Drones

This Skydio R1 is next level:

Last night at the fireworks downtown Buffalo there were at least 4 drones flying around shooting the show. One guy was a bit more reckless and it looked like he flew right through the explosions, but that could have been my viewing angle.

How were the fireworks at canalside? The barge went by Riverworks while we were having lunch and they were setting it up across from canalside when we went back out to the lake. Much betting launching point using the barge (vs launching them from the outer harbor and having half the show obscured by the silos) but I was not impressed by the amount of single shot at a time and pretty weak finale the last time we saw fireworks there.

Also, if your boat was slipped at First Buffalo Marina you might want to go check it out today and see how it is. That barge was way too close to those boats IMO.

@JayS they were pretty good actually. I can’t compare them to last year because last year I was in the middle of the lake watching them.

Yeah, some of the fireworks looked much too close to even the people at Canal Side. But again my perspective was a bit skewed.

Yikes:

Back yard innovation…

Damn.

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Another awesome drifting video with great drone footage:

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Kid makes ducted drone. Great idea:

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Cool stuff:

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So I’ve been kicking around the idea of picking up a drone soon/maybe Black Friday. Use may be anything from general flying and video to real estate and possible drifting/car related.

Anyone know if racing drones have the capability of being as steady and nice for real estate?

Top of my list right now is probably going to be the DJI Mavric Pro/Pro Platinum. Not a racing drone but the compact transporting is very nice. Downside is that it requires your phone/tablet to be flown and doesn’t come with a dedicated controller with video. (dedicated remote with video is around $600-700 and definitely not worth that much)

Any suggestions.

I don’t have one, but I’ve been watching the dev of the obstacle avoidance on the Skydio2 and it’s just ridiculous. If it can perform anywhere near the vids they’ve been producing it’s going to be awesome.

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Yeah if I needed a new drone right now it would be the Skydio 2 for sure.

Finally got all the parts to get my first FPV racing drone in the air, the Larva X.

I quickly realized that just because I could rip my little $50 consumer drone around the house and yard via line of sight I was NO WAY prepared for how fast this Larva X was to try and learn FPV flight. I’ve bounced it off the neighbors tree twice and augured it into the grass several times. Thankfully no damage and I did manage several laps around my front yard without issue last night. Going to hop in the BetaFlight software tonight and turn everything down a bit as well as enable auto-level and disable acro mode until I get better.

Here’s a video of what it can do with someone more competent at the sticks (start at 11:45):

This is my problem right now, I want a drone for real estate reasons but I really want a racing one. Not sure if they have an in between option because I sure would be interested. Maybe great video quality on a racer could work with stabilization turned on…

The two things you want to do require entirely different hardware. You’re better off getting two drones.

Yeah… I had a feeling that was the case. It’s also why I haven’t bought one yet. I want to make sure getting one for real estate makes sense and that I’ll get the business I need to pay that money off. However, I want the one to have fun with so much more!!

Start with the real estate drone, learn on that (and make money with it) then step into a racing drone down the line. That’s what I’d do.

I mostly want a drone for photography. My biggest complaint right now is that I have a great drone, but I’m limited to where I can fly it legally.

That Skydio really impresses me though. At least in sample vids.

The Skydio does seem nice. And the making money part sounds good for getting the drone as well but as for the learning, that part wont matter as I’ve learn how to fly RC planes and Heli’s which take a lot more knowledge to fly. I can fly a drone like the Skydio or DJI with ease. It’s almost boring to fly them to be honest.

Curious what the Skydio would be like if I put it to follow me while I hopped into a drift car at the track and the footage it could give me while chasing us down.

I’m pretty much an expert with all things RC (cars, boats, planes, helis and quads). That expertise meant nothing when I tried ripping a fast quad around with nothing but the first person view from the quad to guide me.

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