Hello from northern Virginia

LoudThunder · Sep 25, 2022

boxxer13 said:
Anyone know any quicks ways to get over that fear?

Yeah, keep doing it, each time your drone returns, the fear will subside a bit.

Wait until you start practicing the RTH functions and you see your drone zoom up in the air and you wonder if it's decided to fly away. When you get over that, test the RTH by turning off your controller, that will scare you as you no longer have any control and you hope that the firmware is up to the task of bring your baby home... you still need to practice the Find My Drone and Sound the Alarm... You need to know how to do this because in a crisis, the adrenaline does horrible things to your physique.

I always try to prepare for the worse so that the correct procedure kicks in.

My first tree "landing" occurred about 300' away. when it hit, I started running to retrieve it. As it turned out, it hit the branches, and fell to the ground, on it's back and while I was searching the trees for it, a truck came along the dirt road. I found it a while later, on it's back, crushed by the truck that rolled over it. I don't blame the truck driver, the Mini 2 color was very near the color of the dirt road and the driver was probably wondering what I'm boing beating the bushes...

If I had practiced the Find My Drone with sound and light, I might have found it before the truck came along... Luckily, I had Care Refresh.

BobaFut · Sep 26, 2022

Hello from Old Town Alexandria (and from a fellow 107 passee-waiting-on-card)! I feel your pain on the DC FRZ, particularly since the western reaches of Fairfax County are a bit further for me. South of the FRZ, there are some potentially great places, but sooooo much of the area along the river is federal wildlife sanctuaries or VA state parks (not to mention Fort Belvoir and Quantico), where drones are a no-go. NoVa parks are good, and the parks along Bull Run are pretty great. There are also some parks along the river up near Leesburg where you can fly.

My next excursion will probably be to do some flying down in Richmond. I also regularly travel through WV to my in-laws in Charleston...the Canaan Valley is only about 3 hours away and is an absolute dream. You can fly in WV state parks, you just have to email them to ask for permission first.