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Wind speed and drone flying - Anemometer I got a new little gadget! Before I start I would just like to say that I have not been paid, given or asked to report or test the product. I purchased it with my own money because I thought it would be helpful :) . Wind is the mortal enemy of drones, one gust is all it takes to have your prised possession carried away only to be found in multiple pieces once it has slammed in to a tree, wall or point of interest you were so trying to get that awesome shot of! The Gadget; So what is an Anemometer? Simply, it's something that can detect wind speed and display it to you. This anemometer works by a "plastic fan" or vane spinning which in turn breaks the line with each of its fins between an infra-red LED transmitter and its accompanying receiver. The device then completes a sequence of mathematical magic and displays the result! If you want to get one for yourself, you can get it here on Amazon  ht...

Flying the drone over a beach. Recently I have just got back from a holiday down in Dorset, I thought I would share with you some of the photos and footage I captured. This was not a particularly difficult place to fly, the cliffs didn't cause much of a problem and the wind hitting the large flat surface didn't cause any odd turbulence. The only thing of note was an inquisitive seagull getting a little too close, at one point forcing me to take a sharp dive thus not to cause a plume of feathers and an expensive repair bill! Flying along the cliff face: This is the first video I took. I wanted to check how the drone would be effected by the wind and the turbulence the cliffs and jagged rocks would produce. I was looking to see if the drone drifted towards and away from the face both with my own eyes and also the video streamed back to the controller. Beach fly over but with lens flare: At first I was pretty annoyed that I missed the glaringly obvious lens f...

Flying my drone in the trees! On my drive home from work with the car windows cracked open I stopped at a junction a scent drifted though the open window that reminded me of a holiday from the past year. While travelling though Oregon, North California and the Sierra Nevada Mountains (woo Yosemite) I experienced the calming properties of the pine forests, the ground was littered with pine cones and bark chippings roasting and releasing their oils in to the air around me, I thought the closest I could get to this with out a ten hour flight would be to jump in the car and head to my closest pine woodland to my location. I finally gathered up the bottle and took the drone flying in the forest. Dodging trees and not slamming in to low hanging branches precariously reaching out between the trees. It took a bit of practise but the further I went the better I felt, to which hopefully refined the skills needed to fly in drone hazardous environments for anything to come in the future. ...

Why did I choose the Mavic Pro? Now this not a recommendation to go out and buy the Mavic right now because I said so and I'm not a die-hard brand "fan-boy" that follow DJI like some sort of fanatic and is totally blinkered to the world. In this posting I'm going to go though the justifications that I went though when I wanted to look for a drone that is suitable for me and my applications. Size: The Mavic is one of the smallest "proper drones" out there. As you can see it folds away in to a small compact unit when not in use. The GoPro Karma also has a small footprint but I found that in comparison that the Mavic is just that bit more portable,  GoPro Karma:  Length: 362.2mm Width: 224.3mm Height: 89.9mm VS  DJI Mavic Pro: Length: 198mm Width: 83mm Height: 83mm Other drones tend to be on the larger side, for example DJI Phantom range are just plan massive you have to walk around with a bag the size of a t...

Hello and welcome to Electro Flap Flap, This is the start of my new blog about my adventures using a drone for photography and video. I'll show you some of my creations and how to's from what I have experimented so far pointing out any pit falls and tips and tricks which I have experienced along the way. Want to see cool drone photos and video? Got Instagram? Go have a look and follow at  https://www.instagram.com/electroflapflap/ Enjoy!