So here I am, I have practiced flying my toy drone in the basement. I feel pretty comfortable because I have also flown radio-controlled helicopters. They are about the same right? Up, down, forward, backward, and side to side. Should be easy.
I take my new (not a toy) drone to the local playground and prepare it for the maiden voyage. I install the propellers, check to be sure that everything is secure from the payload standpoint, hit the power button, and sync it to the controller.
You check the surroundings to be sure you are free of any obstructions . . . and then it hits! You realize that the living breathing monster in front of you costs ten times more than your most expensive helicopter and doesn’t even compare to the toy drone you have been flying in the basement!
The butterflies begin to grow in your stomach to the point you feel the sweat rolling off your forehead. My hands felt like they are shaking uncontrollably, and my palms are getting so sweaty I thought I would drop the controller!
I hit the stop button, stepped back, and regrouped telling myself. “Self you can do this!” I hit the start button and the six angry props come to life again. I go for it, pushing the throttle lever forward, and in an instant, it went straight up and out of sight! Panic sets in, where did it go, what do I do?
Now I am drenched in sweat thinking my wife is going to kill me for losing the drone on the first flight and I am probably going to have an insurance claim for it dropping out of the sky and crashing through someone’s skylight in their bathroom!! And then magically the home button appears. I smash it with determination and then I hear the six angry props and begin to see the outline of my drone against the sky.
In what seemed like hours the drone magically landed on the same spot it had taken off from! Crisis averted. I get to live another day and someone got to use their bathroom in peace!
It was at that point I realized that this is not the easiest thing to fly. Control stick movements have to be slow and deliberate. You must finesse your moves and practice them to get the beast to do what you want it to do.
As time went on and I got more practice and control became second nature, I found myself going the opposite direction and went from confident to taking more risks than I should have. And then it happened. The drone decided to fly away!
It is a very sick feeling when it decides to fly on its own! No matter what you do it does not respond to any commands from the controller! In a last-ditch effort, I hit the home button and it returned back to me!
The thought at the time was filling out a report to the FAA was scarier than actually losing the drone! But my drone was still not done torturing me!
While flying a dusk flight of a private swimming pool it decided to shoot across the pool deck and go for a swim!! It made the horrible sounds of electronic fireworks and the smell of burning electronics filled the air, but at last, the demons were gone and so was the drone.
I now have a much friendlier drone that actually does what I ask!
