81-year old Navy pilot flies an Avata

Dangerly · Jul 7, 2023

He used to land planes on an aircraft carrier, and he really misses flying. So I slapped Integra goggles on him, showed him how to use a Motion Controller 2 with the Avata, and with one battery worth of training, he got the hang of it. By the second battery, he stopped trying to use his feet to control the yaw through non-existent foot pedals (instincts die hard), and by the third battery he wanted to fly under the bent arm of a backhoe parked on his property and around trees. The smile and joy on his face would have been well worth the hassle of a crash but he flew without crashing.

I gave up trying to teach him how to use a standard RC as that was too much of a stretch. But the MC bridged that gap. He was blown away by the tech. This was about as much fun as I've ever had with a drone and I wasn't even flying!

mavic3usa · Jul 7, 2023

Agreed, MC2 is the actually quite nice!

GFields · Jul 7, 2023

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this wonderful story

Escape_Velocity_Coach · Jul 8, 2023

Love this! Highlights the value of tech like the motion controller and its ability to introduce folks to FPV. I get it a lot of purists still “poo poo” the idea of piloting with a MC but I’m sure the rate of entry and eventual conversion to Manual / Acro with RC has increased due to this tool.

Good stuff man

RockyMtns · Jul 8, 2023

Veterans deserve this, and infinitely more. The rest of us (including myself) fall short.

KurtpH · Jul 9, 2023

11 years ago when my pilot-trained FIL was near the end of his 96 years, I had a flying program on my laptop. It wasn’t as much fun by far, but he enjoyed it some. It wasn’t able to be FPV at the time. This is a great gift to be able to share with the elderly, as long as they don’t have a terrible tremor.

Quiet Place · Jul 9, 2023

As an 81 year old ex-pilot who logged over 13,000 hours in manned aircraft, (heart condition grounded me) my MA2 drone gets me back in the skies. And I especially love seeing Alex Markov's videos with his Avata. I'd have one in a heartbeat but finances will not allow that. Great story and I guarantee you made your friend happier than you can imagine.

Dronecation · Jul 19, 2023

Nice share in both senses of the term. Kudos!

Dangerly · Jul 21, 2023

I finally got a chance to put together a little video of us flying together. Enjoy!

A few things I noted about this flight:

We got a low battery RTH, and since I wasn't flying but rather observing, I decided to see how well the Avata could do 100% on autopilot RTH. I usually override RTH and land by myself so this was my first 100% RTH. It was pretty close to the take off point. A bit worried at one point it would clip the bush, but it didn't.
Didn't realize the RTH altitude was set > 400', so I might fix that. Got me thinking... I probably set it > 400' to be extra safe, but then it's over 400'. Hmmm....
No problems seeing the Avata by VLOS at 670' against a clear sky.
"I had a stick like this. You do this [press the video button by mistake] -- you drop the bomb."