I’ve always loved playing around with remote controlled things, and have a number of them around the house. I’ve been thinking about getting one of the cheaper GPS drones for a little while now and was finally seduced at the beginning of the month.
I’ve had my remote controlled car the longest – a Tamiya Lancia Delta Integrale! It was bought when I sold my real Lancia Delta Integrale, one of the cars I blogged about here. It’s more of a display item, although does get played with every now and again. I think this link is a slightly newer version of the one I have.
My sister bought me my first drone as a Christmas present some years back, a Hubsan Q4 described as the ‘first smallest nano quadcopter’. It certainly was a micro drone and proved a good way to learn about flying remote-controlled vehicles, although I never really mastered it fully!
I’d always fancied the idea of a remote-controlled helicopter, and after the micro drone experience felt pretty confident I’d be able to fly one. How wrong can one be! Luckily I didn’t spend a fortune, as my partner bought me Heliguy Firefly Helicopter. It still works, although has needed a number of running repairs when my flying skills quickly ran out. It doesn’t take much wind to set if of the track, and I’ve always struggled to fly it unless I’m stood a few feet directly behind it!
Probably my favourite drone was another present about 3 years ago – an Airhogs Millennium Falcon! It doesn’t fly for very long now, but is made of polystyrene and has taken a beating without breaking a sweat. I’ve let friends kids play with it, who have no idea about flying a drone, and it’s still going strong!
So what have I just bought? I think I was seduced by some Drone X Pro adverts that popped up on Facebook, although when I started looking wanted something with GPS and a 1080p camera. I also didn’t want to spend much more than £100, as there’s every chance I’ll destroy or lose it on its first flight.
I ended up going for one of these on eBay, and thankfully it never arrived! In the time it was en route from Manchester (apparently, but I suspect it was either never sent of lost on its way from China) I’d done a little more research and realised this was probably as a false economy.
It was cheap, 1080p, GPS and WiFi, but the reviews not so great and most suggested spending about another £50 and getting something much closer to a DJI type offering, both in terms of flight time, stability and camera quality. Ok, it’s not going to match a £1000+ DJI drone, but they are probably better than 1/7 of the price would suggest.
After a little more research I have one of these on the way from eBay, which should arrive from Middlesex over the weekend!
As I’ve already rambled on to this point, I’ll write another blog about the MJX Bugs 4W drone once it arrived and I’ve had a chance to play…
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