From disaster to success in 7 days.
A couple of weekends’ ago, my son and I finally got a break in the weather and we were excited to take out a new drone. With much anticipation, we unpacked the boxes and I even read the instructions (ALL of them!) because this was something I’d not tried before and we wanted to get it right.
Importantly, I had invested a fair bit on the drone to make sure it had all the safety features – auto return, collision sensors, satellite tracking, etc – everything a novice pilot might need to get out of trouble if required.
Flight 1.
Lift the drone 1 metre and land again immediately. Check.
Flight 2.
Lift the drone 2 metres, move forward 2 metres and then push AUTO RETURN. The drone did not go back to the start position. It flew high up into the air and shot off forward over the trees and fields until it went out of sight. Satellite tracking did not give any location. A single photo showed it had landed in a barley field.
We are surrounded by farmland – acres upon acres of barley fields. Noah and I searched everywhere. I covered almost 29,000 steps. No drone has ever been found… money NOT well spent.
The extra investment for safety features that did not work left a very bitter taste – I hate wasting money!!
For about 2 days, I thought my drone-flying days were over. But despite this disastrous experience and shattered confidence in my inexperienced ability, I really did want to learn this new skill to discover aerial photography.
One week later, Noah and I took delivery of THREE new drones so we could test-fly and pick our winner. The first was a tiny drone with a single push-button control and palm take-off / landing. Our first photo was one depicting our terror as it flew up into the sky – we thought it would fly off forever, but it came back and landed on my hand. For a few hours, we ‘played’ and built up our confidence with its simple tricks. But I had my heart set on the BEST.
Flight 1.
Lift the drone 1 metre and land again immediately. Check.
Flight 2.
Lift the drone 2 metres, move forward 2 metres and then push AUTO RETURN. It came back.
After that, there was no stopping us. At every opportunity, I have been taking the drone out with Noah and learning to fly it. We’ve been taking photos and I’m learning aerial photography and videography. And 1 week on, I couldn’t be happier with the decision to pursue in the face of challenge.
Life will throw us obstacles… but to Live Daring Dreams, we rise above them all.
Follow my blog and let’s see where your daring dreams take you.
#LiveDaringDreams
