Finally - Part of the Club...!

I really did want to be a part of the Freely club for a long, LONG time. After all, it was Freefly who played a HUGE part in inventing this genre both in terms of the drone and camera gimbal. Trouble is, I have always been a "hands on", renaissance man sort of guy who thinks he can do anything. I always built ALL the drones for me then my company for the last 5 years right up to our most recent iteration of our heavy lift class which is an Aeronavics Skyjib X4XL with A2, then A3 then PixHawk, KDE motors & ESCs, Gremsy H16 etc.). I feel that it is really important to actually KNOW how BIG drones work and what all the component pieces do and their extremely delicate relationship with each other, payload, mission parameters, environment and the physical world. I have learned A LOT over the past five years and I wouldn't trade that knowledge for anything. Every great (or even decent) heavy lift pilot should have been a builder at one time in order to gain this invaluable knowledge so that if (when) the $hit hits the fan they can make some really good, fast, sensible decisions that may save lives, property and $$$.

That all being said - I have lusted after an ALTA and MoVI PRO combo for a LONG time. The ALTA6 wasn't big enough and the 8 barely is but you just can't beat the fit and finish, plug and play functionality and film set professional look of these machines. Yeah sure, it eventually took the 20% off sale that happened right on the heels of a particularly bad day on set fighting with gimbal tuning and compass errors galore to force my hand but I am happy to say that I finally own an ALTA8 and a MoVI PRO. SkyView, here we come! Bush Pilot - I'm all ears! I'm am in!

I realize the I2 / X7 is what we will still fly 50-75% of the time and that is probably what people need. And yes, I still have my sights set on building an ultra heavy lift class drone in the >55lb category to fly what the Producers, DPs and Directors "think" they really need. In the meantime I am going to be very happy with the plug and play, awesome portability and ease of use (hopefully) of this new Freefly reality. Also, I am very much looking forward to tech support who I can 1) reach 2) understand what they say and 3) know that they know exactly where I am coming from and what I am trying to do with their products. Oh, and the community looks to be very active and awesome too. Hello!

 

They are constantly wanting to pile more stuff on there including longer, heavy anamorphic or even "light" zoom lenses in the 7-9lb, 8" long range with up to three motors. It is terrifying!