Alt Think ~ Blog

As far back as I can remember, there’s always been this deep fascination within me for anything that flew. Watched birds fly for hours as a kid, built those plastic models of course, was transfixed by Apollo Moon Landings and Jumbo Jets, and even flew crafted balsa planes within the confines of our backyard. In the years since, a variety of R/C aircraft have been purchased, although ultimately none survived for very long. After watching me wreck a Ready-To-Fly “beginners” airplane in minutes, Heather suggested perhaps I really wasn’t cut out for this whole radio controlled flying model thing.

Then, with a fresh armada of these tiny and inexpensive quadcopters reaching the market, of course I had to have one for my very own. It might come as no surprise this in fact is not my first radio controlled quadcopter. The original lasted a few hours flight time, before it’s delicate plastic frame became damaged beyond my limited capacity to repair. However, that brief experience gave me a chance to learn flight control basics, and to some degree master the finer inputs necessary to maneuver within the enclosed area of our living room. Then one day, after suffering repeated high speed impacts, I looked down upon the broken parts of my first quadcopter, and quickly realized it was time for a complete upgrade!

So I purchased this genuine Hubsan H107C Quadcopter, which turns out to be quite an excellent little aircraft. Flying around the living room, or even in our backyard, this little quadcopter is remarkably stable, even when flown by my clumsy hands. I’ve successfully maneuvered this durable quadcopter in tight spaces, as well as watched it hold its own against gusting winds outside. Intrinsically very stable, fully capable of hovering with slight corrections, this tiny quadcopter has power enough to quickly accelerate up and out of sight within seconds. Repeatedly played ‘lost and found’ with this thing hanging in a tree, hidden in the bushes, and once or twice retrieved from the neighbors yard. The small size can make control difficult when beyond visible range, or at heights and distances where determining which direction the damn thing is pointed becomes a real challenge.

While personally thrilled to keep any R/C aircraft flying for more than a few moments successfully, there remains inside a nagging apprehension. By posting such videos on YouTube, has my backyard become part of some gigantic virtual backyard database? Have I in fact contributed to the invasive, self-surveillance society? Is this marketing cheap quadcopters to the public a way to make us feel all warm and fuzzy about drones, before they start flying them over our heads, dropping God knows what upon us? My mind fixates upon such questions, even while innocently and responsibly flying my own buzzing little toy. Seem to be more willfully resistant to sharing such videos of my home life, or further blurring the distinction between the virtual world, and my own. What a curious paradox of mixed motivations I am….