What Have I Done! Need Advice!

Matthew David Gholson

Matthew David Gholson

Member
OK, so I've been flying for 18 months now, got things under control, for example my weekly order of spare parts from RDQ is now now every 3 months.

My uncle called me and wanted to get started in drones. After a great deal of discussion and many, many warnings about how terrible an idea it was he convinced me to buy him a drone, he doesn't use the internet much and doesn't do online shopping at all. I buy him my first actual drone, a Hubsan 501s I spent an hour showing him how to fly it and what the controls did. He forced me to take extra money.

As you might expect he broke an arm off the drone the 3rd day, and glued it back, which I told him wouldn't work. Last night I got a bevy of texts from him about losing the drone. I'm 100% sure that the glued arm popped off and it fell to it's doom somewhere

Now he wants another one, or maybe two, maybe something better, he'd like something he can't crash, must have return to home and GPS.

I feel like a drug dealer, he demands I take extra payment for ordering stuff and showing him how to use it. I'm quite sure that any drone I purchase for him is going to be destroyed.

he bought a toy drone from wal-mart but can't keep it in the air. I was thinking about getting a sigma X5c? I don't know.
 
Matthew David Gholson said:
he'd like something he can't crash, must have return to home and GPS.
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I have less than 4 months of experience. Here are my 2 cents...…...

1. Drone cannot crash by itself. The guilty party is the pilot. He is going to crash no matter what quad he is flying, and he will continue to crash until one day it all gets together. He has to be patient and understand that crashes are part of the learning curve.
2. Don't get him a brushless motors like the Hubsan H501S. Brushless motors too powerful for a beginner. Get a brushed drones instead.
3. Suggestions:
For GPS : SJRC Z5.
It has most of the bells and whistles including one button Return Home. I own one myself.
For Optical Flow Positioning : XK X300.
Optical Flow is the next best thing after GPS. It is a "super duper" altitude hold. XK X300 will stick in the air if let go the throttle stick. If one loses orientation and getting confused, let go the throttle stick and the quad will stop dead in mid air, waiting for the pilot's next move. It also has Headless mode if the pilot loses orientation. Yes, I own one too.
Note : Both of the above 2 quads have 2 versions, 5G wifi and 2.4g wifi image transmission. Not all smartphones support 5G wifi.
4. He may not like it. If you could persuade him to be trained with a simulator first.

Did you mean Syma X5C ?
It may not be a good idea because it has no features at all. Just a plain old-fashioned quad. It's all up to the pilot to keep it up in the air and it's not easy to do that at all. I should know. I have one and in the first few weeks, I crashed it in less than 5 seconds each and every time.
 
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Tell him to spend the money on a laptop, about the same price as a good drone and a cheap tx like flysky, get a simulator like freerider or velociodrone to learn the basic controls.

Mention that you can't give him "any more drugs" until then lol.
 
get a syma x25 its cheap and has alt hold gps and if you don't use your phone it is still a great line of sight flyer it is also pretty tough I use mine as a trainer for my phantom I even fly the x25 inside
 
mark jackson said:
get a syma x25 its cheap and has alt hold gps and if you don't use your phone it is still a great line of sight flyer it is also pretty tough I use mine as a trainer for my phantom I even fly the x25 inside
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Great prices for a GPS quad. SO YEAH! Get 2:)
 
My posting answer to another:

My 3 cents.
I flew RC aircraft years ago. So I still had some muscle memory for the controls and aircraft direction did not confuse me.
I started with a micro-quad about 8 years ago. It took a while, but I got better. Went to a much bigger quad. But no fancy GPS etc. Was fun but still a challenge. Every flight was nerve wracking. As a result I never flew more than 15 minutes at a time.

Finally got a DJI Phantom 3 S. WOW! What a pleasure to fly.
My point is that a quad with GPS makes it much more fun for you the beginner to get some muscle memory. Learn coordinated turns etc.
At any time you can turn the GPS off and practice without.
The one option I would not use is HEADLESS MODE. That will teach you bad habits. Unless its an emergency. And then you can use RTH.

Just my 3 cents.
HAve fun and good luck!
 
Biggest problem I'm having with a quad 30mumble years after flying R/C: Seeing what direction the silly thing is facing. With an airplane, it's easy, it faces the direction it's going.
 
Tentoes said:
Biggest problem I'm having with a quad 30mumble years after flying R/C: Seeing what direction the silly thing is facing. With an airplane, it's easy, it faces the direction it's going.
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Some of my old RC craft faced the ground a lot hahaha.

The lights on my RTF quads are pretty bright. So unless I am into the sun (not a good idea anyway), I can usually keep up a 1/4 mile away. After that, it is RTF time. These old eyes.:(
 
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