Now that we have got our first drone flight out of the way I am itching to get out there and fly some more. I can not believe I had my drone for over a year and never once took it out for a spin. Was I just nuts or something? It is so fun to maneuver through the sky. 

Christmas was just yesterday, and we had Thao's grandfather over for the occasion. We did not do anything extravagant. Since it was only the five of us for the day, we decided to take it easy and just grill some burgers and have some potato salad. While grandpa was here, we told him about our "new" drone we had just flown two days prior. He seemed intrigued, and I came up with the grand idea of taking the DJI Phantom out to one of the nearby beaches and showing him what it can do. Everyone agreed so I quickly jumped onto Google Maps to find a beach we could just park and get out and fly. 

Around 3:30 pm we arrived at Capistrano Beach. Not too many people were around, but there were more than I thought there would be. We walked down the beach little ways and picked our flat take off spot. I have watched a few YouTube videos since our first flight to get some pointers. Apparently, we should have calibrated the compass on the drone before our flight. OOPS! I made sure the calibrations were done before lift off this time. I was feeling brave and told everyone I was attempting a manual take off this time. It looked pretty easy to do on YouTube so why not!. I started my propellers and slowly raised the drone up higher, higher, and higher. I could tell grandpa was pretty impressed with that. From there it was business as usual. I soared through the air with ease recording video of the skyline, the city, and the contrast of the ocean and the beach. I could just watch the waves from above all day long. It is very hypnotic. Finally, the low battery warning came on, and I flew the Phantom down to land. Now, I did a manual take off, so it only makes sense to do the same for landing right? It turns out I was fabulous on my landing; even grandpa was impressed.

Since the sun was starting to set, grandpa wanted to stay just a little bit longer at the beach to watch the sunset. We sat on a bench and chit chatted while the sun slowly disappeared into the ocean. While we were seated, all our ears perked right up. Someone else came to the beach to fly their drone too! We all had a good laugh and watched the other drone zip through the sky. 

I like this drone I bought. I wish I could just take it out every day and see what new perspectives I can achieve with it. If only I had the time.