any gbatempers bought\have a friend with a drone?

[migles]

by drone i mean that new "helicopters" with 4 "fans" and a camera..

my cat is lost on another town.. i had been looking for him but the place where i think he may be is hard to explore..

and i thought about searching about drones to search for him, but i have no idea about drones,
i just seen some youtube guys playing with drones, but i have no knowledge about the subject

 

[nxwing]

I've never had a drone before, they're pretty expensive around my area but I do have an actual toy helicopter (a medium sized one) My dad and I attached a spy camera to it but we never retrieved it again. It got stolen when I accidentally landed it somewhere unknown. I wouldn't recommend it for finding a cat since people can easily steal it if they conceal their face.

 

[master801]

You can't forget about all of the issues about flying drones too.

 

[migles]

I've never had a drone before, they're pretty expensive around my area but I do have an actual toy helicopter (a medium sized one) My dad and I attached a spy camera to it but we never retrieved it again. It got stolen when I accidentally landed it somewhere unknown. I wouldn't recommend it for finding a cat since people can easily steal it if they conceal their face.

stealing in my area is pretty rare.. not really concerned about it..
its rural area, is just a bunch of old people.. and its a low population.. not many people around

using a drone is probably my last hope.. i had searched for a full day in the are where i lost it...

the cat is sick, he probably is hidden someplace, i had been trying to look, but there are places i can't reach..

there are several dogs and cats alone in the area.. the people who live there are not in any way nice.. they seen me there with a mad face.. sometimes i ask, but they tell me basicallyto fuck off..

i had climbed some ruin's walls, and i can see better but not much because its not high enough..

You can't forget about all of the issues about flying drones too.

i created this thread because thats something i wanted to ask.. to know what challenges i would expect..
are they stable with wind, how much battery time they have.. etc..

 

[nxwing]

stealing in my area is pretty rare.. not really concerned about it..
its rural area, is just a bunch of old people..

using a drone is probably my last hope.. i had searched for a full day in the are where i lost it...

the cat is sick, he probably is hidden someplace, i had been trying to look, but there are places i can't reach..

there are several dogs and cats alone in the area.. the people who live there are not in any way nice.. they seen me there with a mad face.. sometimes i ask, but they tell me basicallyto fuck off..

i had climbed some ruin's walls, and i can see better but not much because its not high enough..

Do you live in North Korea? Do they have drones there? Anyway if that's just a joke, talking to the authorities, placing flyers with accurate info with picture will help. Try placing catnip near your house, dogs sure like catnip and they should come over if they smell it.

 

[FAST6191]

I am a fan of drones though I lack my own right now (very nearly sprung for one the other day but found some tools I wanted more).

For finding a lost/sick cat... no. They are lovely for aerial shots of an area, checking out building sized items and occasionally shots that would be very annoying to pull off via more traditional means. Unless you plan to use the noise to scare it out of hiding (sick cats tend to hide too) then it is really not worth it.

 

[Veho]

A drone would be pretty useless. Without an extremely expensive setup, a drone will have a very limited range and flight time, and no matter what camera you use it won't have sufficient resolution or field of view to actually find something. If you're flying high enough to cover enough ground, the drone will be too far away to spot anything.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Do you live in North Korea? Do they have drones there?

Yeah, there are drones with the American flag all over the sky.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Actual drones are incredibly difficult to pilot, especially if you're going to try using one to find something and in a city no less. It would be infinitely easier to just drive around or ride a bike or some shit through town than it would be to buy an expensive drone and take the dozens of hours to learn to fly it.

 

[RevPokemon]

Uncle works for our PD and it uses drones for search and rescue

 

[FAST6191]

Uncle works for our PD and it uses drones for search and rescue

and if you are trying to find 70kg worth of person/person tracks that fell over on a hill, with a reasonably clear idea of a perimeter and probably wants to be found it is wonderful, if you are trying to find 3kg worth of camouflaged cat that is actually setting about hiding in underbrush of scrubland without so much as a good starting point then that is a different matter.

 

[Veho]

What FAST said. Humans are much larger and stand out way more than a tiny ambush predator.

 

[cdoty]

i created this thread because thats something i wanted to ask.. to know what challenges i would expect..
are they stable with wind, how much battery time they have.. etc..

I have one of the smaller ones, the Hubsan X4, and it would not be ideal for searching. I think the typical drone battery life is less than 15 minutes, the Hubsan is about 7 minutes.

It would take you some time to learn the fly the drone accurately enough to search with it. I think the wind would present a challenge even with the larger models, because they are made out of lightweight material.