Learning To Fly

One of the assets I am looking to acquire by the end of the year is a drone to help me capture aerial shots. (It would certainly be a lot cheaper than renting a helicopter!)

I feel like this is a worth while investment (the model I'm looking at costs about $650, plus I'd have to also buy a Go-Pro), but I am EXTREMELY nervous about crashing it.

I don't know if that fear will go away as I get more and more experience flying it, but I do have a solution to help ease those fears before I buy the actual drone.

This Labor Day weekend, I bought a cheap remote control helicopter and started practicing flying it. The principles of flying it should still be the same as flying the drone, but the helicopter costs $40.

If I total the helicopter during one of my test flights (or, G-d forbid, it gets shot down by a miniature F-16 for crossing into miniature restricted airspace), I will not be out a considerable amount of money. If anything, I would have gained a new lesson to help improve my flying skills.

This practice is known as firing bullets before firing cannonballs, which is a great concept from Jim Collins' Great By Choice. By using the cheaper helicopter to practice with over and over, I can nullify the risk of crashing the more expensive drone on its first flight.

The below video is a great explanation of the concept from Great by Choice:

Off we go, into the Wild Blue Yonder!

 

 

 

PS: I'll be at Baltimore Comic Con on Saturday, September 6. I hope to see you there!