Questions about drones

kansashunter · September 2018

I am considering a drone to look for cows. I spend time looking for cows in the pasture, quite a bit of it is too rocky to drive so some of it has to be walked. The walking is good for me but doing this after work I run out of daylight sometimes. The pasture is about 1/2 mile by 3/4 mile. Would a drone be able to cover that much before the battery died. I have been around one only a little so I don't know much. I watched a video about one someone posted on here but that one required pairing it each time you used it, I would rather not.

Jermanator · September 2018

I can't answer your questions, but that is a damn good idea!

terminator012 · September 2018

Never owned one but an older friend of mine has one. By watching his videos on FB he flies that far or further from where he starts. He flies out over the mississippi river, lakes and woods. I would guess that depending on how much you spend on one would determine the distance it will go.

Gila · September 2018

You need a horse. When the cattle lay down, you may not be able to see them from the air.

orchidman · September 2018

Gila said:

You need a horse, a western saddle, a Winchester lever action and a colt revolver in a suitable western rig. When the cattle lay down, you may not be able to see them from the air.

You didnt go far enough Gila so I fixed it for you.

DanChamberlain · September 2018

A cattle dog.

10canyon53 · September 2018

The range and duration of flight are going to be directly impacted by how much money you spend. They certainly make drones capable of what you need it for. The question is, how much are you willing to spend?

bullsi1911 · September 2018

We have a DJI Spark, and it is a great machine. You do have to connect it to the phone or tablet each time via WiFi, but that is no problem really. If that bothers you, you can get a dedicated remote that will also get you longer range.

Flight time is about 10-15 min depending on wind. When it is fighting wind, it eats battery much faster.

Gila · September 2018

You need a horse. When the cattle lay down, you may not be able to see them from the air.

Spk · September 2018

10canyon53 said:

The range and duration of flight are going to be directly impacted by how much money you spend. They certainly make drones capable of what you need it for. The question is, how much are you willing to spend?

This!

I bought a small one for the kids, saw how fun they were having with it, (And how they abused it.) Ended up buying a much better one for myself and they can't get near it!

Many of the smaller more affordable ones run about $150-250 and have about a 500 meter 3/10th ( almost a 1/3) of a mile range. A more expensive model can run you over $800 but will probably have a range of over a mile to up to about 4 miles. It's up to you ($).

How much viewing do you need?

I think for what you're doing, a smaller one would work. Just add a little walking on your part and let the drone handle the rough stuff.

kansashunter · September 2018

I have a horse but if I am out feeding and am short 1 then I would have to go back home, catch the horse, saddle the horse and get my fat self on and off to get where I need to start looking. It is the best way but I am just a part timer and as the days get short by the time I get off work the amount of daylight is limited. I have been looking on the web some and the ones I think might work are more than I can spend. I also found that they consider any use on a farm is considered commercial and requires a different license. How have you gotten along with your DJI? I have read that their customer service is bad.

zorba · September 2018

That all may be true, but I'd be damned if somebody was going to tell me I couldn't fly a drone on my OWN PROPERTY!

olesniper · September 2018

Im bought the DJI Spark Fly More combo. Drone, 2 batteries, 3 place charger, and the controller. Get about 14-15 minutes, depends on how much wind there is. You'd be amazed how far you can see, from 200 ft., straight up.
Plug the phone into the controller, with a short OTG cable, turn on the drone, turn on the controller, and they connect by themselves. Bring up the drone app, on the phone and we're off.