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My favorite part of this hobby
#1
(scroll down for TL/DR)

When I started being interested in quads, long before I bought my first $12 USB controller the idea of a hobby where folks constantly deal with crashes and repairs and building etc was daunting. I knew then but brushed off the idea that it could literally become one of those full-time hobbies.. You know the kind where you might have other hobbies but if they aren't related to your full time hobby they'll probably suffer from procrastination from time to time. The last hobby I had like that was cars and racing but it fell out of interest for me for a couple of various reasons (one of them being my race car is kapoot). 

What I didn't expect is for it to be one of the most intellectually challenging hobbies I've ever had (Almost equal to music production and sound engineering). The first few lessons I had to learned pissed me off. I mean I was like "dude, what did I get myself into"... I cannot tell you how upset I was that my fatshark goggles didn't come with a charger  ROFL I was almost ready to send them a nasty email to tell them what-for. By the time I was actually flying I was grateful that I already had my balance charger even if I have been itching for an upgrade lately but I'll stick with the B6AC for now. 

Learning to fly a quad that isn't doing the work for you... when part of what everyone is like "ooh and aaah" about quads these days is how they do everything... they fly on their own, they follow you around, if you push a button it'll safely navigate it's way back home... but we dont fly quads that do any of that... Instead ours are designed to go to an angle and stay there until told otherwise. Don't even get me started on the 2 week journey through blog posts, videos, forum threads to understand what PIDs actually do!

Now here I am getting ready to learn to build, and while I would say my flying skills are working their way to a low-moderate skill level I get to be a complete noob again when it comes to building... In fact I've already done 3 or 4 things wrong and I haven't even got my parts yet! (I'm thinking about going with different ESCs and maybe even a different flight controller)... 

the point or TL/DR for those of you who didn't read above but want to know what I am going on about so that you can participate:
I got into this hobby thinking it would require a normal amount of learning. Instead I have been blown away with how much I constantly get to learn as I progress and improve in the hobby. 

Question to everyone else... What's you're favorite part?
carl.vegas
Current Quads: Operational: Diatone GT2 200 In need of repair: Bumble Bee, tehStein,  Slightly modified Vortex 250 
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#2
Thinking hmm ALL OF IT! Tongue except the rain and gusty high winds Wink
The Obsession IS Real!
My Youtube and Instagram links
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#3
Favorite part: The build (as I'm still inexperienced as a pilot)
Soon to be favorite: Flying
Most challenging part: Learning about the effects of PID tuning, filters, gyro noise and how they affect our crafts
Most frustrating: That I can flash firmware on a Revolt flight controller in 2 minutes, but the same firmware onto an SP F3 takes me 2 weeks hahaha
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#4
Great post Carl!

This really is a huge hobby to get into. For people like me who already had soldering and electronics skills and a computing background, there's still a massive amount to learn.

It's so worth it though. Making your own builds is, for me at least, one of the most rewarding parts of the hobby. There's little that comes close to the feeling of watching something you made take to the air for the first time.
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#5
Favorite part for me is the planning/designing of the build.  Up until very recently, I was limiting myself to sub-250 gram quads (to avoid FAA entanglements), which required very careful selection/placement of components and often the design of several 3D printed parts to assist in those efforts.  (My favorite flying quad is still my original 4" F2F Micro 160 G2 - 247g AUW.  However I crashed it last week and the nylon standoffs broke one too many times, so I've decided to "beef it up" a bit (with AL standoffs).

Therefore, I just this week bit the bullet and registered with the FAA Big Grin  Plus, I've got a couple of larger builds in the works that just won't make it on that little weight.  That's OK though, because I've learned a lot of techniques for reducing weight and producing compact builds that will benefit any size quad!

And I'm with RENOV8R - I hope soon my favorite part will be the flying!  (But that brings up my least favorite part: Finding good places to fly!)  Tongue
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#6
Favourite part:

Scouting for new spots... I have never been more curious about the place where I live. When I see a park I can't help it but begin picturing me flying in there, and where the quad is going to fly through to make good FPV footage... It's insane, almost like a illness hahahaha! But the good thing is I've visited so many places around my area that I didn't even know existed before I fly FPV.
Also I Made many friends through FPV.. from nearly all backgrounds and age. This must be one of the biggest achievements in this hobby for me.

And yes, the building and troubleshooting are also fun, only if you could get to the bottom of it Smile LOL
Don't be a LOS'er, be an FPV'er :)  My Gear - Facebook - Instagram - Twitter
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#7
Wow such great responses!

I am really looking forward to the upcoming build. I didn't realize I'd be so eager to do it but I really have.

As for flying spots... that's a really good one. Living in the Atlanta area (my name is where I am from and my URL not where I am living today) I know that there have got to be some great places to fly around here... It's a metro area that has a diverse set of very urban, suburban, and rural areas so I am sure there are some great spots out there it'll just take a bit of planning and driving.
carl.vegas
Current Quads: Operational: Diatone GT2 200 In need of repair: Bumble Bee, tehStein,  Slightly modified Vortex 250 
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#8
Im in the works of starting a discussion thread just for finding good spots! I do the same thing Oscar Big Grin the Wife even gets annoyed whenever we drive somewhere together now because Im always like "AAHH! That'd be a cool place to fly!" ROFL

Great thread Carl!
The Obsession IS Real!
My Youtube and Instagram links
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#9
(26-Apr-2017, 12:58 PM)Drone0fPrey Wrote: Im in the works of starting a discussion thread just for finding good spots! I do the same thing Oscar Big Grin the Wife even gets annoyed whenever we drive somewhere together now because Im always like "AAHH! That'd be a cool place to fly!" ROFL

Great thread Carl!

I'll take any advice I can get on finding flying spots so a thread on the topic would be awesome!
carl.vegas
Current Quads: Operational: Diatone GT2 200 In need of repair: Bumble Bee, tehStein,  Slightly modified Vortex 250 
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#10
I'm enjoying the views in this thread, some unexpected favourite's from some folks, but most of you builder's, I saw coming a mile away!

Its funny, I am at this stage where I am stuck using a toy TX cos the FC on my 1st build went up in flames, so, no building is definitely not my fave at the moment.

I am still getting to grips with LOS acro flying (silverxxx FW H8 mini) and being frustrated with the amount of crashing I'm doing, I've had hardly any stick time this year and still haven't managed to pull off a flip, in acro mode yet! Well I kinda did manage a roll, but, hit the throttle too late, and upon 'landing' ended up losing my least 'saggy' battery for 3 days! My goggles2 have been re sent, I have now been waiting for almost 3 months to try FPV... So flying as much as I love it, also too frustrating to be my favorite right now...

I don't want to come across all brown nose-y(!) but I have really enjoyed hanging out here, learning so much from you folks and having a laugh while doing it. I was at my buds place last night (he's the one who's soldering station, and expertise, I call upon) he is on AV-forums (audio video) and we had a chat about our forums and we showed each other some choice posts, it almost felt like having you guys round for a beer! He agreed, "sometimes no one else understands! "
Windless fields and smokeless builds
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#11
(26-Apr-2017, 05:20 PM)Tom BD Bad Wrote: I don't want to come across all brown nose-y(!)  but I have really enjoyed hanging out here, learning so much from you folks and having a laugh while doing it. I was at my buds place last night (he's the one who's soldering station, and expertise, I call upon) he is on AV-forums (audio video) and we had a chat about our forums and we showed each other some choice posts, it almost felt like having you guys round for a beer! He agreed, "sometimes no one else understands! "

I have no shame in gushing about how much I appreciate this forum... Poop nose me all that is needed Big Grin

I've been on discussion boards for a very long time (about 20 years? sheesh... that makes me feel kinda old for some reason) and I've seen some of the best and some of the worst and plenty of really boring ones that are almost impossible to stay interested in... This one is easily one of the best I've belonged to.
carl.vegas
Current Quads: Operational: Diatone GT2 200 In need of repair: Bumble Bee, tehStein,  Slightly modified Vortex 250 
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#12
I completely agree with you; this place is great!

I've also been using forums since the days when a 9600 baud modem was considered fast. I've helped to run and moderate a few and being an old Unix guy, I'm pretty good at hosting and running forum software as well.

I really like the smaller and more personal hobby forums like this one. You get to meet people from all over the world and from completely different walks of life. The fact that hobby forums have such a great mix of people of all ages and all backgrounds is a great leveller and helps you to appreciate perspectives that you might not run into otherwise.

A lot of forums seem to be losing members to Facebook these days, but for the life of me, I can't understand why. Facebook is a terrible medium for any kind of useful discussion and utterly useless for organising information in an accessible way. As soon as a thread has been displaced from the first page of a FB group, it drifts away into obscurity, never to be seen again. I guess it suits the grasshopper minds of the "I want it now!" generation, but I much prefer the more structured and permanent environment of a proper discussion forum.
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#13
(27-Apr-2017, 08:25 AM)unseen Wrote: I completely agree with you; this place is great!

I've also been using forums since the days when a 9600 baud modem was considered fast. I've helped to run and moderate a few and being an old Unix guy, I'm pretty good at hosting and running forum software as well.

I really like the smaller and more personal hobby forums like this one. You get to meet people from all over the world and from completely different walks of life. The fact that hobby forums have such a great mix of people of all ages and all backgrounds is a great leveller and helps you to appreciate perspectives that you might not run into otherwise.

A lot of forums seem to be losing members to Facebook these days, but for the life of me, I can't understand why. Facebook is a terrible medium for any kind of useful discussion and utterly useless for organising information in an accessible way. As soon as a thread has been displaced from the first page of a FB group, it drifts away into obscurity, never to be seen again. I guess it suits the grasshopper minds of the "I want it now!" generation, but I much prefer the more structured and permanent environment of a proper discussion forum.

Facebook works... for mainstream topics and interests. If all you have to arrange is a club that does weekly meetups and every once in a while a special event then facebook is perfect. What some people don't realize is that facebook doesn't replace a good, old fashioned, well organized forum. I would probably add my own return to forum-life as one of my happy-parts to this hobby. Actual technical hobbies require knowledge sharing and research. Google searches LOVE forum posts and blogs that are relevant. This place has a great source of traffic because it's attached to Oscar's blog, which as far as I am considered is easily one of the top blogs for the hobby and often shows up in google searches. (both were primary factors in me joining this forum)

The size is great as it is, and I think the forum could stand to scale if needed. This forum would probably maintain it's quality even with anywhere between 50%-1000% of today's activity. Much larger and smaller and it might get boring or too watered down, but it's really in great shape. 

So while not my top favorite part of the hobby, reconnecting on a forum (something another forum hasn't been able to do for me in about 3 years) is absolutely one of the things I love about this hobby.
carl.vegas
Current Quads: Operational: Diatone GT2 200 In need of repair: Bumble Bee, tehStein,  Slightly modified Vortex 250 
[-] The following 4 users Like Carl.Vegas's post:
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#14
(27-Apr-2017, 09:16 AM)Carl.Vegas Wrote: Much larger and smaller and it might get boring or too watered down, but it's really in great shape. 

Its funny, I kinda felt like what unseen was saying about FB over at RC groups, so much traffic that there is 30-40 posts (if not pages!) between your question and the reply. RCgroups is a mine of info but trawling through it takes time and asking questions over there is like asking for directions in London, even the bus drivers ignore you!

Heart intoFPV!
Windless fields and smokeless builds
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