Greetings from MinneSnowta

HQLaker · Feb 27, 2019

My name is David Tousley. I'm about to make the jump into multi-rotor UAVs. (I hate the word drone) I live in St Paul but spend my free time in northern Minnesota on Headquarters Lake just south of Duluth. There I've spent many hours learning and flying fixed wings on floats over the past 15 years. Last fall I picked up a cheap quad that I've been flying around my basement everyday all winter.

For the past 3 months I've been reading and absorbing as much as can on this and other sites trying to narrow down the values for what I want in a UAV. This is an exciting and challenging time, with so much shift in technology, my head is spinning from the choices.

I am finding that the folks here on YuneecPilots.com to be an excellent source of info for assisting me in my discovery. I have narrowed the field down a choice between the H+ or the H520. I have observed many informative discussions and plan to start a few of my own over the next few weeks prior to making my decision.

I'm also a believer in how flight simulators can expedite the development of muscle memory. Using the RealFlight 8, I've found a passion chasing the birds circling over Joe's Garage. Before I fly my new UAV I plan to have at least 30 hrs on the sim now available on the H+/520.

Happy To Be Here

DoomMeister · Feb 27, 2019

Welcome to YuneecPilots.com David!

It sounds like you have been doing your homework and have been perusing our site for some time now. What type of flying are you interested in doing with a sUAS? Will you be using it commercially or as a hobbyist? Always remember to leave a budget for after market extras and essentials.

Hope to hear more from you soon.

AH-1G · Feb 27, 2019

What are your plans with the 520? it's more for business, like mapping, commercial inspections and so on.
The H+ is geared more for the photography industry.

NorWiscPilot · Feb 27, 2019

Nice to see another fellow ‘snowtan here, @HQLaker! Grew up and lived in the twin cities until five years ago. Took advantage of an opportunity to move full time to the cabin in guess where. [emoji41]

Keep reading and now contributing as your experiences expand.

I have H480s and an H520. Love both, though have to admit I am not yet taking advantage of all the 520 offers. In due time!

Can’t lose with either one as whatever you get first will blow you away, whetting the appetite for another. As your skills progress, the possibilities will as well, hence the “honey, I need another craft” condition will afflict you if not already.

Good luck, and welcome!

Jeff

HQLaker · Feb 28, 2019

Thanks for the warm welcome, Guy’s. Currently my interests mostly lie on the photography side of the question where the H+ is well suited. However, I'm on the doorstep of retirement and need something to keep my brain from crashing once I do. The prospect of making a few extra bucks by taking gigs as a commercial UAV pilot is very appealing to me. The H520 offers flexibility of payload to handle the diversity of commercial tasks. My observations over the past few years is that the numbers of these opportunities are increasing. The cost, however, of this commercial platform is lowering the probability of my decision in this direction.

First, I need to learn how to fly before I start pondering FAA certification. There’s a lot more buttons and menus on ST16s than on my other controllers. I am no stranger to the learning curve. I work as a firmware technician in the hearing aid industry. With multiple product development cycles, my head is constantly learning and unlearning mostly useless knowledge every day. I think I can handle this hobby and hope to turn it into a part time venture over time.

@DoomMeister, I am currently fascinated by the discussion in the H+ blog about the flyaway in Finland, I had no idea you could take a log and plot it out on a map. I am going to learn how to do that,,, in time!

@NorWiscPilot , Where in NorWisc are you based?

DoomMeister · Feb 28, 2019

HQLaker said:
@DoomMeister, I am currently fascinated by the discussion in the H+ blog about the flyaway in Finland, I had no idea you could take a log and plot it out on a map. I am going to learn how to do that,,, in time!

Go to Meine private Homepage - Programmierung, Kopter, Bilder, click on Downloads, and get Q500log2kml. It is a stand alone program in Windows 64 bit, Linux 64 bit, or Mac (older version). The PDF file has good instructions and the program is an excellent tool for anyone flying Yuneec aircraft. We are very fortunate to have Helmut as a member of our forum. Peruse a few of his posts where he analyzes telemetry and you will see what I mean.

AH-1G · Feb 28, 2019

If you have troubles opening it, like me, let us know.?

DoomMeister · Feb 28, 2019

A trick I learned is to change the working directory to something that does not contain telemetry before closing the app. If it was set to a directory with sensor data it would take a long time opening on a restart of the app and appear to hang.