Ready for spring and summer

A forum for discussing topics relating to MacGregor Powersailor Sailboats
whgoffrn
Captain
Posts: 503
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 9:55 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by whgoffrn »

Haha yeah....word of advice if you ever decide to have thanks giving on the boat don't throw the leftovers overboard .... next piece of advice if u do...dont dump the porta potty on the angry gator in an attempt to get it to go away cause it just makes it even more angry

https://www.facebook.com/whgoffrn/video ... 733140370/

Is a link to our anchorage at Titusville fl... I had the drone at one point about 2 miles away from me over water
User avatar
Gazmn
Admiral
Posts: 1117
Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 10:22 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Bayside, NY '97X, E-tec 115 Pontoon, The "Ollie Gray" & '01 Chevy Tahoe W/ Tow Pkg; AL 2X Trlr.

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by Gazmn »

One day, like a said- Once I learn to Pitch & Catch 8)

- Nice Vid :)
User avatar
sailboatmike
Admiral
Posts: 1597
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:17 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Australia

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by sailboatmike »

Gators are such tame things, a salt water croc would of been jumping out of the water to try and eat the drone, damn angry mean things they are
User avatar
mac n cheese
Chief Steward
Posts: 98
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:52 am
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Calgary, Alberta, 1997 MacGregor 26X, BF50D

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by mac n cheese »

sailboatmike wrote:Gators are such tame things, a salt water croc would of been jumping out of the water to try and eat the drone, damn angry mean things they are
No kidding!

Image
User avatar
paula_ke
Chief Steward
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:16 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Earth

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by paula_ke »

I think I'll stay on the Baja side! Don't need a gator deciding that I am lunch!
https://youtu.be/3MC88gJ09Yw

Captain Paula of the good ship AirWave
User avatar
Gazmn
Admiral
Posts: 1117
Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 10:22 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Bayside, NY '97X, E-tec 115 Pontoon, The "Ollie Gray" & '01 Chevy Tahoe W/ Tow Pkg; AL 2X Trlr.

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by Gazmn »

Great Vid
Cap :)

I get an idea of where my boat can be. & how great a copter I bought - Now I just gotta take the time to learn how to fly it :D


P.S. - No Gator waters only :wink:
User avatar
NiceAft
Admiral
Posts: 6157
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:28 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Upper Dublin,PA, USA: 2005M 50hp.Honda4strk.,1979 Phantom Sport Sailboat, 9'Achilles 6HP Merc 4strk

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by NiceAft »

If you get it snared in a tree Gazmn, you can always call the NYFD to loan you a ladder. :)

Ray
User avatar
sailboatmike
Admiral
Posts: 1597
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:17 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Australia

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by sailboatmike »

GPS drones are easy, any mug (even me) can fly one because they do as they are told and stop when you take your hands off the sticks and hover at the same height.

I just bought a height hold Optical positioning selfie drone for messing about on the boat, a bit like a DJI spark but 1/12 of the price ($50US). These things are great to play with and as cheap as chips, don't think I would be taking a $2000 drone on the boat with me and they are way big, this one folds down to around 9 inches by 5 inches

https://www.tomtop.com/p-rm9081-3.html
User avatar
Gazmn
Admiral
Posts: 1117
Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 10:22 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Bayside, NY '97X, E-tec 115 Pontoon, The "Ollie Gray" & '01 Chevy Tahoe W/ Tow Pkg; AL 2X Trlr.

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by Gazmn »

sailboatmike wrote:GPS drones are easy, any mug (even me) can fly one because they do as they are told and stop when you take your hands off the sticks and hover at the same height.

I just bought a height hold Optical positioning selfie drone for messing about on the boat, a bit like a DJI spark but 1/12 of the price ($50US). These things are great to play with and as cheap as chips, don't think I would be taking a $2000 drone on the boat with me and they are way big, this one folds down to around 9 inches by 5 inches

https://www.tomtop.com/p-rm9081-3.html

They are All Amazing. I got the bug - rather - intention in the Spring of 2013. While rehabbing my first alternate shoulder surgery. That was around the time of DJI2 taking off. I bought a DJI 1 that was supped up with FPV, extra batteries & fine tuning by a super geek off Ebay.

& then came my learning curve :P



I did the rt shoulder last January. & I still can't fly worth a crap :P

I don't make the time to breathe & learn... Shame on me. Ya gotta make the time :P

OG out 8)
User avatar
sailboatmike
Admiral
Posts: 1597
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:17 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Australia

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by sailboatmike »

I must say the DJI units do have superb cameras, DJI did buy out one of the leading camera companies to get the technology.

The little drones I buy are classed as "toy grade", these days though the line between the features on "toy grade" and "hobby grade" units is becoming very blurred.

Once upon a time this wan't a real issue as most just strapped a Go Pro under their drone, so it was only the flying characteristics of the drone that you looked for when buying a drone. These days most have FPV (First Person View) cameras built in, the cheaper ones use Wi Fi transmission from the camera to the drone which gives a FPV distance of around 90 yards, better ones have 5.8Mhz FPV transmission giving much longer distance even from "Toy Grade" units.

Control range is a big thing for DJI owners who brag that they can control their drone from kilometers away, well in most countries thats just out and out illegal (Drone must be in sight with the bare eye) and even at 100 meters one struggles to see a drone and at 200 meters it is barley a speck if you can see it at all. Of course the legal / insurance aspect needs to be taken into consideration, I know that mine and many other insurance polices don't cover you flying a drone from your boat unless you pay a extra premium, so if you hit someone or something you could be in a whole lot of legal jeopardy and even with insurance if your doing something illegal (like flying out of sight range) then the insurance company will ditch you fast, insurance companies are not known for their love of paying out even when you are being a good law abiding citizen.

If you have any interest (and I would highly recommend it to anyone) in buying a drone to get some awesome pics you just can't get from ground level, then do some research, there are any number of channels that review drones, compare the features and the quality, as I said before I can't see the space or value in having a big expensive drone on the boat, drone electronics are just not built to operate in marine conditions, hence I would rather bugger up a $150 drone than a $1500 or $2000 dollar investment
User avatar
paula_ke
Chief Steward
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 1:16 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
Location: Earth

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by paula_ke »

SailboatMike, I mostly agree. Several things come to mind. First, the DJI Mavic Pro is not a big drone, in fact, it folds down to something smaller then a bread box. I hauled the drone, controller and my cell phone as my connection device on the back of my DRZ400 dual sport bike on a 9 day, 2000 mile self support trip around Montana (BOM) (see linkL https://youtu.be/6bf0ashVCDQ). Also, it is not just range but air time. With 27 minutes I easily get 20 minutes of usable airtime (need some for take off and landing). Regarding visual line of sight. DJI has put very bright LED's on their drones so you may not see the drone but you will see the lights at a good distance. Finally, the automatic modes available on the DJI or after market software is truly amazing and makes flying the drone and getting good video or snap shots much easier. Remember that there are two parts to drone flying. 1. flying the drone. 2 being a remote photographer!

Captain Paula of the good ship AirWave

:macm:
User avatar
sailboatmike
Admiral
Posts: 1597
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:17 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Australia

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by sailboatmike »

paula_ke wrote:SailboatMike, I mostly agree. Several things come to mind. First, the DJI Mavic Pro is not a big drone, in fact, it folds down to something smaller then a bread box. I hauled the drone, controller and my cell phone as my connection device on the back of my DRZ400 dual sport bike on a 9 day, 2000 mile self support trip around Montana (BOM) (see linkL https://youtu.be/6bf0ashVCDQ). Also, it is not just range but air time. With 27 minutes I easily get 20 minutes of usable airtime (need some for take off and landing). Regarding visual line of sight. DJI has put very bright LED's on their drones so you may not see the drone but you will see the lights at a good distance. Finally, the automatic modes available on the DJI or after market software is truly amazing and makes flying the drone and getting good video or snap shots much easier. Remember that there are two parts to drone flying. 1. flying the drone. 2 being a remote photographer!

Captain Paula of the good ship AirWave

:macm:
Paula; many of the DJI clones are now offering around 20 minutes air time, my CG035 will fly with a DJI phantom with no issues, it has 5.8ghz FPV and the new ones have optical positioning AND dual GPS, the early CG035's were a bit of a gamble so they got a bad reputation but I guess thats what happens when you sell a drone with all the features of a DJI for $200 instead of $2000, mine was one of the last of the first series and it does everything a Phantom 3 does, given the camera isn't quiet as good, but its good enough for 99% of stuff one does. I'm just saying that if you want to give it a go, don't waste $1500 on a DJI, get a good quality drone that costs 1/4 of the price of the DJI that will do all the same things
User avatar
Sumner
Admiral
Posts: 2375
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 3:20 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26S
Location: SE Utah
Contact:

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by Sumner »

sailboatmike wrote:GPS drones are easy, any mug (even me) can fly one because they do as they are told and stop when you take your hands off the sticks and hover at the same height.

I just bought a height hold Optical positioning selfie drone for messing about on the boat, a bit like a DJI spark but 1/12 of the price ($50US). These things are great to play with and as cheap as chips, don't think I would be taking a $2000 drone on the boat with me and they are way big, this one folds down to around 9 inches by 5 inches

https://www.tomtop.com/p-rm9081-3.html
Thanks, just ordered one. Will be my first.

Image

.... There are hundreds of Anasazi ruin sites by us and a lot of times I wonder what is under the cliff edge where I'm standing. Hoping now I might be able to see :) . I liked the review ...

https://youtu.be/qPCsXA2WBz4

... just hope at my age it doesn't take too long to learn how to fly it. I never had much luck with model planes :(

Sumner

============================
1300 miles to the Bahamas and back -- 2015

The MacGregor 26-S

The Endeavour 37

Trips to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links
whgoffrn
Captain
Posts: 503
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 9:55 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by whgoffrn »

You can find dji 3 drones for cheap on Craigslist...i paid 125 for my dji standard and sold it for the same once I realized I like flying .... and I found an attachment I use for shark fishing

https://www.facebook.com/whgoffrn/video ... 153993995/

Or terrorizing my neighbors

https://www.facebook.com/whgoffrn/video ... 495414028/

I stepped up to a dji 3 advanced and paid $450 basically so I can egg people from 2 miles away but it's really meant for fishing lol
User avatar
sailboatmike
Admiral
Posts: 1597
Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:17 pm
Sailboat: MacGregor 26X
Location: Australia

Re: Ready for spring and summer

Post by sailboatmike »

Sumner wrote: ... just hope at my age it doesn't take too long to learn how to fly it. I never had much luck with model planes :(
Because of the optical position hold and height hold they are pretty easy to fly, you can just leave them hover on their own and they just sit there, there are some excellent videos on YouTube on learning to fly drones, I never had much luck with RC planes either, but drones are a piece of cake in comparison, imagine having a RC plane that you didnt have to worry about nose diving into the ground or that it was flying too far away, well thats a half decent drone
Post Reply