What happens if you hand a powerful machine to an inexperienced operator?
I bought myself a beautiful quadcopter. The Hubsan 4x.
Well, I say "myself", but that is one of the perks of being a dad. I could buy it as a present to my son, and "we" can enjoy it together, right?
But of course, before letting him loose on it, I'd need to understand how it works, right?
So, last night I took it out of the box, and had a quick flight inside, then outside our home.
First impressions are filled with awe. It's super quick and responsive, so flying it requires a very high degree of concentration (compared to for example flying the RC helicopter).
After calibrating the copter and seeing how quick it could fly way over the tree tops, I thought a better place to experiment would be a big open space. And so I took it to our local sport field after a good charge.
3 minutes into the first flight, I could hardly see a speck high above the field. Wanting to carefully bring it down, I started to realise that I've got a problem brewing. It drifted to the side of the field, so was still terribly far away from me. I could not see where it was pointing, and subsequently did not know which direction to steer it towards to get it back. And moments later, the spec became invisible with dark trees in the back ground. ...and it's gone.
So, it was a very quick, high adrenalin learning experience on how not to fly my son's quadcopter. :)
Now that his toy is gone, perhaps I should buy myself one, right?
But of course, before letting him loose on it, I'd need to understand how it works, right?
So, last night I took it out of the box, and had a quick flight inside, then outside our home.
First impressions are filled with awe. It's super quick and responsive, so flying it requires a very high degree of concentration (compared to for example flying the RC helicopter).
After calibrating the copter and seeing how quick it could fly way over the tree tops, I thought a better place to experiment would be a big open space. And so I took it to our local sport field after a good charge.
3 minutes into the first flight, I could hardly see a speck high above the field. Wanting to carefully bring it down, I started to realise that I've got a problem brewing. It drifted to the side of the field, so was still terribly far away from me. I could not see where it was pointing, and subsequently did not know which direction to steer it towards to get it back. And moments later, the spec became invisible with dark trees in the back ground. ...and it's gone.
So, it was a very quick, high adrenalin learning experience on how not to fly my son's quadcopter. :)
Now that his toy is gone, perhaps I should buy myself one, right?
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