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C. Mudgeon

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Location
Dallas, Texas
Howdy, y’all! New member from the Republic of Texas.

A Drocon Cyclone was given to me as a gift about a year ago, and I’ve been hooked on quadcopters ever since. The Cyclone has neither GPS nor altitude hold, so flying it means you’re on the sticks all the time. It’s a zippy little flyer in sport mode, but in learning I’ve flown it into fences, trees, chimneys, houses, dunked it in my neighbor’s pool and dropped it out of a tree into a lake. It still flies; it’s quite resilient.

Having gotten all those crashes out of my system, and after spending a little time on Realflight 8, I decided it was time to move up. I settled on the Anafi because of its flight characteristics and photography capabilities. It went on sale so I made a move on the extended configuration. I am a structural engineer and the lightweight carbon fiber airframe is not only an engineering marvel, but, to me, it is a thing of beauty (sidelong glance from wife).

I’ve had it about 3 weeks but haven’t flown it yet because of weather conditions and constraints on my time. So, I’ve read the user manual front to back a number of times; I think I’ve reached the end of the internet searching for Youtube videos on all things Anafi and I devour any tidbit of information I can find on it.

Then I found this forum – full of intelligent people who are extremely knowledgeable about not only the Anafi, but also piloting and aerial photography. Some of the photos and videos posted here are stunning and give me great hope for things to come.
I’ve connected the copter, controller, and my “device” (as the manual likes to refer to my iPhone X); impressed with the way the three components integrate to form a fairly sophisticated flight system. I’ve kept up with all the updates and examined the Anafi Webserver page. I just haven’t hit the “FLY” button yet.

I realize that many of the posts on forums such as this are primarily complaints seeking revisions and problems seeking resolution. As such, they are a tremendous resource for which I am grateful. However, I think I’ve overdone it. I’ve gone too far; I’ve read too much. I am afraid that when I finally get to fly it, a number of bad things could happen:
  • I hit the “Fly” button and nothing happens
  • I hand launch it and it hits the ground
  • It will go up and fly away
  • It will go up and “fall out of the sky”
  • It will go up and a motor will quit
  • The controller will lose connection with the aircraft
  • My “device” will lose connection with the controller
  • The HUD will go blank
  • My videos and photos will be blurry while zooming
  • The HDR shots will be dodgy
  • The camera gimbal won’t calibrate
  • The video recording will stop prematurely
  • The software will stop reading the uSD card
  • The gallery will disappear from my “device”
  • There will be a new update released after I’ve taken off
  • The aircraft won’t start up
  • The aircraft won’t shut down
  • The smart battery will go dumb
All that being said, I will not be deterred. We Texans are an indomitable bunch. The Anafi was not meant to sit on a shelf; it is meant to fly and show off its nimble flight abilities and take dazzling shots with its incredible camera. I realize that the problems discussed here are being shared with the community for enlightenment and probably affect maybe 0.001% of all Anafi’s. Firm in that belief, I will conduct my inaugural flight this weekend, secure in the knowledge that my aircraft will be immune to the issues listed above.

More to come…
 
Welcome from your neighbor to the far north (snowing outside).

Forums are a place many people come to resolve problems so I realize the number of issues you'll find is probably not a good representation of the quality of an item. That said once I got a unit that didn't have a controller battery problem everything synced well and I've had a couple of short opportunities to fly the Anafi (once for a minute or two indoors and a 15 minute flight in the cold yesterday).

It sounds like you have done what you can to avoid a lot of issues by having read the owners manual. For me the main things are fully charged batteries, going through the compass calibration, making sure I have green gps indications for both drone and controller and start with the camera mode which if you've been flying non-gps drones will get boring very quickly.

I haven't had any of the issues you've noted so all I can say is take it out and fly at first opportunity.
 
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Welcome & congratulations, from Downunder!

Don't be alarmed when you do hit the big green "Fly" button & nothing happens! You still need to hit the "Take Off" button after that to get airborne! ;)

It is a stunning piece of engineering really & even with some minor issues for a few people, it is an incredibly capable photographer's & videographer's dream piece of kit in such a small size. I appreciate her more & more, every time I get to fly her.

Looking forward to seeing some imagery & footage of the Lone Star State, when you get around to sharing some.

Enjoy her!
 
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Welcome from Germany!
I enjoyed you list of things that might happen. (y)
Sounds like a summary of the post contents here over the last months.
But if you want to or have to take drugs, then don't read the leaflet!
So good flight.
 
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