Thinking of buying a drone

[Janderso]

Buy from Craigslist? From someone who got one and got tired of it? Get a demo before buying

Wow, I checked our local Craigslist. Lots of used drones for sale.

 

[woodchucker]

Wow, I checked our local Craigslist. Lots of used drones for sale.

When you look for used:
Make sure it hasn't been seriously crashed.
Make sure you fly it for a full battery. Important... you want to know the battery life, and if when it heats whether it's glitchy. If you can see if you can disable the gyro for a period.. Gyro's are a great help to a copter, but they can hide issues. They are important in windy conditions to stabilize the copter, but you want to see that it's smooth w/out it while flying forward , left,right, back... for a newbee you would not be able to hover without the gyro.

Hopefully many others will have good advice for looking at a used gyro.

 

[mmcmdl]

Matt agreed to fly his today and take some pics and videos . I'll figure out how to post them . Dis-regard all the yard ornaments if they happen to show up on the pics .

 

[Aaron_W]

You would not feel that way if you were sitting in the pointy end of jet during an approach and wondering how many idiots have just taken their new toy out to try and get some cool pictures of jets landing (happened in LAX). But I do agree with you that you cannot legislate idiots out of the equation but manufacturers then need to be held accountable and have geofencing on board their drones that cannot be disabled.
There was a drone that hit a BlackHawk heli up in the Northeast a couple of years ago. Did a lot of damage to the rotors and one of the turbines. They ended up catching the guy by tracing the serial number of one of the motors on the drone back to DJI and then figuring out where/when it was bought. The guy had a very indifferent attitude but the US military did not take kindly to him causing significant damage to their aircraft. I am thinking he had an attitude "correction."

It is illegal to utilize a drone for commercial purposes unless you have a license to do so. This includes using one for a photography business or a Realtor, although I am thinking that most Realtors have no clue.

It is true that you do not own the airspace above you, so one may strongly want to reconsider shooting a drone down. Can you imagine if this became acceptable? What next, shoot at real aircraft because they were making too much noise?

Register it. Take the test. Follow the rules. It is not that hard.

Get a drone Jeff and enjoy it.

Every summer air ops get shut down on fires because some nimrod has to go sight see with their drone.

The French are taking drone threats much more seriously than here. The French Army has trained eagles to take out drones.

We are being out 'Merica'd by the French.

 

[Ischgl99]

A guy in my local business group sells drones of all sizes and brought some to one of our meetings, some of them were HUGE! It’s amazing what the bigger models can do. He sold one to the police in a local town that can fly through buildings without crashing so they can do a remote search, and they can also do a preprogrammed search pattern to look for someone lost. I’m a photographer and get inquiries now and then about drone photography services, but so far I am not willing to go through the licensing procedure, or expense of a drone capable of commercial use.

We bought my 17 year old son a small drone for Christmas, he hasn’t opened it yet, he claims he’s waiting for better weather, but I have a feeling it will become mine at some point lol. He seems more interested in playing computer games then playing with a drone.

 

[Janderso]

When you look for used:
Make sure it hasn't been seriously crashed.
Make sure you fly it for a full battery. Important... you want to know the battery life, and if when it heats whether it's glitchy. If you can see if you can disable the gyro for a period.. Gyro's are a great help to a copter, but they can hide issues. They are important in windy conditions to stabilize the copter, but you want to see that it's smooth w/out it while flying forward , left,right, back... for a newbee you would not be able to hover without the gyro.

Hopefully many others will have good advice for looking at a used gyro.

At this level I will buy new. If we were talking big money, I would consider used.

 

[Hawkeye]

I would recommend getting the 'Fly More' package. You get two extra batteries, a charging hub, spare props, a holder that that cradles the props when you pack it away, and a good padded case to hold all of your stuff.

 

[7milesup]

Here are a couple of my "drones". Tee hee....

 

[wachuko]

Here are a couple of my "drones". Tee hee....

So difficult to fly... for me at least... I tried a couple of times. Have them on the wall of shame...

The DJI Mini with all its technology, is so easy to use.

 

[Cadillac STS]

Here are a couple of my "drones". Tee hee....

I used to fly those. .60 sized helicopters. That was when gyros were mechanical spinning devices and although they helped it still took skill to fly. Now with the electronic gyros and software a small child can fly a drone.

It was always stressful to fly because any crash caused damage at least $200 worth. I flew Miniature Aircraft brand.

How I got out is I saw a guy in the Detroit area that had a used Bridgeport that had a 120 volt motor. I traded him two helicopters and all my stuff including my JR PCM 10 Heli radio for the Bridgeport. I also offered him $100 to deliver it to my pole barn in Grand Rapids 3 hours away and he did. Backed his pickup into the barn and I lifted it out of the bed with a chain fall winch.

Now I am here instead of helicopter forums...

EDIT: One last helicopter thing I did and still have. I loved the JR PCM 10. It is a very heavy serious radio control and I was used to holding it to fly. When those little two counter rotating prop indoor helicopters came out I bought a used JR PCM 10 on eBay and they have a plug in transmitter conversion devise that works with those little indoor things, push a button and it is paired. So I can fly around indoor (or outdoor) with my beloved heavy as heck transmitter, does not feel like a light piece of plastic even the new ones do.