January 6, 2016
By Michael Draper, Glass Grinders
I have been thinking of some unique marketing ideas for 2016, as I am going to launch a new business, and one item I thought would be very useful is a drone. To my surprise one evening at Sam’s Club, there was a DJI Phantom drone marked down $150.00. This was too large of a temptation to pass up, so I purchased the drone. Now I had flown toy helicopters before, although not very successfully, but how hard could this be? My son and I proceeded to unpack the drone, get all the necessary downloads installed and the last thing that flashes on the screen of the iPhone is “Push here for tutorial and flying instructions.” I thought to myself, “Really? This is a toy. I am not going to waste precious flying time going through some useless tutorial.” Now, I will say, the one thing I did read was that the drone will take off and hover at 4 feet, at which time the operator can take control, so in my mind that made this thing an inside toy. We fired the drone up in my newly remodeled home office and to both my son and my surprise this thing has much more power than the toy helicopters we have crashed in the past. Papers were blowing everywhere and then it is hovering at the 4 feet but starts to slowly track towards us which, being the smart guys we are, we figure out that is about chest level. I tried to operate the drone from the control pad and accidentally sent it on its side into the newly remodeled wall, which I figured might stop it. Even though one propeller did break, the others had no problem continuing down the wall, cutting circular patterns as it went. About ten minutes later we were able to shut the drone down. As my wife entered the room, she was even more disgusted, as she was already upset that I spent the equivalent of a car payment on what she views as a worthless toy. The moral of the story is this, please remember to read the instructions.
