As we have all seen over the last couple years drones have become a hot commodity and after the recent holidays there are a surge of new pilots flying the expensive toys. One new pilot, Zwier Spanjer, posted a video on YouTube of his first day using his drone and according to the post on Reddit the flight couldn't have gone any better. Wait till you see this.
After the video was shared on Reddit it quickly made it's way to the front page. Comments ranged from congratulatory remarks on the amazing catch to others cautioning users to learn how to use their devices correctly before putting themselves in harms way and ruining their expensive drones. One Reddit user even posted a link to a gallery of injuries caused by quadcoptors with a warning that propellers are like spinning razor blades. Here's the link to the gallery of quadcopter injuries. (Warning: Lots of blood and quite gory.)
While the video is quite fun to watch it makes you wonder if drone users should be required to attend a safety class before being permitted to fly one of these. In this particular situation it appears that the operator had it up in the air too long and it just simply ran out of battery. I'm sure he won't let that happen again after this close call.
If you don't have time to watch the whole drama unfold click to about 0:45 into the video.
I'm a photographer and a fairly avid quadcopter enthusiast. I've seen this video posted several times today and I think that this guy could totally have avoided this problem if he had read the manual and been familiar with his equipment and with what the LED indicator lights. Nice save diving in the water to keep your $1500 investment from drowning, but I think the world would be better off the quadcopter had drowned and that guy never got to fly again.
It was probably in fly home mode but it won't land in exactly the spot it took off from, i learnt this on my first flight taking off from too near to a wooded area, only took about 3 hours to find it then another hour climbing the tree to retrieve it, lesson learnt by me, great catch though
Close call!
Have you ever had a family run reception venue feel it was a good idea, "just to get a couple of shots, you know", to buzz over a the site of a wedding you've been contracted to shoot, as the wedding was occurring? AND windy? It's NOT awesome. It's also NOT awesome when they actually have the instructions for the thing folded out on the ground, because they have no idea how to operate it. Thankfully the whole situation was averted. I'm of the opinion that Stupid must be confronted as Stupid happens.
This post has a tag of Humor, but it's not really funny. The link to the gallery of injuries, although I didn't follow it, I can guarantee it is also not really funny.
WTF? Did someone piss in your breakfast or something?
Hardly. It's just the way I type. Trust me, person to person, I'm fascinating.
You're may be confusing my absolute intolerance for incompetence that I encountered in a professional situation for negativity or a bad attitude. It may be, but I pretty sure it isn't.