After connecting online with a fellow travel blogger – Thor Winther, of Winther Worldwide, some months ago, I was pleasantly surprised when he told me he had purchased a flight from Copenhagen to Bangkok and was interested in meeting up. Timing worked out so that he was able to visit our village several hours east of Bangkok.
The last time I touched our drone was on Koh Tachai Island in Southern Thailand – after takeoff on the silky white sand the drone promptly set itself down in the Andaman Sea requiring an expensive fix up in Bangkok. Fortunately we waited until all the tourists had gone to lunch before attempting this flight.
Lesson learned: avoid trying first flights on islands.
The results were much better this time despite three crashes:
1. The battery started failing and the drone crashed to the earth.
2. I landed it on the top of a palm tree and after starting and stopping the propellers several times chewing through palm fronds and leaving the white propellers tinged with green, the drone dropped to the ground – ejecting the battery in the process.
3. I made the mistake of flying the drone extremely high today with the very strong winds and it totally got away from me buzzing over my brother in laws home heading straight for a nearby pond. Luckily it went down in front of a stand of Eucalyptus trees right at the edge of this pond – crash landing in a field.
Any of these three crashes could have been much worse!
Fortunately Thor enjoyed a much better grasp of the controls and at one point adeptly zipped underneath trees, next to bushes chasing chickens.
The nice thing about these drone crashes is that they were all filmed – the first video is a short compilation of our multiple flights with the background music appropriately titled ‘Soaring’.
The second video was filmed some months later with the tiny DJI Mavic with Ric of Global Gaz.
Hi Dave,
Nice Droning dude! Amazing how inexpensive these things are, these days! I\’m thinking of investing in one soon. Especially to record a gorgeous place like Thailand. Classic Land of Smiles in those shots. One of my fave places on earth and wow do I miss the spot. Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Nice shots … I should learn how to fly one of these babies soon!
Enjoyed the video a lot, Dave. Thanks for the lesson learned info.
M&G
NYC
Thanks Michael – will we see you in Thailand later this month, January or February?
Ryan – yea and the newer ones are so much easier to fly. The drone shop in Bangkok is first rate in case you run into needing any repairs.
I’d love one of these drones. I was in Koh Samui in July 2016 and saw a few people flying them. One of the guys showed me the footage he had recorded – it was amazing. Great little gadgets! Nice post.
Raymond – I just saw the DJ Mavic for the first time in the Maldives and my friend in Bangkok just got one. Looking at upgrading at some point – that one is so compact compared to the one I have which is a bit klunky.
The ones I saw in Samui were well-built and compact – not sure of the make or model but the guy said he’d had a few rough landings with little or no damage.
Yea, for the most part they seem to rebound fine after crashes. Everyone I know who has one has crashed it at least once! Are you in Thailand now?
Raymond – I just picked up the DJI Mavic – supposedly it goes up to over 5,000 meters. Much more stable then the older drone I had (which did not have the stabilizing gimble – which makes all the difference in the world for stability). New drone pretty slick.