An article that many new - or prospective - pilots may want to read and ponder.
http://www.droneflyers.com/2016/ ... -on-drone-flyaways/

Nice read! Thanks for sharing!

Nice read! Thanks for sharing!

One of your articles many months ago made reference to drones being "disposable." I've had many conversations with friends and other flyers. A few seem to understand that statement - most do not.

Scheduled, preventive maintenance is essentially nonexistent in the UAV market. No one seems to know what a reasonable MTBF is for the electric motors (on *any* device!). What's to inspect if you do it on your own? How do you determine that a motor needs replacing just from general use?

With the continuing (not just by DJI, but by pretty much all the manufacturers) process of consolidating - no more separate ESCs for example) and creating five modules on the same motherboard (just another example). The non-techie (i.e., the average consumer) has no way to test the board, identify which module/part failed and make the replacement.

So - replace your motors every 500 hours (pick a reasonable number)? How do you test the ESCs - particularly once they're built-in?

I have three quads with cameras. Two of them don't have nearly as good a camera as my Phantom. If I live long enough and fly them long enough, eventually they'll all die! Maybe if I get lucky, the "cost per flight" will be a really low number when they bite the dust.

Last but not least, I thought your article was well-thought out, despite the comments I saw at the end accusing you of being a DJI-lover - ignoring the more-or-less obvious fact that the Phantom is essentially ubiquitous!

I quit lurking on the 3DR site - how are they doing?

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

thanks for posting

Good article, should be required reading before purchasing a drone.

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-6 23:57
One of your articles many months ago made reference to drones being "disposable." I've had many conv ...

The modern brushless motors are a quandary, there is nothing in them to wear out other than the bearings, but none that I have looked at allow you to access the bearings to check them or replace them. If they are good quality sealed ball bearings then they will have a very long life, but there should be a method to oil them periodically.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-6 19:02
The modern brushless motors are a quandary, there is nothing in them to wear out other than the be ...

The #2 man at my local hobby shop has some incredible experience in both the electronics industry and in RC models. I think he essentially agrees with your outlook about the motors. The major culprit seems to be the ESCs - eventually they somehow seem to fail. If they remained an "external" component instead of simply being a circuit on a board, they could be more-or-less monitored.

Now that the technology has started incorporating them onto circuit boards containing numerous other circuits/functions, it's a much higher order of complexity. A car owner *could* inspect his/her car the same way you inspect a plane on a regular basis. Of course, you'd better not be in too much of a rush to get to the local convenience store for beer!

The skills required to perform anything like routine maintenance on a quadcopter is beyond the ability of most people.

My wife complained yesterday that we have too much "stuff" for the size of our house. She pointed to the shelves where I have quads, chargers, spare parts, wings, fuselages, etc. "You need a separate room just to handle all your flying stuff," she said. I promised her that eventually one will die/crash and then another one will meet the same fate and, ultimately, I'll have only one. I'll do my best to keep that one going. Unless they get more dependable, there's less likelihood that at my age (71) I'll buy too many more at $2,000 and up. (That's about what I have invested in my Phantom. The bird, four batteries, two tablets......)

Five years ago only the Heli guys could do what we can do - and it was much harder to learn. Where are we going to be another five years from now?

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2016-2-6 20:57
One of your articles many months ago made reference to drones being "disposable." I've had many conv ...

3DR seems gone. I think the investors (Qualcomm) sucked them up - they fired much of the development team and closed the factory in Mexico, etc.
They are going "closed source" so the original community is rebelling.
A mess....

I still believe in the disposable (or sell for parts eventually) idea in that a pilot should be comfortable with a certain cost per minute of flight and anything above that is gravy.

This is even more true at the lower price points we now see. You could fly a $500 standard ($650 with a 2nd battery) for 100 flights and it would be $6.50 per flight minus the $350 you could get for it used or for the parts. That's cheaper than the gas and car wear you probably used to drive to the field.

The motors, IMHO, outlast the general run of other parts so replacing them doesn't become a concern. I'm basing this on others with Phantoms who claim 100's of flights since I only have perhaps 75 flights on my (9 month old) P3.

For those who might have a more expensive model like the Pro or Inspire I'm sure DJI or some of the 3rd parties would replace the motors as a paid repair. As with other aircraft, someone who was really into it would probably do it at a certain number of hours.

My main thrust with the article was to try and relate how those of us from a couple years back look at it. I was used to crashes every time I flew back in 2012/2013. The Phantom was honestly the first machine I ever got that actually survived long enough to be able to think about longevity. Oh, that P1 is still working - I can't kill it.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2016-2-8 05:49
3DR seems gone. I think the investors (Qualcomm) sucked them up - they fired much of the developme ...

If the Phantom buyers get a bit crazy about lack of service, then I imagine the 3DR owners will be going ballistic. They have been screwed around every which way.

I enjoyed your article, pity the idiots who tag you as being a DJI representative had their brain cells out on loan....

Sounded a little like a car salesman, You could manipulate the numbers all you like but I expect to get more than 8 bucks a flight. I do agree user error 99.9% of the time . It's a great product

szon3 Posted at 2016-4-7 08:02
Sounded a little like a car salesman, You could manipulate the numbers all you like but I expect to  ...

Car sales folks like to say "there is an arse for every seat".

When it comes to drones it works this way. A certain percentage of the population would gladly pay $10 or even $20 a flight for a quality flying camera.
But MORE of the population would pay $5 per flight for a flying camera.

That's why the Standard Phantom is the largest seller...and why Apple just came out with a phone that starts at $399. These prices bring in the people who would pay the $5, but not the $10.

droneflyers.com Posted at 2016-4-8 19:37
Car sales folks like to say "there is an arse for every seat".

When it comes to drones it works t ...

Or one can try the Clark Howard approach. If you're happy with *some* technology, but not necessarily today's technology, wait till next year. Then buy this year's iPhone at a greatly reduced price.

I have a Blade Chroma, P3Pro and an old QX3 and quite a few extra batteries. I paid full price for both my Chroma and P3Pro. Thought about selling all three of them and buying a Mavic Pro. The used market for my other stuff - it's definitely a buyer's market! I would essentially be giving them away if I sold them for what people are willing to pay.

Such is life and such is the way of trying to unload "old" technology! LOL

Art - N4PJ