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Old 12-27-2017, 02:54 PM   #23
Rich Z
Quote:
Originally Posted by Twolunger View Post
After checking the specifications, the Xiaomi Mi has a pretty good range, compared to the less expensive models. What else do you plan to do with the drone once the gutters are all clear? I've flown a cheap model just for the fun of flying without crashing. Do you have some practical application in mind?
Nothing really specific at the moment. Might take it out into the national forest near me and see if there are some spots that might look interesting from an aerial view. Too bad the state and national parks all have phobias about drones, as there are some beautiful areas I would really like to get video footage of from this flying platform. I would like to fly over St. Joseph state park (Cape San Blas) and St. George Island park, but apparently I would have to take off and land outside of the park areas to do so legally. I don't believe this drone has the range for me to be able to do that. It is usually quite windy at St. Joseph state park (Connie and I usually refer to it as Cape Sand Blast), so that would complicate estimating where the turn around point in remaining battery power would be. The battery drains rather quickly when having to fight winds. It is usually much safe to fly out against the wind, so that you have the wind at your back on the return trip. But that can be hard to predict for a drive out to such areas, as wind direction can change in a heartbeat around here.

I had thought that the ground level of my own property would be much more visible through the trees than it actually is. Well, at least when viewed from my smart phone while flying. Easier to see more detail when I play the video on my PC's screen. Seriously, there is a lot of our land that Connie and I have never set foot on. We have a stream running through the north end of the property, and unless it is a particularly dry season, it can be swampy in patches. Not to mention that if the mosquitoes are in abundance, it certainly wouldn't be much fun in those areas. With the property being heavily wooded, the shade keeps the mosquitoes quite comfortable waiting for a meal to wander on by. So looking at the land via a drone, I thought, would be rather intriguing. I guess I can once I get over being such a weenie about being too close to the tree tops.

I guess this is more of a fun toy, which I thought would be a reasonable purchase now that the reliability of these things is much better than when I first looked into them, and the video quality is respectable enough to actually be useful. As I mentioned before, I do think that 4K 60fps will be much better to use on a moving platform, but that option is not widely offered quite yet, and only now on drones that cost a lot more than this one. But maybe next year options will improve. By then either less expensive drones will offer this improved video capability, or else maybe I will have even more confidence in these things to where I won't mind so much spending a bit more money on one that is a bit more full featured with better resolution options and all directional obstacle avoidance. Sure hope there is "hawk avoidance" too, as I know we have them around here, and getting the drone attacked by one would certainly bring it down, not to mention likely injuring the hawk too.