Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Power Edition

Oh I love this thing. It is very intuitive to fly and easy to control. When you get in trouble, take your thumbs off the touch screen of the tablet and the drone sorts itself out pronto. That said, this is definitely a toy. It is going to be crashed. It is going to be broken. It will require repairs. The repairs are easy. Most of all, this thing is surprisingly rugged. I'm amazed at the number and severity of cashes it has survived without being grounded for repairs. I use the android app and was up and running (flying) just moments after the battery reached full charge. I first tried flying indoors in a largish but emptied bedroom. It is flyable in that size a room but the props create so much air turbulence that the drone had to work hard to keep its composure. It was still easy though because it tries to hover unless you're giving it control inputs. That self generated air turbulence made the drone pretty impossible to fly down the hall though. Taking it outside, there is no real issue with leaving the "indoor shell" in place. I'm glad I did because I crashed often. It isn't that it's hard too control. It's that it is so easy to fly that I do things I shouldn't - particularly when the wind is gusty. The crashes have been mostly harmless because the drone is so light that crashes don't tear it, or other things, apart. Regarding wind, I think 10 or 15 mph wind is too much - at least with the indoor shell on. It really struggles to hold position. It can hold position, but it is a far from steady hover often with a bit of downwind drift.. Anyways, it's a lot of fun to fly around and look at stuff through the cameras. Looking at stuff is fairly easy because the machine will try to hover in place. When I finally destroy this AR 2.0 in some mishap, I doubt I'll replace it with another just like it. Parrot is coming out with a newer model that looks to be quite the upgrade. I might go for a DJ phantom for the improved range, wind handling, and path following. I might go the full hobby route and assemble my own with those beastly motors and arduino gadgets. dunno. What I do know is that this AR 2.0 drone has me enthralled with all things drone.