- Joined
- Apr 11, 2015
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 12
- Age
- 69
This is my first contribution to the forum. I think you al might be interested in my experiences, so I'll toss them into the forum.
First, I started with a Mikrokopter Octo back in 2010. Crashed it right away. Lots of reasons...but it was only a minor crash. However, a lot of things came up and I just got too busy to fix it and fly it. So I know what loosing a lot of money on one of these looks like. Next was a Phantom 2. So easy, but like many point out, the camera is not for professional use. Scaled down to 960 it looks fine, but the lack of serious camera controls means that only someone very capable will turn out nice looking clips.
Bought an Inspire 1 end of Jan. Had one of those bad 47 batteries that will show charged, but in 5 minutes drop to 47%, then to 7% and down to 1% in about 2-3 minutes! Almost took her down. I made an immediate return to robin and landed it at 1%. After recharging the battery did the same thing. However, I let it just hoover for 7 minutes so no harm done. That battery just got returned to DJI.
Whether DJI actually handles this return/replacement politely and quickly remains to be seen. However, DJI does have their PRO support section now, and calling their LA offices I was connected to a real honest-to-goodness techie within 2 minutes. Impressive!
With the NEW rulings from the FAA, at least for the next 18 months or so ONLY A TEAM OF 2 OPERATORS will be cleared to fly commercially: one PIC (pilot in control) and one AO (aircraft observer). This still puts a question mark on a 2-man team because 1 is theoretically observing the UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) craft at all times, and one—with line of sight—is flying it. Whether they'll give the AO the right to control the camera is unlikely. I already saw one authorization recipient who's appeal included a 3-man team, one was a dedicated cameraman. This means that shooting with these systems will still cost a bit, what with three people to pay. There are STILL many advantages to Near Aerial/Close Aerial filming that a standard helicopter cannot touch, and for a LOT less, but things are not looking up for the regular man-on-the-street taking up the business, as in order to get an FAA waiver the PIC needs to be a LICENSED PILOT. This rules out 95% of most people that own UASs.
The Inspire 1 has ONE PROBLEM that no one I've seen commenting has ever mentioned. It is NOT that aerodynamic. In a solid cross wind of over 10 knots the craft stays rolled over (tilting its rotors into the wind). There is a roll compensation control built into the Pilot App, but this really needs to be an automated, dynamic adjustment, if the shots are going to come out. Only by flying directly upwind, or cutting across the wind AFTER setting this roll control, could one hope for footage to work "out-of-the-box!" Circling and simultaneously filming, in higher winds will produce a tilted image. DJI needs to address this, pronto!
By comparison, the Phantom fuselage designs are able to take on winds pretty much equally from all sides, and a little tilt aside (they certainly were not perfect, nor heavy enough to stabilize themselves vertically in a good wind), they still work better moving through a cross wind while circling. Of course there is "0" roll adjustment so...there you go!
Also, one last nit-picking point. Many I1 owners like myself have seen the cold craft shutters; serious vibrations due to the slight motion go the T-Brackets and motor support rods and the less than snug fit of the internal dampener strips inside the "T" section. This does seem to go away once the craft warms up a bit, but this shaking is serious enough that I grounded my raft twice before trusting to providence (and gradual fuselage warming). This shaking is fairly bad, and might eventually loosen critical components to fixtures. DJI needs to address this with a repair instruction and strips with the proper thickness of the right material.
The Inspire 1 is not the perfect aerial video platform, but it is the best thing I've seen. Let's hope they maintain our freedom to set up our flight controls and limitations on our own. Giving too much power to DJI to tell us how high, far and at what rate these machines can travel, is a recipe for fascism. I, for one, am a responsible pilot. I can only hope that those who are idiots with these craft will get media attention for being irresponsible and NOT transfer that attention to the craft itself. Like a gun, quadcopters do not do stupid things, their owners do.
A big hello to all in the forum! --Dorian--
First, I started with a Mikrokopter Octo back in 2010. Crashed it right away. Lots of reasons...but it was only a minor crash. However, a lot of things came up and I just got too busy to fix it and fly it. So I know what loosing a lot of money on one of these looks like. Next was a Phantom 2. So easy, but like many point out, the camera is not for professional use. Scaled down to 960 it looks fine, but the lack of serious camera controls means that only someone very capable will turn out nice looking clips.
Bought an Inspire 1 end of Jan. Had one of those bad 47 batteries that will show charged, but in 5 minutes drop to 47%, then to 7% and down to 1% in about 2-3 minutes! Almost took her down. I made an immediate return to robin and landed it at 1%. After recharging the battery did the same thing. However, I let it just hoover for 7 minutes so no harm done. That battery just got returned to DJI.
Whether DJI actually handles this return/replacement politely and quickly remains to be seen. However, DJI does have their PRO support section now, and calling their LA offices I was connected to a real honest-to-goodness techie within 2 minutes. Impressive!
With the NEW rulings from the FAA, at least for the next 18 months or so ONLY A TEAM OF 2 OPERATORS will be cleared to fly commercially: one PIC (pilot in control) and one AO (aircraft observer). This still puts a question mark on a 2-man team because 1 is theoretically observing the UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) craft at all times, and one—with line of sight—is flying it. Whether they'll give the AO the right to control the camera is unlikely. I already saw one authorization recipient who's appeal included a 3-man team, one was a dedicated cameraman. This means that shooting with these systems will still cost a bit, what with three people to pay. There are STILL many advantages to Near Aerial/Close Aerial filming that a standard helicopter cannot touch, and for a LOT less, but things are not looking up for the regular man-on-the-street taking up the business, as in order to get an FAA waiver the PIC needs to be a LICENSED PILOT. This rules out 95% of most people that own UASs.
The Inspire 1 has ONE PROBLEM that no one I've seen commenting has ever mentioned. It is NOT that aerodynamic. In a solid cross wind of over 10 knots the craft stays rolled over (tilting its rotors into the wind). There is a roll compensation control built into the Pilot App, but this really needs to be an automated, dynamic adjustment, if the shots are going to come out. Only by flying directly upwind, or cutting across the wind AFTER setting this roll control, could one hope for footage to work "out-of-the-box!" Circling and simultaneously filming, in higher winds will produce a tilted image. DJI needs to address this, pronto!
By comparison, the Phantom fuselage designs are able to take on winds pretty much equally from all sides, and a little tilt aside (they certainly were not perfect, nor heavy enough to stabilize themselves vertically in a good wind), they still work better moving through a cross wind while circling. Of course there is "0" roll adjustment so...there you go!
Also, one last nit-picking point. Many I1 owners like myself have seen the cold craft shutters; serious vibrations due to the slight motion go the T-Brackets and motor support rods and the less than snug fit of the internal dampener strips inside the "T" section. This does seem to go away once the craft warms up a bit, but this shaking is serious enough that I grounded my raft twice before trusting to providence (and gradual fuselage warming). This shaking is fairly bad, and might eventually loosen critical components to fixtures. DJI needs to address this with a repair instruction and strips with the proper thickness of the right material.
The Inspire 1 is not the perfect aerial video platform, but it is the best thing I've seen. Let's hope they maintain our freedom to set up our flight controls and limitations on our own. Giving too much power to DJI to tell us how high, far and at what rate these machines can travel, is a recipe for fascism. I, for one, am a responsible pilot. I can only hope that those who are idiots with these craft will get media attention for being irresponsible and NOT transfer that attention to the craft itself. Like a gun, quadcopters do not do stupid things, their owners do.
A big hello to all in the forum! --Dorian--
