How low and fast can I fly? Lets find out!

This drone is a blast to fly. It just grips and rips. I had been flying my "cruiser" long range drone so much lately, I forgot how much fun this build was. The video was all recorded from the same flight. I was exploring a bit and seeing how far I could go with my video reception in the woods.

If you enjoy speed, you may enjoy this flight!

Fast. Take that thing to Michigan and start some citizen social distancing enforcement. Add a small siren. Bet it goes viral.

a reply to: Triton1128

I enjoyed movements and camera work! How fast does it go? Would you be able to keep up with a fast car until around 60-80mph? I get it would accelerate faster than a sporty car but how long?

Would someone trained like you be able to sit in the passenger car and maneuver in tandem so to make awesome shots from angles never seen before?

Like imagine, following the car uphill into a left corner and then overtake on the left while the car goes into a drift and film it from the side, then dash away?

Would something like that be possible without trying it fifty times in a row?

a reply to: Triton1128

Your vids make me want to buy a drone....!

The drone you used to capture all of that wonderful 4k footage... What was that drone? What's the price range on all of the equipment you have installed on it, including the drone?

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

LOL
No, it would get shot down, and I'm sure the OP doesn't want that.

OP, have you ever thought about having something hanging off the drone, that would drag across the pond, then turning and filming the ripples?

Don't know why that came to me, but I bet it would look cool.

a reply to: Triton1128

Fly all your drones over Denver at night. Come back here next day and look for a thread with title "They are back".

a reply to: Shibari

That something that people actually do. Sit passenger and fly FPV while someone else drives around. I plan on doing that this summer. I just need to find the right spot. The less power lines the better!

This drone in the video goes about 100mph. The flight time is around 5-6min.

a reply to: StallionDuck

That was my long range done. Its much bigger. That ones designed to use up to 7" diameter props. The one in this video spins 5" diameter props.

The big boy has a flight time of 10min and can "Cruise" at 55 - 60mph for that time.

The one here in this video is much smaller and built to be very light so It can fly so agile.

The Big long range drone with the gear to fly it, you're looking at around 1400 bucks. Give or take. But that building it yourself. Including soldering all the electronics and flashing the firmware to the flight controller and then tuning it all.

I can build one from scratch in roughly 4 hours. But then I need to spend another 5 - 10 hours tuning it and making sure it fly's smooth and everything does what its supposed too.

a reply to: Trueman

I don't install any lights on them for that reason alone. My Big drone has a flight range of 5.5miles. So to be safe, I can go 2.5miles one way, then have enough juice to get back and room to spare ( in-case of wind, ect. )

If I had crazy bright LED's on that thing, Im sure the this part of the country would now be a UFO hot spot, considering how often I fly off my back deck!! haha

a reply to: Triton1128

Awesome. I guess you have a video glasses then because of limited view? Motion sickness could be a problem I can imagine. Also upcoming cars but for starters I would use an airstrip.

Imagine:
Make the video split view. One bumper cam, one drone cam. Make it in-obvious to the viewer that one of it is a drone. First the drone is faster because it really is... but then gets beaten by the car and then the video turns fullscreen on the drone view that now takes shortcuts and does moves not possible to a car.
Viewer goes AHA or WTF...

Drone pilot doing unnecessary complicated but spectacular shortcuts all the while the mostly analog and heavy machine is fighting the tarmac. Add pulse/heartbeat of both pilots to the video.

Who is in?

a reply to: Triton1128

Thanks for the info. Still an interesting hobby. I get bored easy with my hobbies, so I have lots of them. I think this would be one to enjoy.


I do notice that most drones out there, big or small, tend to have 5-12 minute flight times. Any way around that? I found this out when I was searching around for a chopper for my little nephew. I didn't realize that after all of these years, battery life is still minimal. Though, 10 minutes is a lot of time considering but it would be cool to have longer cruize times.

a reply to: StallionDuck

The DJI Mavic, Mavic mini or the latest Mavic 2, are all good " out of the box " options. However, those are video platforms. Top speeds from 35mph to 45mph. They won't be going upside down either. But they will give you 20 - 25min flight times. They are awesome for what they are. If you want to record 4k stunning footage then its perfect. But if you wanna be a pilot, and fly first person. Their control is sluggish and slow. Maybe good for beginners, but Id get bored of that eventually.

The ones I build, are a bit more power hungry. My big 7" drone I use for long range. The motors are so powerful, I hit 124mph one day, at an amp draw of 178A!! Technically, as a hobbyist pilot. I'm not supposed to exceed 100mph(160kmh). So I configured in a throttle cap at 82%. After some testing, that puts me right around 97mph top end. I have GPS installed on my big drones and have an overlay in my goggles that shows me current speed, location, power, throttle, altitude, distance from home.. ect.

Its an awesome hobby, but an expensive one. You crash a lot at first.. and most crashes are $$ out of pocket to replace broken parts and lots of waiting on packages in the mail! I'm four years in now, so I have lots of spare parts to hold me over. Eventually, you learn your limits and the crashes happen much less frequently.

Thanks for the video.. what a 'zipper' you've created!

You might be able to offer some advice to a beginner/newbie like myself.

I'm wanting to be able to follow some friends (and myself) that hang-glide. We don't soar very fast, so see no need for a super fast drone, but stability and the need to stay on 'target-point' (Follow) would be essential. Video stability would be a key factor so the gimbal would have to be rock-solid. The ability to stay aloft for a long period of time and be simple enough that it could be done without wearing a viewing headset (hard to fly and try and control a drone at the same time).

Any ideas or suggestions for me to consider?

Johnny

a reply to: Triton1128

If I am understanding you correctly, you built this yourself?
If so, was it a kit, and where did you get it?
If you built it from scratch, where did you source your parts and do you want to do a little build tutorial?
BTW, Great piloting!

a reply to: JohnnyAnonymous

I would recommend : Mavic 2

Its packed full of tech. It can actually auto follow you and do some pretty amazing things. Just YouTube Mavic 2 or follow the link above to get an idea of its capabilities.

a reply to: skybandit

Yes I build them. You can buy them pre- assembled. Although quality control isnt always there since most of these are sourced from over sea's. For me, its cheaper to buy all the individual parts myself and build exactly what Im looking for.

Here are a couple sites I browse frequently to buy parts.

RaceDayQuads

Pyrodrone

Ive never created a "how to" video yet. Mostly just mini-reviews and flight videos. There is so much involved. My background is an Electronic Technician who went 100% into IT for the last 20 years.

I would start buy looking up FPV drone. Beginner FPV drone. Building an FPV drone. Something along those lines.