Drones

[Horton]

I am super curious to watch drone footage for specific segments of slalom. What I do not what to do is invest thousands of dollars and months learning to fly the thing. Is there any "easy button drone" yet?

[MISkier]

Mavic is supposedly quite easy.

[MattP]

I believe @jMacSkis has had some success with the AirDog

[BraceMaker]

Just search your local craigslist -

 

https://goo.gl/MXvCqr

 

See if you can get a guy out for an hour or two and get your shots. No need to learn anything. Probably put the "barn photographers" out of business.

 

[LeonL]

A guy at our lake has one and does a pretty good job with minimum experience. I can't remember what he spent on it. A few hundred, less than $400 I think. Problem with his however is its top speed is about 32. Loses ground on a 34 skier. His has a feature where it will return to its take off location when you say return and will do the same if it's battery gets below a certain percentage. Connect it to a tablet and it looks like you're on it. Just fly with two joy sticks.

[MISkier]

Mavic will do 40 mph in sport mode.

[bigtex2011]

I have a phantom 2. It has a range of roughly 2000 feet and will fly about 32mph.

I bought it from my teenage son who got an upgrade. It's fun.

[A_B]

I don’t know the price points, but there are models that you put in the air and focus on a skier and it will flollow them at the distance you originally set. Downhill skiers use as well as police when they lock on a suspect.

[A_B]

This one cost $20K. FLIR camera was $10K.

Holds GPS position in high winds and will follow a criminal anywhere. We donated to the Sheriff’s Office and they brought it by for a demo. Really fast and crazy technology.

 

 

[pregom]

A friend of mine has the DJI Phantom 4 pro. It's super-easy to use and a ton of fun. It's also very fast -- the page I linked says 72 km/h, so that should be plenty, even when following a skier at 36 mph. If I have to find a drawback, I'd say that the propellers are quite noisy.

[rwskier]

@Horton It really does not get much easier than The DJI Mavic. It folds up and is super easy to pack around. as a beginner it has a bunch of fail safe functions built in and as you get a bit better at flying the sport mode will keep up and pass the boat at a max speed of 40 mph. After some time of flying you will find that there are other controller apps like Litchi that will allow you to program in way points by the simple touch of the screen that allow full autonomous flight.

[Horton]

I like the way I said I do not want to spend thousands and the cheapest drone you guys mention is $999.99

[96SNEFI]

Keep in mind that the authorities, just about wherever you are in the world, are all over regulating these things due to idiots flying them idiotically. Get caught or complained on a fine could be pretty hefty.

[Horton]

@96SNEFI funny you should say that. Every time I go to my dock to relax at the end of a summer day (weekend), one these A-Holes buzzes my lake at 100 feet. Makes it hard to believe the FAA would notice a drone around my lake.

 

http://blackhawkparamotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3496128225_b0f9c12654_o.jpg

 

[pregom]

I’m not in the market for a drone, but I don’t think there is a decent one with a decent camera that is less than $1k. Just like there is no decent ski for less than that amount, right? :)

[thager]

@Horton There is a special waiver at the FAA for those guys to buzz you. Otherwise, you need to call in a complaint. Rarely does anyone there ever leave their desk. Much too busy answering Sheldon Cooper questions on the computer that have nothing to do with anything aviation related! Good luck!

[blinddog]

I bought one this summer specifically to film slalom, it's an Autel X Star Premium, $650 refurbished directly from Autel (looked brand new), or at Best Buy new for $800. www.autelrobotics.com. It is easy to fly, as any of them are. I did a lot of research before buying, it is the highest rated in it's class, better than the comparable DJI drones in that price range. Customer service from Autel is excellent, and the drone is very, very smart with a lot of built in safety features. Their site has a lot of how-to videos so I basically knew how to fly it before I even received it. Comes with a very nice hard case too. I am the guy mentioned by @LeonL above. As Leon mentioned, the drawback is the max speed of 32 mph and if there's any wind, it wont reach that speed. It does have an excellent high def video/still camera and takes great video. If you want one that will keep up with a 36 mph skier, you will need one rated for at least 40 mph. @rwskier mentioned the DJI Mavic Pro that goes 40 mph in sport mode, problem is all the safety functions are disabled in sport mode and believe me you want the safety functions or you will end up with your drone at the bottom of the lake. If you want one that goes 40 and keeps the safety functions, you will likely spend at least $1200, probably more. No matter which drone you buy, the max battery life is 20-25 mins, so you will need a minimum of 2 batteries, I have 3. Extra batteries are $80-$100 each. If anyone wants to see video I took, PM me and I'll send you a link to my dropbox, it's very cool.

[rwskier]

Ha ha @Horton just think of it this way, anyone could get several of them for the same price as any one of the upper end slalom skis.

[Lake3]

B happy to come down from Washington state and fly for you. Might ask for a down and back or two in return. Have a phantom 4 with 4K camera.

[skiinxs]

@Horton Maybe you could start doing drone tests and get the manufacturers to send some to you for a period of time for you to test:) Perhaps new advertisers!

[thager]

@Horton would be perfect for the job! After testing he could drone on and on about the review....

[Horton]

Less reviews please. I just want to ski.

[Horton]

There was some video footage that Mapple did a number of years back where he actually had somebody on a ladder in a fixed position shooting down on the skiers approaching the ball. I'm intrigued by that kind of stuff much more than I am interested in "making movies."

 

After reading this thread and doing some research on the internet I think I need to find some kids or Ballers with drones and just supply at the smooth water and the ProStar.

[John Brooks]

@Horton would @MarcusBrown have some thoughts for you?

[Mateo_Vargas]

Isn’t @Dirt a drone?

[Horton]

@"Mateo Vargas"

 

[Kwoody51]

If you are looking to shoot stationary but elevated video then I would think any GPS enabled drone would work. Just find a DJI one on Craigslist for ~$400.

 

Point it at your ball of choice and then run the pass. Just have it high enough to avoid hitting it with the spray! Launch from shore and if battery runs low it will fly itself back to shore.

[Mitch90]

DJI are the best in the market at the moment,

easy to fly and have good features plus amazing quality.

The Mavic is a great Drone for storing away and really nimble. the best thing I like about it is that the camera is at the very front, so when you're going full speed the rotors do not get in the way.

My concern with it, is keeping up with the boat, they predict 40mph, not sure if you can achieve that though.

The phantom 4, has all the good stuff on it especially in the pro model, it costs a little more, but I think its worth it.

its top speed is higher, however, the thing I do not like about it, is that the camera is in the middle and you will see the rotors when going full speed. however if you point the camera backwards you do not get this issue.

 

my 2 cents.

[LoopSki]

Any decent ones in the $200-300 range ?

[MISkier]

@Mitch90, the Mavic can keep up with the boat at 36 mph. I've seen it done. The video on the Denali website home page was shot with a Mavic and the boat at 36 mph. I'm confident it can hit 40 mph.

[skiinxs]

DJI does build very good drones. They may have finally gotten a handle on this over the past year, not sure. They had the absolutely worst customer service you could possibly imagine up to that point.

[Laz]

I spent the summer playing around with a Mavic Pro. It's very easy to fly. It can follow a boat up to about 45km. You have to fly manually to follow at 58k but it only takes two or three practices to get it right.

 

One nice feature is the its tripod mode where you can get it to hover near buoy and take some cool slo mo video.

[swaterca]

I have been looking at the Yuneec Typhoon H...max flying speed is 43.5mph

http://us.yuneec.com/typhoon-h-specs

[blinddog]

@swaterca that Yuneec drone looks like a nice one. I looked at the specs and it says 43.5 mph in "follow me" mode. I know what that is but I wonder why they only publish the max speed in follow me mode? You are most likely going to fly the drone while filming slalom, so I would want to know the max speed in any other mode. Also, no matter what drone you get or how fast it will go, your boat will get up to speed much quicker than the drone, so you will need to get a "head start" if you want to keep up with a 36 mph slalom skier and basically let the boat and skier catch up once the drone is up to speed. That is the first thing I realized when I started with mine and it does take some practice to get your best shots.

[Horton]

I dropped $60 on a UDI 818A just to learn to fly and get my head around how they work. I am undecided if I might eventually drop a chunk of change for a real camera drone for ski pictures and video but I am having fun. This drone will likely end up at the bottom of the lake but is is healthier than a $60 bottle of scotch.

[LoopSki]

I had a cheap one I bought at the state fair. First flight crashed into neighbors roof and got stuck for a bit. Second flight it went over the lake and shot one cool video. But then it got away from me and flew out of range into the orchards on the other side of the lake. Never saw that drone again!

 

My go pro had a similar story. First time using it attached it to my ski. Fourth pass it goes in the drink. Never to be seen again.

 

I should probably stay clear of electronics and waterskiing !

[Horton]

I'm feeling increasingly smart that I bought a very inexpensive drone. If anybody wants to borrow it, it is in Ski West

[Hockdog]

Oops.......

[Horton]

meh.

[jetpilotg4]

Its time for more of that scotch

[cragginshred]

I heard there was an app that makes it follow you. Mt bike buddies use it

 

[Dirt]

I am in Dallas scouting out the new BOS Drone.

 

 

[vtmecheng]

A friend just got one but our season won't be up for almost two months. He got the DJI Phantom 4 pro and it's supposed to simply follow the boat. Not sure you want to wait that long but I can post some videos once we have them.

[vtmecheng]

All that said, I have heard great things about DJI.

[LoopSki]

Has anyone used the Mavic Mini?

[Kelvin]

Top speed of the Mini is only 17mph. Its small and easy to use, just don't expect great things if your trying to follow a slalom skier.

[pregom]

I'd like to try Skydio drones. Supposedly their Skydio Autonomy technology can follow a person really well.

[Lars]

@LoopSki this was filmed with a DJI Mavic Air 2 if this gives any perspective. Like @Kelvin says, the mini is slow, the pilot of the one below tells me it can go 40 mph.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1rr9fHS1k/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

 

[LoopSki]

I decided on the mini as a first drone. Seems fast enough for now. Mainly to video my son at 19mph. Very fun so far. Took this cool shot of our lake. Very Smokey due to fire.

 

 

[LoopSki]

I am sad to say that my Mavic mini was only with me for a few days until it flew off into the wild blue yonder. Here’s one of the last pictures I was able to get. I don’t know what happened it was just flying over the lake I push return to home button and instead it just took off. It went straight up into the air until I could no longer see it. I waited for it where it was supposed to return to but it never did. That’s $500 I’ll never get back.