Personal Drones

[RookieBlue7]

Does anyone own one or have you built one? What do you use it for? I've been interested in them lately for some reason, if for no other reason than it'd be something near and different to mess around with. My question is, how much does one need to spend to get a decent one and what all kinds of uses do they have? I could see them being great for hunters especially. My thing is, I'm curious how it could also be of use to golfers as well? (Yes I considered this as well). Could one use it to create unique course maps for their own usage? Could it be used to get different angles of the golf swing? Could it be useful to fly it up to a dogleg and see if it's clear around the corner? Could one be useful for courses themselves? I'd imagine they'd be great to monitor pace of play, especially if there were video message boards installed every few holes and you could send a reminder to a group to pick it up a little....

[whiskey golf]

Looks like some are $500-$1000+. They aren't the cheapest thing from what it appears but they are cool looking. 

[SPY ZINGER]

Check out Ryan's look at the GoPro Phantom:

 

http://www.independentgolfreviews.com/gopro-hero3-black-edition-camera.html

[Jondagcl]

I'm imagining a future not to distant from now.  Parents are not filming their kids soccer games with iPhones anymore - there are a series of drones flying above the field filming each kid.  And some of them crash and I chuckle to myself.

 

I've seen kids in my neighborhood play with them.  They appear easy enough to fly, and lots have go pro adapters.  They aren't super cheap though.  I'll bet that the price suggest how far of a radius it will be able to fly. 

[The Dansome]

One thing you might want to look into first is FAA regulations. I know the Canadian FAA has regulations and licensing fees now the second you add on cameras etc.

[Blade]

A few years ago Trimble Navigation bought a drone system I wanted for aerial surveys.  It is gps guided and you program a flight plan in it to cover the area you need. It takes overlapping photos as it flies. Then it returns to where you launched it or wherever you tell it. You take those photos and build a 3d map of the topography.  It's a fixed wing drone, has a wing span of about 2 feet I believe, and is built out of Styrofoam.   The US FAA had banned it's flight and any like it period.  Then I think there was discussion about allowing it for licensed pilots only. Ridiculous.  A law suit recently squashed their meddling.  They were told they have no jurisdiction over such a small aircraft.  You don't need a license to operate an ultralight.  Why would you need that for something the size of a kids toy? So I think they can be sold here now.  

 

Amazon was up against the same thing with their idea of using them to deliver small packages.  I can see no end to problems with that idea, but whatever.  

 

It's different when someone is in control of the drone as opposed to a preprogrammed flight. But I think there are laws about operating remote control aircraft near people.  Over a ball game could be trouble for sure. 

[Jondagcl]

Rookie I reread your post. I'm not 100% on board with a drone monitoring my golf outings. That's creepy man.

[RookieBlue7]

One thing you might want to look into first is FAA regulations. I know the Canadian FAA has regulations and licensing fees now the second you add on cameras etc.

If you guys take back Bieber, I'll petition the government to remove the restrictions for you

[RookieBlue7]

A few years ago Trimble Navigation bought a drone system I wanted for aerial surveys. It is gps guided and you program a flight plan in it to cover the area you need. It takes overlapping photos as it flies. Then it returns to where you launched it or wherever you tell it. You take those photos and build a 3d map of the topography. It's a fixed wing drone, has a wing span of about 2 feet I believe, and is built out of Styrofoam. The US FAA had banned it's flight and any like it period. Then I think there was discussion about allowing it for licensed pilots only. Ridiculous. A law suit recently squashed their meddling. They were told they have no jurisdiction over such a small aircraft. You don't need a license to operate an ultralight. Why would you need that for something the size of a kids toy? So I think they can be sold here now.

 

Amazon was up against the same thing with their idea of using them to deliver small packages. I can see no end to problems with that idea, but whatever.

 

It's different when someone is in control of the drone as opposed to a preprogrammed flight. But I think there are laws about operating remote control aircraft near people. Over a ball game could be trouble for sure.

No joke one of the videos of flying through fireworks this year was shot by a guy that I went to school with of the local fireworks. Indy Productions is his site/business and he has some cool stuff

[sp0rtsfan86]

The drones are cool. To the best of my knowledge laws are still coming out, and aren't exactly perfect. I talked recently about this with someone from ESPN... I asked them about if they would replace the rope camera/blimp shots. Problem is they could crash and stuff. Still, wouldn't it be awesome to see a drive hit one of the cameras like baseball? I'd pay to see a slice coming at a camera only to hit it.

[Aotearoa_Brad]

A family friend here used his gopro copter to do a bunch of aerial footage of the surf and put a pretty sweet video compilation together on Vimeo:

 

http://vimeo.com/83187924

 

There's probably a myriad of possibilities re golf - if it was me I'd be flying it down to the green on every par-3 and recording footage looking back at me ... with the cup in the frame, just in case... 

[RookieBlue7]

A family friend here used his gopro copter to do a bunch of aerial footage of the surf and put a pretty sweet video compilation together on Vimeo:

 

http://vimeo.com/83187924

 

There's probably a myriad of possibilities re golf - if it was me I'd be flying it down to the green on every par-3 and recording footage looking back at me ... with the cup in the frame, just in case... 

Wouldn't that be an interesting hole in one story?  

[Blade]

A family friend here used his gopro copter to do a bunch of aerial footage of the surf and put a pretty sweet video compilation together on Vimeo:

 

http://vimeo.com/83187924

 

There's probably a myriad of possibilities re golf - if it was me I'd be flying it down to the green on every par-3 and recording footage looking back at me ... with the cup in the frame, just in case... 

Um.... WOW!  I didn't realize the thing could fly that fast or that far from the remote. Amazing footage! 

[Jondagcl]

A family friend here used his gopro copter to do a bunch of aerial footage of the surf and put a pretty sweet video compilation together on Vimeo:

 

http://vimeo.com/83187924

 

There's probably a myriad of possibilities re golf - if it was me I'd be flying it down to the green on every par-3 and recording footage looking back at me ... with the cup in the frame, just in case... 

That was fantastic. I forwarded that to a ton of my surfer buddies.

[RoverRick]

Could one use it to create unique course maps for their own usage?

Could it be useful to fly it up to a dogleg and see if it's clear around the corner?

Could one be useful for courses themselves? I'd imagine they'd be great to monitor pace of play, especially if there were video message boards installed every few holes and you could send a reminder to a group to pick it up a little....

 

GPS in golf carts already does those things, without having to worry about it crashing in the woods and sending a search part out for it.  While the phone app will not tell you if where the group ahead of you is, it already does most of those things.

 

I also fear that a person flying his drone to check on the group ahead of them will need to worry about the people ahead of them.  It is the people behind them yelling, "Quit playing with the F____ing drone and hit the ball!" that is more of a concern.

[RookieBlue7]

GPS in golf carts already does those things, without having to worry about it crashing in the woods and sending a search part out for it.  While the phone app will not tell you if where the group ahead of you is, it already does most of those things.

 

I also fear that a person flying his drone to check on the group ahead of them will need to worry about the people ahead of them.  It is the people behind them yelling, "Quit playing with the F____ing drone and hit the ball!" that is more of a concern.

GPS in golf carts is being removed here because it's not cost effective. As far as people behind you, if you're waiting all day, they know that and can see that.  Unless they're blind

[The Dansome]

If you guys take back Bieber, I'll petition the government to remove the restrictions for you

 

Oh no!

 

He's all yours now!!!

[The Dansome]

Just happened upon this article Rook

 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/31/5954891/best-drone-you-can-buy

[mnfats95]

The biggest problem with them at this point is battery life.

 

The ones I looked at for around 2k were touting a 15 to 20 min battery life if carrying their max load which was only a few pounds.

 

A friend of mine and myself were looking into using them to inspect towers that have equipment malfunctioning on them.

 

Instead of sending a climber up every time something messes up, you could fly a drone up to see if something is physically damaged and perhaps determine what to take up with you.

 

It wouldn't replace every climb for sure, but it might save a bunch of time in some instances.

 

Anyway, the laws are all up in the air, but at this time from what I could research on the net, most people are saying that unless you have permission to use them from the FAA they are not legal.

 

I don't see how they differ from an RC plane, but whatever.

 

My other thought if we would have went through with this was to do a fancy flyover of the golf courses around here to you could put them on the course website.

 

How sweet would that be to have an Augusta like flyover of all your holes to display on the web?!

[sp0rtsfan86]

GPS in golf carts is being removed here because it's not cost effective. As far as people behind you, if you're waiting all day, they know that and can see that.  Unless they're blind

Same at the course I play sundays.... it's not cheap to put them in the carts, and half the time, they don't track carts well at all. I've seen one that had a group in front of us on the green when they were 150 yards in front of us. 

 

I doubt will see too many of drones on golf courses anytime soon.

[Jondagcl]

Gps is being removed. I'm trying to understand how it's cost effective to remove something a cart already has. Maintenance? I just played Anaheim Hills this weekend. Not only was gps not being removed, the carts were upgraded with tablets mounted to the side pillars!! We really do play golf on entirely different planets, us here in California and everyone else it seems.

[RookieBlue7]

Gps is being removed. I'm trying to understand how it's cost effective to remove something a cart already has. Maintenance? I just played Anaheim Hills this weekend. Not only was gps not being removed, the carts were upgraded with tablets mounted to the side pillars!! We really do play golf on entirely different planets, us here in California and everyone else it seems.

The cost to keep them and upgrade software via the vendor was costing them money. They weren't paying for themselves. That and the lack of accuracy led to complaint after complaint and they were sick of listening to it. They also were paying a rep to come out and check them once a month and do any required repairs, etc. that and the high cost to buy the units from te manufacturer vs lease (they were looking at buying vs leasing after they were already in). They weren't paying for themselves. They also said they were having to charge the carts more often (one round per charge because it wouldn't make 2 full loops) so they had to add carts as well.

[Jondagcl]

I'll buy the accuracy and maintenance. But a small screen used enough juice to prohibit the cart from making one more loop. Wow! I wouldn't of guessed it used that much energy.

[Blade]

There was a national news story the other day about drones being a problem for commercial flights. Apparently in the last few months there have been several incidents where pilots have seen them to close to their flight path and some have even had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid them.  That's a sure way to get them banned or laws written to require a pilot's license to operate one. Sad that people can't be responsible.  Can you imagine a jet engine sucking a drone up? It could do some damage.

[Jondagcl]

Could be crazy dangerous. There is such a wide range of drones out there, from kids toys to honest to goodness reconnaissance grade products. Hobbyists will find ways of making them even more capable, hopefully not so capable that it forces the hand of local and national agencies.