Hi All,
I’ve been flying model aircraft for many years at various clubs in south Devon at: Newton Abbot and Exeter horse race tracks, a Club field near Marldon Paignton, (all types of aircraft) a farm on cliffs near Brixam and Haytor on Dartmoor (Glides only, no props allowed) and for indoor flying at Kingsteignton Indoor bowling club (now closed and is a Fitness Centre. Thought I haven’t been flying RC aircraft for a few years I have recently bought two drones. A small Hubsan H107D X4 for learning indoors with and a Global Drone X183. I bought the X183 to help with my other hobby, metal detecting as it can be used to get aerial views of the detecting locations to see if there are any interesting crop marks. So far only flown the Hubsan indoors and the X183 in my garden, so looking for suitable outdoor space to learn to fly the Syma when weather improves. In the past I have started and run several clubs and am contemplating starting a Drone Club here in south Devon. Just need to find a suitable location. I have already approached 2 such locations and am looking at a few more this week. Who’s interested ? Contact me via tonyvee2@hotmail.co.uk if you are. If there’s enough South Devon potential members I will arrange a meet where we can have a drink and discuss the idea (by the way, most aircraft model flying clubs in s=this area don’t allow drones.
Best wishes
Tony.
Hi there @Tony and welcome to Grey Arrows, great to have you on board 
I think @SharkBait is down your way - I’m sure we must have some others too!
What’s the X183 like to fly? I’m not familiar with the Global Drone range of equipment.
I’ve just finished watching the entire boxset (all three seasons) of Detectorists - what a great show, big Mackenzie Crook fan 
So… is it accurate? 
Hi,
Many thanks for the welcome. Not flown the X183 properly yet, I originally bought the Syma X8HG but decided to sell it on when I saw a couple of promo videos about the X183s capabilities. Also because no mater what I did with the Syma I couldn’t get the FPV app to work. The X183 has its own screen for FPV, plus the Syma has no gps and the X183 has two. Also with the Syma I was not able to get it to hover at all, the videos of the X183 show it hovering with no problems. It looks a much better machine for about the same price.
As for ‘The Detectorists’ it is fairly accurate in most aspects. Especially the detecting club, there’s always at least one total Wally in every club, and I’ve belonged to a few over the 50 or so years I’ve been detecting. In the show they always get onto land with no problems at all, in real life the hardest thing in metal detecting is to get permission to search from landowners. As for the actual detecting itself, someone who knows how to do it should have been on hand to teach the actors. They seem to take 2 or 3 steps between each swing of the detector as well as hold the coil too high from the ground and also swing it upwards at each and of the sweep, so missing out large swathes of land. In real life the coil should be within an inch of the surface, always held flat to the ground and sweeps should overlap. Otherwise that one piece of real treasure will almost certainly be within the piece of land you’ve just missed !
Check out my video at: - YouTube
Best Wishes.
Tony.
Hi Tony. I used to fly models at Marldon too but only went up there a couple of times last couple of years so lapsed my membership. Unless you have a big garden more than 50m away from other residential property beware. I had a warning from the local constabulary (a local mad neighbor shopped me) after testing GPS hover at just a few feet high near my house. So many places have banned them too. Berry head country park, Dartmoor, etc. Somebody told me off and asked me to stop, (I told them the CAA regs) when I was actually flying on the coast and over the sea near Brixham?
I paraglide and gets lots of opportunity for aerial video, but wanted to get views inaccessible to me with a paraglider by using my drone. Club sounds a good idea. I don’t have anything fancy like mavic, I wish! But my Bayangtoys x21 with a motorised gimbal, and decent camera gives surprisingly good results. Recent video here
Can I ask what they said?
Hi @Tony. Another warm welcome to the club. Very pleased to have you with us. Lovely part of the country you’re in. I used to have relatives near you and visited them a lot. Wish I still could now, with my drones in tow. 
Hi All,
I am going ahead with setting up the Devon Drone Club, I am sure once I have found a suitable site and promoted the club via Drone magazines etc, members will come flooding in, Though membership numbers will have to be limted or we’ll be falling over ourselves to get our drone in the air on club days. Meanwhile I have set up a Devon Drone Club Facebook page, you can find it at: Facebook
Best wishes.
Tony Volante.
Good job, Tony. Feel; free to plug your activities in this group too - you never know who may be listening!
They warned me of a possible £5000 fine if I was contravening CAA regs. I had some e mail comms with the CAA afterwards to clarify ‘the regs’ and they told me that even flying a tiny little pocket sized 20 gms drone in my garden closer than 50 m to residential property was illegal. Bonkers.
Blimey… 
Yes! But I’d say you’re probably OK unless you have a bonkers neighbour like me. Though people can be funny about quads with cameras I found. What TF are they trying to hide? Apparently privacy laws are much worse that ours in some other European countries though. Austria for example.
There is no Street View on Google Maps in Germany and Austria for this reason.
Yeah - my neighbours were really funny when I got my P2 a few years ago … they ALL wanted photos of their houses and gardens! LOL!
Alas … after firmware updates it, and now the MP, won’t fly here.
Not that I flew then, of course … coughs … 