I have been coming to the forum for about one year, educating myself and reading over posts. I am finally joining the forum and look forward to getting to know some of you all. I have a lot to learn, I know.

After one year of research and questioning the purchase of the inspire 1, I finally took the plunge this afternoon and made the purchase.
One thing that I thought was amazing is that I drove almost 3 hours to pick up the inspire 1 and was greeted with open arms from the dealer. It was almost to good to be true!

I asked a ton of questions, and while there the owner of the company came out and asked if I would like to fly one before the purchase? I said no at first because I didn't want to be responsible if I crashed it or anything went wrong. He made note that it was no big deal and to take the inspire 1 for a test flight. I did, and I was amazed and sold right then. I didn't even know that a dealer would let you take one out for a flight. It was exactly what I was hoping for. I just flew it around their back area for a short run.
I have read a ton of horror stories of incidents with the inspire 1 but I'm hoping that a majority are pilot errors and then of course there are the legitimate issues that are ongoing with software updates which can affect flights. It seems that there is still a learning curve.

Anyone have any good pointers that could direct me in the right direction? Should I even do a firmware update or wait? Believe it or not, I haven't even taken it out of the shipment box. I plan to do this tomorrow.

if you don't update and you have an "ACCIDENT" - I hope not - you'll be running into warranty issues.

The vast majority do the updates as soon as it comes out, including myself.
While some are more adventurous and go fly and share experiences, others are more cautious and wait for the feedback we get in the forum.

Anyhow, update, get informed and have fun.

@ Lionlens, I appreciate the feed back. As mentioned I haven't even taken the inspire 1 out of the box yet. Unlike most of you I purchased the inspire to travel our land to check live stock. As it could be much easier
to see from above and get a head count than having to round everyone up. It took a year for me to move forward to purchase due to the inspire 1 being new and hearing all the good and bad with the updated
firmware.

I purchased the video that is in the photo of my very first posting to help give me a little head start. I have flown r/c airplanes over the past 30 years but never something like this. Much more different and more
difficult in certain ways. I've actually read a ton of your posting that you have made too. I appreciate any feedback you want to give.

One note to some of the members, you might want to think about  joining AMA. It will cover over 2.5 million and other in incidents in the event of an incident to life or property. When I do start to fly I plan to stay within 20-30 feet from view until I truly feel I have the hang of things. I still can't believe the dealer allowed me to fly their inspire 1. But to my surprise it was much easier to handle than I thought. But in no way do
I think I'm ready to fly.

ibdronin Posted at 2015-9-9 14:45
@ Lionlens, I appreciate the feed back. As mentioned I haven't even taken the inspire 1 out of the b ...

hey, nice words there.
Being cautious as you are is something difficult to find.
Do a search on YouTube and you'll see all kinds of insane piloting out there.
AMA it's for sure an option if you're geographically located to do so.  

But I have to say, this is like having a motorcycle.
One day you will go down, no matter what.
So the purpose of having safety standards is to minimise any damage to property and isolate any risk to people.

Now get out there and go fly.
The Inspire is solid hardware.
Software is growing.
It's eating into our patience - and pockets - but I want to believe we'll get there

Hey Paul - I plan to take her out of the box this afternoon when I get home. I can't wait! I just hate thinking about doing an update with the firmware if everyone is having incidents. Does it force you to
update and ground the aircraft? Or can you skip over this and update firmware on your own time? And thanks for the luck I might need it. I appreciate the comment and have a good one until then.

Linolens Posted at 2015-9-9 07:37
if you don't update and you have an "ACCIDENT" - I hope not - you'll be running into warranty issues ...

I dont know about Macau. But do you think in EU or USA its allowed to sell a not safe product so you are FORCED to do an update to be able to claim warranty under consumer legislation?

If so please tell me which laws you are refering to as I am very interested.

I think its secure to update to 1.4.00.10 but in future I would be very careful of the DJI limits n restrictions dance not that you end up in a 500m radius at forced 50m alt with 10 speed   After seeing how they raped ground station I am really worried about in what direction they go.

make sure you never move your bird when you first turn it on and the camera is spinning, its preforming a self test and resetting sensor position.  moving it during this time screws it up and is what causes a lot of beginners crash/fly away problems.  DJIs documentation isnt very clear and doesnt outline this unless theyve updated it since i read it.  proper imu, compass and remote control calibration is essential, learn to use atti mode and switch to it at the first sign of erratic flight if you ever experience it, as most problems are related to gps mode auto flight trying to fly with conflicting info resulting in erratic behavior and crashing.  Theres lots of bad/irrelevant info out there as well, so read lots and dont believe it all.  compass calibration before every flight is a complete waste of time and if you do it improperly it can cause you issues so once you get a good calibration stick with it unless you update firmware or notice the values are out of wack.

be very wary of the auto flight modes, they require close attention and have cause many crashes from people not observing surrounding/settings as it cannot detect or avoid obstacles and will fly right into anything in its path.  

oh, and one more pro tip.  they claim its fixed in the new firmware but id be wary none the less.  Never fly a battery that has self discharged without fully charging it first, as it can cause your battery to go from 80% charge to 5% or less instantly resulting in a crash.  i set the self discharge time to 10 days to reduce the likelihood of this issue occurring.  People will say never fly on a less than fully charged battery but this isnt an issue if youve flown it from a full charge to 80% or whatever and then use it again later, i do this all the time.  the only way a battery thats not fully charged will cause you a problem is if the reason its not fully charged is because it entered self discharge mode.  

I think the biggest thing that has helped me, and a lot of other pilots who have not crashed their craft, is maintaining physical line of sight.  Keeping your eyes on the craft is dearly important at all times as orientation and direction can get quite backwards on the quad-rotor.  Seeing the perspective of the craft while its in the air is super important to know your direction and speed and of course, surroundings.  Just speculating here but a lot of people you see crashing are probably due to them watching the screen far too much and not the craft enough.  Get very, very comfortable before taking your eyes off the craft.  It does weird things sometimes, loses GPS or catches a big draft, and you need to be quick to react.  I guess that also goes to say fly in less populated areas.  When people see you flying they immediately want to come over and start asking questions, looking at your screen, and just enjoy the experience.  Nothing wrong with all that in the end, just need to be careful not to get distracted by it!

Brad

Oh, and welcome This community has a lot of veterans who can help you along the way, don't be afraid to ask!

Brad

precisionair Posted at 2015-9-9 13:26
I think the biggest thing that has helped me, and a lot of other pilots who have not crashed their c ...

good point, dont try to fly FPV out of sight by using the screen, there is a slight video delay and objects are closer than they appear.

WOW! All I can say is thank you to everyone for being kind enough to take time out in giving me some pointers. I read every single post.

So from what I am hearing thus far is not to focus 100% on the iPad and more on the inspire 1? Lucky for me I'll be flying on our land which is more than I wished I even owned. You would go bowlegged and crossed eyed walking across our land and couldn't do it in a days walk if you tried.

As mentioned I purchased the inspire to check livestock and get a head count without having to spend the entire afternoon searching for everyone. We also have bears in this area and have one
running loose on the land. I hope I can catch an image of him and post it.

I wanted to ask a question and sure I will have more. When I am using the iPad it doesn't burn up my bandwidth does it? I'm just now walking in the door and plan to open her up tonight. Should I start
charging the batteries tonight or wait the day of flying?

Thank so much to all you and I can't express how appreciated I am for all of the comments. It is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the force... Jedi (No not the dark side)  You will enjoy your new aircraft just take your time and get familiar with everything. Don't be afraid of it....  you will like the experience! Hope to see your first video posted soon.

Rich

Good to see you here! Open her up and enjoy!

Very funny Paul!

Thanks again guys! I took a look at the SPC4500s on their web site, now that's a nice charging station. I'll put that on my Christmas list. Right now I am looking for a more durable inspire 1 case that is rugged. Anyone here have something in mind and would recommend?

I did purchase the upgraded additional battery but plan to purchase a few more. Everybody here seems like one big happy family and that's truly nice to see! My wife is an actual retired CNC machinist and we have been thinking of what mods we could add to the inspire 1. One thing that I would love to own is a thermal camera setup for night. But trust me we all have a better chance at winning the lottery tomorrow than for me to start flying at night. I haven't even gotten her up in the air. I plan to do this on Saturday or Sunday. We have some amazing weather coming up.

I am truly going over everything and reading over as if I am about to take flight in a 70 million dollar jet. This has to be the most expensive rc that I have ever flown and owned for that matter.