T-Minus 2h 20m and Counting to Lift-Off!!

So Cowboys now fly drones, it must be 2017

Enjoy the ride

Nice footage! That thing is ultra stable.

SUCCESS!!!

The first test flight has been a smashing success!!

Take off was at exactly 10:20:20 (about 20 seconds late due to an 'operator' malfunction...didn't have the USB cord connected to my phone).

Performance was spectacular! Numerous takeoffs and (more importantly) picture perfect landings. This thing is incredible! The video was beyond spectacular. Practiced numerous maneuvers including forward, reverse and side to side as well as rotation and inverse controlled flight (where the drone is facing opposite the controller and all controls are backwards).

Sorry I don't have any video of the maiden voyage. I, ahem, forgot to hit the "record" button due to paying more attention to actually flying.

The precision control of this thing is truly amazing. I scraped a small square on the ground just a bit larger than the landing gear, and was able to land inside the box every time in my first 6-7 attempts.

Wow...I'm impressed!

Oh, and the cows...heh, they noticed it right away and headed out for greener pastures up over the hill. Added some power and climbed up vertically and could see exactly where they went!

SUCCESS!!

Three thumbs up!!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That can be a useful tool to also check out whats going on around your ao. Shtf recon!

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Well, that wasn't my footage, but rather just an example.

Although judging by the success of the maiden voyage it shouldn't be long before I have some similar footage.

originally posted by: Raggedyman
So Cowboys now fly drones, it must be 2017

Enjoy the ride

Heh-HEH, yep!!

YEEEE-HAAAWWW!!

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Well, that wasn't my footage, but rather just an example.

Although judging by the success of the maiden voyage it shouldn't be long before I have some similar footage.

Just don't push the envelope too far yet, although tempting maybe.

Oooh. selling some fresh beef. Do they roam around eating grass and farting or are they penned up and fed soy and corn all day long. I prefer the ones that eat a lot of grass and walk around in a pasture a lot.

Oh, sorry about being off topic, but I do not eat drones and I am getting hungry.

If you have a good use for the drones it would be handy to have one. You can keep your eye on preditors. Do they spook the cows at all?

a reply to: rickymouse

Are animals are all 100% grass fed, hence the need for the giant pastures (they eat a lot!). No, they are not penned up, nor do they ever go to feed lots. We finish all our animals on-site.

Yes, predators are one of the main reasons I wanted one. This way, we can keep an eye on calves shortly after birth to:

a.) see where they (and their momma's are)
b.) make sure they're okay
c.) keep an eye on predators (which are a real problem around here)
d.) track down wayward animals without having to cover every square inch of ground

Good beef that walks out in the fields is a lot better. That beef that eats a real lot of grains has little taste. It doesn't age well either, seven days is about the max and it starts to fall apart when you use it. I got a grainfed one one year, a 4 H cow, it had no rich flavor. Cutting it with a fork isn't what I prefer, I like it hung for two weeks to let the flavors develop.

We used to buy a whole steer, now we get a half. Our last farmer we buy from is certified organic and certified grassfed. Their cows tasted the same when they didn't have the certification, only thing now is they can't rattle the can with a little oats in it to get the cows to come. They used to finish them two weeks with a little grain, now they don't anymore.

It raised the price about two hundred bucks on a half when they got the certification done, but it increased their business. That money goes to the government and to certification companies the government requires. I just can't see people who push a pencil making that much off of the cow.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well done - happy droning...and keep producing that nice beef!

Footage or it didn't happen!

a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.
I sometimes see one flying when they check the solar fields with it, this thing is nearly 2m big and has sevaral cameras including thermal imaging. The operator sits at a table with several monitors and joysticks, all operated from a van. Weather is almost no issue for this thing I was told, it was custom made by a german engineering team.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

One more comment. Is this drone you got programmable? Can you get and app to program it? Just curious.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I can't wait to see some of your videos of cattle searching.

KUDOS TO YOUR WIFE!!!

a reply to: Tarzan the apeman.

What do you mean by programmable?

This thing has about 80 different things you can program, but I'm not sure what you mean. The Phantom 3 Pro has (23) different controller inputs from the controller (i.e. buttons, dials, gimbals and switches) for flight and video. There are two custom program selections which allow reprogramming of almost every one of the (23) inputs, so technically there are several thousand different "programming" permutations with this thing.

If you mean, can I pre-program a flight (as in, where I want it to go ahead of time), I'm not sure. I've read you can pre-program in "waypoints" for it to fly to automatically, but I haven't tried any of that yet. Based on what I've experienced so far, I'd be afraid to program in a waypoint...because it'd probably actually try to go there!! (like another state). This thing flies FAR...a lot further than I expected!

The controller is so powerful it knocks out my WiFi router inside the house. It's no joke for sure!!

Seriously, I noticed it last night when I was trying to upgrade the firmware on the controller; all of a sudden the internet was dead. Only when I turned off the WiFi inside (and on all the computers) could I upgrade the controller. Then, today, when I went outside for the 2nd flight the wife said she saw exactly when I turned on the controller because the Internet went dead inside the house (and we have a powerful router too! I can see it with my laptop from a couple miles away). (Don't worry, it's highly secured and not a published SSID). This thing is a BOOMER!!

Oh, and tonight I got video! About 700mb of it, in just 25 minutes of flight.

ETA...the vehicle is actually 'autonomous' from the controller. If the controller loses signal, goes dead (or turns off) the vehicle will continue to fly and return back to it's pre-programmed GPS coordinates. So, I'm thinking if you programmed in some other coordinates for "home" it would fly there, or at least attempt to until it ran out of battery. I understand now why these 'fly away' sometimes. The capabilities of this pro version are pretty impressive.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Merry Christmas! (*Fist bump* for the misses)

Beware of cheap LED lights as they can do the same as your drone does to the wifi to radio signals. Sounds like it would be an expensive lesson to learn.

and

Cool, another drone pilot. Make sure you set your GPS home location. Set it somewhere in an open area, and set it every time you fly. If you fly at a park, and your coordinates are at home, it will try to go home. The return home function is not as accurate as you would think it is, give it pleanty of room to land. Trees with no leaves will sneak up on you quick. Stay away from trees at first until you learn to control it. Pretty soon you will be flying like a pro. Strap on a headset and fly FPV. It is way cooler. I will link a video of us flying, so you can drool over the next stage of evolution in drone flying. If you look closely, I am standing in the field next to the barn.

Oh, and a Phantom can be programmed to follow way points on a map, do search grids, make high resolution pictures from multiple pictures, and many other cool things with the right program. YouTube is your friend when learning how to set everything up. If you give it a way point in another country, it will attempt to go there. There are locating devices that you can put on it that will help you find it, if it goes down. They are very important, drones can be out of sight in seconds, and they never land where it looked like they did. Welcome to the hobby, you will never have money again.