What's the absolute worst drone you've ever flown?😖

[Daniel NZDF]

What's the worst drone you've ever flown? For me, it has to be an old Hubsan drone (x4 Pro). Just this evening I tried to take it on a flight, and it was a nightmare! As soon as I get to 5 meters height in the air, it randomly loses connection and returns home. It doesn't do that when flying away from you, only up. Also, more randomly, the props fly off in flight (has happened maybe 10 times now), sending the drone crashing to the ground. Also, when flown in GPS mode it resists the controls and as soon as there is a gust of wind, it goes into an imbalance. The only positive thing is that it's very fast in ATTI mode, but that's of little use because you simply don't get a long enough flight out of it before something goes dramatically wrong. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that randomly the motors stop midair, causing it to, well, of course, plummet to its death. (It's a wee bit patched up now- had maybe 20 crashes) That means 20 lives.......Was actually designed to be "competition" for the Phantom 2. Makes me realize how good DJI is! What bad drones have you guys had over the years, and what really good ones? (Currently I'm eying a Air 2)

 

[AeroJ]

For me it was my Yuneec Hexacopter, the original Typhoon H. Despite being one of the nicest control surfaces to work with, and the machine itself being astonishingly stable in high wind, and its 'Yuneec' 360 degree gimbal (as yet unmatched by anyone including DJI, whose gimbals can't quite manage an infinite 360 yet !), and never once flying away, it did do some highly unhelpful stuff in the last year of its life - random 20 ft drops, refusing to obey down / land commands, horrible control characteristics and endless fast drifting whenever GPS position lock failed, which was briefly every time you did a new control input, and what proved to be its ultimate downfall for me - the odd flickering that used to appear in filmed footage, which used to ruin what would have been otherwise perfect and very unique and interesting types of shots that only its rolling gimbal could give.

Lastly, there was a fault in their implementation of the video transmission such that in EU / UK mode there was a 70% chance that when you commanded landing gear up you would lose the video feed altogether, which wouldn't return until we recycled power. It's a shame - it truly was a 'unique' style of drone, and rather one of a kind. I'm glad I had the 4 years with one I did, but pleased to say goodbye to all its weird foibles and failings !

Before that I had a self-build TBS Discovery with a DJI Naza 2 in it. That flew like a dream until one day I had the classic DJI IMU error in flight, and it ploughed itself into the ground and ripped itself into lots of pieces I didn't have the enthusiasm to rebuild !

Lastly, I should mention the hilarious toy grade helicopter that first lured me into the hobby. That largely did its own thing the second it left the ground, and user control was only ever temporary and approximate ! I spent more time getting it out of trees and bushes than it did airborne ! But it was enough to show me what remote flight could be if it only bloody worked !!