Today has been an excellent day in many respects. Firstly because I managed to get outside again properly for the first time in a long, long while, and secondly because I finally flew a DJI Inspire 1 quadcopter that I have been repairing after buying it damaged last year.
This has all taken a while to come about. Being someone who is immunocompromised, I have been on the shielding list since very nearly the start of the CV19 pandemic. We also put ourselves into lockdown before it was even announced, and have taken every single vaccination they can offer us in a bid to stay safe. I am still on the shielding list, however shielding as a thing was stopped some time ago. That being said, we have been shielding in all but name ever since. If we go out, we are in wide open spaces. Sanitiser everywhere, masks everywhere and social distancing everywhere. It’s stressful of course, but any half interested Covid strain will probably kill me, so it’s had to be done.
The problem is, that it has left us all quite isolated.
So; today was the culmination of finding the drone I wanted (damaged, but reasonably priced), finding the parts I needed, repairing it, passing CAA flyer ID, registering with the CAA as an operator, joining the BMFA (British Model Flying Association), finding a flying club (Anglesey and District Model Aero Club), finally joining, and then getting outside for some fresh air.
Reaching the airstrip today and being able to launch the aircraft gave me a huge sigh of relief, not only because my repairs and testing on the drone worked, but because I was back outside doing something I love (I really love being outdoors).
The quadcopter itself was a mess when I bought it. Despite it having five batteries and some nice carbon accessories (or so I thought), the previous owner had somehow broken one of the carbon fibre arms that were fundamental to the landing gear. It was shattered, and actually looked like someone had trodden on it.
It did come with a spare arm, which if I’d inspected it well enough when I bought it, I would have realised that it was not only the wrong side, but it was for the much newer Inspire 1 Pro. I would later find this out as I discovered the differences between them, which were as subtle as the pattern on the carbon arms being slightly different, as well as other tiny issues like the height of the landing feet to accommodate a bigger camera on the Pro version of the drone..
So, I set out to buy another arm. This was difficult in itself, simply because it was impossible to just find one, and buy it. The main trouble was that any given person listing the part would claim what they were selling was a left arm, when in fact it could differ from one person to the next as to whether they claimed the parts they were selling were left arms based on which way they had laid them out on the floor.
Once we got past that, fitting the arm was not particularly difficult, although it did require some finesse, and a forensic attention to detail. I got myself some really long tweezers from ebay (like Holtzman in Ghostbusters), and used them to carefully drag the wires and cables through the new arm, before I fitted the motor drivers, motors and landing feet. I think the tweezers are actually for feeding snakes.
Once that was done, it was just a matter of carefully assembling it all so that the automatic landing gear would raise properly when the aircraft leaves the ground.
Some of the last issues were that one of the brushless motor shafts was ever so slightly bent and rubbing, which I corrected, and a couple of the quick release mechanisms for the rotor blades were damaged. I fitted new ones and then slowly went about testing the drone over Autumn and through Christmas.
So it was such a relief to see it not only take off, but work first time.
It’s much quieter than I thought it would be for something that weighs just over 3kg! It’s not the biggest drone by a long way, but it’s bigger than all of the DJI Mavics about, and they can be quite noisy. That being said, the sound is still fantastic, especially when stopping from its estimated 49mph, or when lowering quickly from 400ft! It’s really nimble, which is impressive given its weight, and the camera quality is said to be 4k. So a win!
For an old aircraft, it’s really well packed with equipment, which is not something I have been used to. Previous drones have been bare minimum, and before that, the height of tech I could expect was a stabilising gyroscope on my helicopters. There was certainly never any real tech on my old planes past the actual radio gear and a glow plug, so I’m really happy with it, and I feel like I earned it just that little more for having repaired it and brought it back to life.
While I can fly out in the world with it (and I will), the club provides me with a safe place in the middle of nowhere, to fly, to relax, and to meet with others who are intertested in the same hobbies. Those I’ve met so far have been absolutely delightful. We’ll see if I can manage to film their models with my drone sometime in the future.
Shortly there will be a video on my YouTube channel with footage from the test flight today.
When that is done, I will link it here in this post.
Emma