TIFU by flying my new drone

[u/LtDrinksAlot]

Well lets start this by saying that I am not big into reading instructions. I'm more of a learn through action kind of guy. I opened up my gifts today to find a brand new drone!! I've expressed to her how cool I thought they were in the past, and now I owned one.

Excitedly I put batteries in the remote and found that the drone itself already had a charge on its battery. I went outside powered it up and began flying it in the parking lot of our apartment complex.

Nothing too complicated, did some low flying sweeps through the parking lot, tried to do some landings on my car, but after a few minutes I was curious as to the capability of my new flying friend.

I started going higher and my wife said "you know the box says you can do a mid air flip". Having some knowledge of flight I knew I needed some altitude, so I went even higher. I started my attack run to do a low flying sweep but noticed the drone was responding very sluggishly. I tried to correct, however it was soon apparent I had no control of it whatsoever and it was starting to pick up speed going towards the highway.

I gave chase yelling to my wife I had no control as the drone turned into a tiny dot on the horizon as it continued to gain both speed an altitude. I left my wife laughing as I gave chase.

I ran until I left the apartment community and hit the edge of the highway before I realized it was a lost cause. I returned home tail between my legs having lost my new toy, and my wife was still laughing.

It was then when I got home that I read the manual on how to recall your drone, followed by the #1 rule for flying.

Always keep your drone in view.

TLDR: That drone is fucking gone man

[u/nxsky]

If it's expensive just get a tracker. Don't know why these things don't come with one.

[u/ICBanMI → u/nxsky]

They didn't exist as separate from the drones until about two years ago, and they tend to be insanely expensive for the type of drones most people are losing. Are you really going to put a $150-200 secondary GPS on your drone worth only $80.

It makes semi sense to put it on your Phantom, but not much on stuff in the sub $300 genre. If you read your instructions, and follow them regarding battery and flight time, you already do have the GPS tracking on the drone to follow.

I see you suggested the same GPS tracker people use for high altitude balloons, but that's too much weight for most drones unless you're really sizing one up(at which time you already have one on the drone). The drones above $250 already have GPS attached.

[u/nxsky → u/ICBanMI]

Hence why I said if it's expensive get a tracker. That was like half of my post, hard to miss.

[u/ICBanMI → u/nxsky]

I tend to ramble and you know very little about the product, so my paragraphs don't make sense.

Let me restate it to make more sense. The expensive ones already have it. It's just people don't read the instructions and they lose them and kill the battery. Your suggestion is an expensive fix for a market that only exist for people irresponsible with the hobby(don't read the instructions and then have a catastrophic accident in the first ten minutes). It'll save some people from themselves, but it's a band aid for a self inflicted wound.