting proper permission like exactly what Bloke did.

Just last week, I had to call air traffic control to do a real estate shoot in class c airspace. Easy peasy, just have to get permission.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

So that you are not doing surveillance on the building and thereby set up a terrorism act. DUH! use your common sense.

You did not say in your original post that you had permission for off hours. you just said that you ignore the rules. Now you say you have permission. So now what is it? you just ignore the rules or you have one policemans ok, which I assume is not in writing.

alexol

If you are seriously looking for a P4 Pro+, I may be selling mine. "May" because I've been thinking about it for a while but have done nothing.

The poor bird lives in it's hard case and practically never sees the light of day, which is a terrible waste. I doubt it has 20 flying hours total and although I keep the batteries charged (storage mode) I don't think it has been up this year.

Its the Plus which comes with the built in screen, and it can be bound to a conventional controller, or so I understand (which I also have).

Alex

(easiest to reach me either by PM or a l e x at DCS306 d o t c 0 m.)

Please note that I edited the above to correct 4 to 4+. Apologies...

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Thanks Alex, I sent you a PM. Maybe we can help each other out.

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

Several years ago I was looking at the Yuneec Typhoon. At that time I was told that "Ryan" in one of their departments was the go-to man for questions. I'd heard that the Yunnec would NOT even take off at altitudes greater than 7000'. Ryan confirmed that that was a true statement and that a fix was not available. Since I wanted one for 8500' and up I lost interest. I've often wondered if they developed a fix or correction. I really liked the platform.

ron

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I hadn't heard that. I liked what I saw when checking out youtube, and their website. I was bothered by the lack of details on how the "realsense" obstacle avoidance worked, and if it worked to the sides or back... then I realized that it added over 50% to the cost anyway.

All in all, I survived without obstacle avoidance.... until I didn't. It's like I used to shoot weddings with only one card slot in my camera body, until I learned the hard way that cards really do fail.

So, while I like a LOT about the Yuneec Typhoon, I'm going to stick with DJI, because unlike camera bodies, I can't always have (afford) 2 drones so I have a back up, so I need to take advantage of any collision avoidance out there.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

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.