Reading the advice being given on the forums, the batteries for these things take a little while to bed in and you're supposed to only go down to 50% charge on the first few flights, rather than deplete them completely. I'm just about on that threshold now with the 2 that I have at the moment, so the next flights will be longer. But yesterday, I still managed to get about 30 mins in the air with the 2 batteries I have. Which was good because I had my new Natural Density filters from Polar Pro with me to test out.
I'm not an expert, but from what I have read, the ND filters block equal amounts of all light wavelengths, effectively acting as a pair of shades on the camera. This is good supposedly because it allows you to shoot in manual mode with the camera and set the shutter speed lower which is supposed to give better motion blur in the footage you capture. So I took my wife with me over the park yesterday; her intentions were simply to get a bit of sun, and in no way show any interest in what I am doing with the quad. I'm ok with that!
We found a nice spot and I set everything up, got the bird in the air and just carried on doing what I have been doing recently. Practising moves, trying to improve my flying capabilities and hopefully ending up with some good aerial footage to put together in a short video for posterity. I enjoy working with Final Cut Pro and the raw footage almost as much as I enjoy actually flying the bird, and the more you play with it the better you get at both.
So the filters are on and the bird - I'm calling it CargoBob from now on - went up in the air and I was having a great time. It's amazing though, even in a big park like Blackheath, just how quickly you can get in to a spot of bother with power lines, kites flying, tall trees etc. CargoBob is such a capable little quadcopter, and you can easily forget how quickly this thing can zip around in the air. Before you know it you're on top of something you really didn't mean to be and it's even more concerning just how easily you get sucked in to watching the video feed and not the surroundings. Luckily there were no close calls yesterday, but the presence of kits very high up in the air, and a helicopter coming in to land that appeared from nowhere and was actually under CargoBob by the time I noticed it were enough to [sensibly] bring the days flying to a conclusion.
I'm looking forward to getting the bird up in the air in a less densely populated area - beaches and countryside - where there is less to worry about. This coming weekend I'll be heading to Wales to catch up with some friends and head out to some picturesque locations. Until then, take a look at Blackheath viewed from above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44O9tA7tlo
