First Flight - Holy Stone HS510

I’ve just returned from the maiden flight of my HS510 over Wat Tyler Country Park here in Essex. Here are my initial thoughts.

  1. Great fun and very easy to fly albeit a little nervous as it was quite breezy above 70ft so the auto return to home got pressed a few times :smiley:

  2. A little disappointed with the lack of stability with the camera (1 axis and manual) although I knew it was like that when I bought it. First drone n all that. Same with the single battery. 12 to 15 minutes max really just isn’t enough so a second spare battery in now being sought.

  3. Pleased with the response of the general public that walked by both when in the air and on the ground. One guy walking past with his dog stopped and we had a good conversation about the rules and regs, Gov stopping people having fun, the cost etc etc and another guy out with his son stopped and waited til I 'd landed so his son could ask me questions.

  4. Lots to learn over the coming weeks and months (weather permitting) and I suppose confidence in flight will grow the more flight time you get.

  5. Holy Stone HS510. I think it’s a cracking little sub 250gm drone for the beginner like me and at £110.00 new a bargain for the fun and photography that can be had.

A week off work now so the maps are out and notes on where to fly from this forum being taken :wink:

Happy flying peeps and stay safe.

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Sounds like a great first flight. As for where to fly Dronescene is your friend:

From the Dronescene map - developed, maintained and updated by GADC members, CAA approved and the best place to find the latest flight restrictions and tested places to fly.

It looks like there is a lot of land that is not in restricted airspace. The red “coronavirus” on the right is the Flight Restriction Zone around Southend Airport. The yellow is a caution indicating Thurrock Airport. The purple squiggle around your country park indicates Crown Estates property - good news, they have a policy of allowing people to fly as long as they follow the drone code… One green marker - Hadleigh Castle - someone has flown there and left some information about the site.

No marker for Wat Tyler Country Park! Perhaps you would like to add one? The login to Dronescene is your GADC username and your email :slight_smile: Enjoy planning and flying your next missions!

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Glad to hear you had an enjoyable first flight :slightly_smiling_face: Its definitely an addictive hobby! I’m still pretty new to drones myself but am slowly racking up the hours. I agree with you about the battery. I have 3 batteries which gives me a little more than 1 hour flight time which is usually enough to do what I want to do when out. I would definitely recommend getting a couple more batteries if you can to get more time in the air between charges. Its not too bad if you’re very local but if you start travelling a little to fly new places 15 mins just won’t be enough. More batteries = more flight time = quicker confidence boost = more enjoyment :grin:

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