Flying high - my drone history

I used to call them Quadcopters - that was the name given when I was building them from scratch. It all started on a visit to Scotland to see my good friend John who was building remote controlled aircraft using some new hardware  - an intelligent flight controller, fully programable to control fixed wing aircraft or Quadcopters. There is a company called Hobbycraft who were very able to sell me all I needed to build my flying machines.

It was a great hobby, lots of soldering, building  programming and planning. We were the 'drone' pioneers. I built two drones one with a camera attached and another to just fly to learn how to control them. I think I enjoyed building them more than flying - and therein was the issue. Where I lived then was in a city - Derby. Lots of parks but not ideal or safe to be flying there. Luckily one of my responsibilities at the University was Security - so I had access to all the sites including a large area of green that was fenced off, my own private testing ground.

This is a short video of my scratch built quad on its second outing testing what was then called loiter mode (gps lock) No camera on board at this time. Taken on the Rugby pitch at my University before it was dug up and a sports complex built there - see later videos.

But the hobby needed more time and access to flying areas so I reluctantly sold the job lot - drones, controllers all my tools and spares. To keep the boating theme, I sold the lot on Ebay to a fella who had two charter yachts in the Mediterranean and he wanted the drones to get some publicity pictures.

I did take it to its place of spiritual conception before it all got sold.... Dumfries and Galloway to fly at John's land that overlook Loch Ryan up the west coast of Scotland. Here is the video.....

I did eventually get another but this was a commercial drone. By this time there was a race to commercialisation of the drone market. DJI being the leader with a raft of others bringing commercial drones out with varying degrees of success. I waited and spent my hard earned on a DJI Phantom 2. It was a good drone, but let down ultimately by DJI's race to the top as they kept bringing out newer drones and committed the sin of not providing spares or firmware upgrades for their older gear. It was a time still of little regulation and I used my drone to take shots for the university - including an impressive New Sports centre.

The university was keen to have more such videos and stills of their (our as it was my university as I'd been there so long and committed so much to it)  property and land so I sold my drone to the University. It never happened of course as it got damaged in 'test flights' !! 

To keep the boaty context I did take some video and stills of Percy at Fradley.... this one being my favourite, the music is royalty free courtesy of U2.

So why this blog - apart from some self reflection I've bitten the bullet and purchased a new drone. Mea Culpa  - yes I did indeed blog about my pledge for change which was about buying less.... and I can assure you I have been buying less and spending less, my trip to the NW500 in Scotland has been canned as has a long weekend meet up with 30 other bikers in Derbyshire and my battlefield tour of Normandy in June.... so I have some money and I did say I wanted to balance the economy (not all of it) using my pension ££'s.

I opted for a DJI Mavic mini... price for performance one of the better drones. Inspired by some of the stunning videos from the vloggers out there. When one of my friends who lives close to John in Scotland was last on my boat Percy one very boozy night we were discussing drones and he encouraged me by saying if he had a boat he could not think of a better 'tool' to use to capture the beautiful countryside we cruise through. Based on my plan for staycations on bikes and boat for the future I think I will get some value for money from this little drone.

Little it is.... the new UK drone laws mean any drone over 250g needs to be licensed by the CAA. The drone I have is 249g's so no need to be registered. However I have taken the test, passed and am licenses and a flyer and owner. I need to put the details of my license on the drone and print out the license should anyone ask to see it while flying (even though I don't need one) 

So hopefully when back on board Percy I can give a better idea of where we are and show you some of the views we see..... just need to be back aboard !