Advanced Drone-Flying Advice
David: Hey everybody, David Plummer and Michael Ferguson here. This is our AI Q+A series, and we’re taking your questions. I want to introduce a viewer named Nigel Harrison. He commented on a recent video we did that involved dual remote controls, saying, “guys, at the six minute and 58 second mark, use the smart controller pitch and pan control dials on top of the remote. It’s easier to move the camera that way than by using the sticks.”
If you remember, a while back we did a video where we tested out the Matrice 300 with the dual remote. Using two remotes allows you to utilize a hand-off feature and helps with tracking, among other benefits. Nigel’s comment essentially indicates that we weren’t using these dual controllers correctly in the video.
Michael: You can use the dials. You can use the sticks too. Let’s say you’re flying and then I take control of the drone. I can either take complete control or instead one person flies the drone while the other operates the camera. And I believe we were doing the latter — you or I had control of the camera and we were fiddling with the sticks and the thumb dials.
David: And we probably got a little confused during the video and, in the process, confused you too. That’s why we’re commenting on it and setting things straight. Usually when we do these videos, we have not spent months testing these things out.
Michael: We activate it and then we get it up in the air.
David: Exactly. We activate it, I get my camera and we start flying. We have ideas and we start figuring it out. But what I love is we have such an intelligent group of people who are closely watching our videos. This stuff means so much to them and, because it’s important, they’re willing to say, “Hey, you know what? These guys think they know what they’re talking about? Maybe they don’t, let’s question them.”
Michael: We don’t always know what we’re talking about. Not always, Nigel.
David: That’s exactly right. Keep those kinds of comments coming. We love it, because we’ll get out there and we’ll do something and not realize that something didn’t really make sense.
Michael: Or didn’t work or that didn’t work very well.
David: The majority of our comments come after we do a test. We were doing a flight time test with the Matrice 300. For some background, this is the go-to, state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line drone for search and rescue right now. Nobody, at this point, is going to beat its cost, its reliability and its flight steadiness (even without using the RTK). And it comes equipped with this incredibly-powerful zoom and thermal combined into one camera.
Michael: Those in search and rescue are always early adopters of technology like this. The inspection industry uses the Matrice as well because it enables workers to inspect from a distance, staying away from any type of high power lines, tension or wires.
David: Or buildings like skyscrapers. Speaking of which, we just went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago to demonstrate that you can take a drone up in the middle of downtown Chicago in a safe and legal area, even up to the Sears Tower. We did this to illustrate the ease of drone inspection from a safe distance. One key advantage is you’re not sending a worker up on the roof and putting them at risk.
Michael: In our test, we were probably a mile away off to the side, nobody was around and we had a perfect vantage point. One additional note on that video: DJI does say the Matrice has a max 50-minute flight time, but only with no gimbal attached.
David: I was wrong about that. And it was a little misleading in the test itself. Now, my whole point was that people often read about that 50-minute-plus flight time and all that sticks in their head is that number. As a result, they think they’re going to get a guaranteed 50 minutes out of it.
Michael: Right, and they don’t realize a one and a half pound gimbal brings that flight time down 10 minutes. It drops by about that margin because the gimbal’s weight and associated drag create resistance the drone needs to overcome. Because flight times and other variables are rarely consistent, it’s good to do your own tests (like we do) to figure things out.
David: Sometimes test results vary because we haven’t completely thought through something. On the other hand, weather fluctuations have major effects as well. That’s just the way things happen to turn out.
Thank you so much for continuing on with us and for submitting your comments — whether you’re telling us when we’re wrong or when we’re right. We appreciate it. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a third blog in our AI Q+A series. We have more questions and answers to share in the next installment. We’ll see you next time.
We are so excited about how drones can help your business or farm. Make sure to shoot us an email or call us for a consultation if you want more information about Aerial Influence. As always, thank you for reading. We’re excited to share the future of drones with you.