On taking it back or not. It's a long shot posting this here on a Friday night But looking for feedback.

Reasons I bought.

- building 2 custom houses and thought it would be "neat" to have overhead progress photos for the homeowners and my social media/website
- we have a small real estate company and photos of listings may be cool
- may just be neat to have

My hesitation. It was $1300. If I crash it that's it right?

Do I try and find one that's not as nice that uses a go pro that way the camera will probably survive if it crashes.

I bought the phantom 3 professional.

Thoughts? Ideas?

10/9/2015 11:13:06 PM

could construct a temporary tower and mount a webcam on top for streaming progress that buyers can watch

10/9/2015 11:14:17 PM

don't start with a phantom 3 pro, christ

10/9/2015 11:17:12 PM

Suggestion?

10/9/2015 11:27:28 PM

super cheap option to play with first:
http://www.amazon.com/Syma-Bundle-Channel-Explorers-battery/dp/B00VMU93UU/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1444448205&sr=1-2&keywords=Syma+X5C

10/9/2015 11:39:35 PM

Bomb some Moozlimz (Maazlims?) with it... even if you crash it, at least you will be a public hero!!!11

10/9/2015 11:45:55 PM

^*soapbox alert*

10/10/2015 1:21:14 AM

How much flight time can you get from that "beginner" quad? I didn't see that spec listed on the amazon page. I'm interested in getting one, but I certainly don't want to spend 1300 on one. The only problem with buying cheap though, is if you get the cheap one and get good with it quickly, then you're out $70 when you go to buy one more advanced.

10/10/2015 9:42:45 AM

I remember when the JC Penny Christmas catalog would come out every year and they had RC planes that would take pictures for around $130. This was in like 1998. I bet those pictures sucked.

10/10/2015 11:54:34 AM

Quote :

"The only problem with buying cheap though, is if you get the cheap one and get good with it quickly, then you're out $70 when you go to buy one more advanced."

A slightly smaller problem than buying an expensive one and crashing it because you suck.

10/10/2015 12:17:16 PM

The bigger problem is that you are talking about using it for commercial purposes.

Doing this is a huge no-no, you need to be FAA certified and have permission for use. http://dronelaw.net/

And before you think "oh they'll never know, I'm just a one-man shop", they are cracking down on this stuff and if you post the videos to your business its going to be a matter of time before you get a phone call.

10/10/2015 1:06:30 PM

I wouldn't worry about crashing a Phantom 3, they pretty much fly themselves

10/10/2015 1:31:46 PM

Just read about that. Not sure I want to get in to FAA stuff

10/10/2015 1:52:12 PM

You will crash your first few times out. If you've never flown one before get a cheapo one with a bunch of extra batteries and some simple spare parts like extra blades.

The quad/multicopter forums are full of stories about people who go out and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on these things, then promptly crash them because they have no idea how to fly them or make corrections when things go wrong.

Not to mention, most of the cheapo ones are built to crash pretty often, they are lightweight and won't snap in half when they drop out of the sky.

10/10/2015 2:48:08 PM

I'm kinda sure that you can pay someone else to come fly their quad around your building to take pictures, I think that's a thing.

10/10/2015 4:02:20 PM

I actually work with quad/hex/octa copters at work somewhat. We use them to test control algorithms so there is a quite a bit of crashing involved (we have a special room lined with pillows and nets to prevent any serious damage). I'm not an expert by any means but these things have a pretty big learning curve if you have never flown them before. You WILL crash ALOT for a while so you definitely want to learn to fly on small/cheap/easy to repair ones. The larger ones are easier to fly but if you crash one you can seriously hurt someone and lose a lot of money.

I'd recommend this one: http://www.amazon.com/Walkera-Ladybird-Quadcopter-Drone-Transmitter/dp/B00CLG3WRY

This is the one we give the interns to practice with here. Made of lightweight plastic and composites so it is durable and easy to repair. Battery only lasts about 5 mins but if you charge up a lot of them you can get some good time out of it. If you already bought that nice expensive one you may be able to use the transmitter from it on any additional ones you get.

10/10/2015 4:38:38 PM

Quote :

"The only problem with buying cheap though, is if you get the cheap one and get good with it quickly, then you're out $70 when you go to buy one more advanced."

If $70 is an amount of cash that you're worried about, I feel like rc quadcopters is probably not a good choice of hobbies for you

I recommended that one because IMO it's cheap enough to use for a little while to play with then give away or dick around with

10/10/2015 5:54:43 PM

What's the tl;dr version of that link? It would be against the law to fly shit in my front yard?

10/10/2015 6:00:25 PM

My friend had a DJI Phantom 3. Really easy to fly, automatically comes back home when it loses signal (tested this out first hand), great pictures, pretty much everything you need in a drone.

Dont waste your time on a "beginner" drone. You literally have to be an idiot to crash the DJI Phantom 3. Don't be an idiot, know your limits and you'll be fine. The thing literally flies itself.

Keep what you have. It's $1300 worth of fun and you can fly all over the place and see what's going on in your neighborhood.

[Edited on October 11, 2015 at 11:11 AM. Reason : ]

10/11/2015 11:07:05 AM

^^you can fly for fun but if you are doing it for commercial reasons you have to have FAA license or some crap

10/11/2015 11:19:39 AM

10/14/2015 9:36:10 AM

Forgot about this thread. Ended up getting a phantom 3 advanced. One of the best purchases I've made

11/30/2015 7:46:01 PM

So u selling the Phantom Pro 3 or not?

11/30/2015 7:55:02 PM

I took it back and picked up the advanced

12/19/2015 11:53:09 PM