Parts is Parts

A Boeing representative recently commented that for most of us a Boeing airplane looks like a Boeing airplane. But to Boeing, it looks like a million parts flying in tight formation.

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 For many of us beginning at the bleeding edge of remote quadcopter flight commenced with some little $65 flying thing from Amazon and migrated to a slightly bigger thing and then with completely no reason to believe that you could do it, tried to build your own quad with parts from Hobbyking. Failure! (OK, it was just me then.)

It’s now 8 months later, all the HK parts are toast and you are unpacking the ‘ready to fly’ DJI Phantom 2 having just thrown away the $367 worth of incongruent parts that never worked as a well-oiled machine. In fact, it never flew for more than 28 seconds at any one time between repair sessions.

The Phantom flies. And flies easily. Just read the friggin manual or watch a couple of videos before you ‘arm the quad’ and push the radio’s left control stick north, given that you are facing north. If facing south, turn around. Anyway, I am not going to explain how to fly a quadcopter here. I am going to simply plead with you to practice. Perfect practice would be even better. Practice away from people, buildings and most importantly, away from trees. Trees and quads do not get along and trees will ‘paper your rock’; 'rock your sissors'. Trees seem to suck quads into them, many times never giving them back unless you are very good at climbing out onto a limb.    

Regardless of which brand of quad you are flying, there are characteristics and idiosyncrasies that will most likely subject your little hobby to the worst that gravity can dish out. You will want these little ‘friggin opportunities to learn’ to happen over dry land and not over the Pacific. Keep practicing where unexpected outcomes have minimal impact on your wallet. (Example: The P2 will simply land by itself when the battery depletes to 25%. You will have zero control of the craft as it lands perfectly in the Pacific or in the middle of Interstate 310 because you were trying to capture compelling video of a friggin freeway, idiot.)