This summer I purchased a quadcopter and we’ve had a lot of fun with it.
I’m amazed at what $50 can buy in a quadcopter. This includes a camera mounted on the underside which can take still photos or movies. Not great quality, but it is still exotic to get a view from up above. The grandkids had a lot of fun chasing it around in the back yard, and also at the park at Sunriver. They took turns flying it.
Here is a video clip from it flying over our house:
I worry about it getting away from me and having it fly into oblivion, or it getting stuck high in a tree. There are two challenges when flying it–wind, and disorientation. Both were factors when I did stick it into a tree once, but I was able to reach and free it with a long pole. This past weekend I had a narrower escape. Flying in more wind than I should have in our back yard it scraped along the grass and got turned around, so I was unsure which way was forward and couldn’t correct it as it flew away from me. When it got about two houses away I cut the power and hoped for the best.
It was getting dark when we went looking for it, which was a good thing. Because we were able to see its lights blinking through a neighbor’s fence across their yard and in a swamp area behind it. I was very lucky it didn’t stick high in a tree or be lost forever in the brush. I doubt I would ever have found it without its lights blinking in the fading light.
So the quadcopter survives to fly another day.