Drone Times

Foldable Sexy Drone - Global Drone Union

As Brexit nears and Trump rears, it's heartening to think there is room left in the world for catastrophe of the epic proportions that can be felt as keenly and heartfelt as a kitten cuddling a duckling in a field of feathers made from its slaughtered parents. I crashed my drone.
It was my third flight, I was just trying to (the opening words of the damned) connect my GoPro with my iPad Mini or Samsung's S6 so I can get the First Point of View (FPV). My intention was to hover the drone 3 to 4 metres from the ground, perhaps circling it around me if I could, then place the drone back down. Sounds pretty simple? Fly it far away? No sir. Fly it 20 metres? No sir. Fly it 20 metres diagonally into a building without me touching the controls? Well...

About the ProDrone/Global Drone Union

First off there are 3 versions of the drone – Standard that comes with a 1080p camera, the GoPro version with a gimbal that is in the Advanced Model which also has Follow Me Functionality, and finally the Professional with a built in 4k camera and Follow Me. I set my sights on the Advanced as I thought GoPro will always be improving their cameras, Hero 5 was about to be released etc.

I’ve been talking with this company for over a year as they were the first company to release a foldable drone. Why this hadn’t occurred to any other companies before I had no idea – you had all this portability but had to carry it around in a case the size of small television. ProDrone saw it was coming, built this fantastic foldable drone, then got locked in naming disputes which put back the release about 6 to 9 months, and I assume they lost as they had to change it to Global Drone Union. But it ticks all the boxes for me: robust; powerful; 29 minutes flying time; foldable; compatible with GoPro. A full on write-up of the drone will follow soon once I get it all fixed up!
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Top Tips

• Fly in open space - no bigger than that. See hat field? Bigger than that field. I fly in a cricket pitch which is massive, and I still feel nervous. Having personal experience from being a know-nothing drone user to..ermm...a know-nothing but have flown a little user, no field is big enough. I have asked a few friends who have also had drones, who have also had crashes, and their look of pure terror and disappointment has been equally palpable. Get a big field.
• Understand the drone i.e. what the hell pitch, yaw and roll will actually do to the craft. We're so use to safety features being built in that we think everything will be all right and we'll avoid trees, walls, dogs, pylons etc. See point 1.
• Photography - if you're using it for photography, you need more than "that's a great perspective" photo. If you're as serious about photography as about cameras, you know that you're trying to tell a story rather than just capture an amazing image. If you're using it for film making, then use it as a tool to tell part of the story rather than an addition just to show you have forked out some cash on a flying device
• Have I mentioned flying in open space...?? If I mentioned it a 100 more times, it still wouldn't capture the sheer bereavement I have suffered. Fortunately, I have been able to fix most of it, and with the help of those wonderful people at ProDrone, I'll get the rest of it back up and running and write another update soon!

Here's a pic when I did eventually get my drone working although it was created by not exactly ideal means...which I'll get to in my next write up!