Recent content by MS Coast

No Flip. I took only the Neo and flew it with the phone - the minimalist approach. I recently ordered a Flip and the box arrived promptly with no customs delays. Unfortunately, DJI shipped me a Neo instead of a Flip. That's the first such problem from DJI that I've heard of.

I recently ran into an altitude limitation with the Neo while flying at about 9000' MSL true altitude in the mountains of Costa Rica. I'd done two brief flights (< 2 minutes each) with a fully charged battery with a maximum absolute altitude of less than 10' AGL. About a minute into the third...

This doesn't sound like a "go crazy on its own" fault with the drone. From the OP's description, he didn't have a good GPS satellite lock. The drone was in ATTI mode and drifted into the lamp post before he was able to react on the controls.

Yes, I agree that it's not showing up brightly on the FAA's radar. But it's a good example of the developing need for modifications to the regulations to account for such new models.

It appears that both Part 107 and the 44809 recreational rules for the US require that the pilot of a drone be able to control the drone throughout the flight and override any automated flight modes. This would appear to prohibit flying the Neo in the stand-alone mode without a phone or...

How was the light level? My Neo has auto-landed or behaved badly when I flew it from a well lit area to a darker part of the house and gave an audio message that the visual sensors weren't operating well. I think the VPS may be more important for indoor spaces than GPS.

For orientation assistance, those flexible plastic stick-on bookmark stickers work well. I used a red one on the first drone I flew. Without the tape, it was difficult to tell which end was which when it was more than about 60 feet away. At least the bow and stern are different colors on the Neo.

I've been flying DJI drones long enough to have had to renew my Part 107 certificate and have been active on the MavicPilots forum. The Neo arrived this afternoon. These things are ridiculously entertaining and marvelous. The Neo is an amazing amount of technology and function tucked into an...