I Los Angeles, CA--I had my somewhat pricy DJI Inspire 1 camera drone for five months.   I love the product and it never gave a bad moment.  Well not quite.   DJI has an update policy from Hell.  They suddenly announce a firmware update.  You can't fly until you get to good internet service with a computer, download and install the update.   That is a disaster when you drive to a location for a shoot and everything stops.   Okay that sucks but while attempting my last update for the cold weather battery fix things went to Hell. The camera stopped retaining the little SD memory card spitting it out!  There suddenly was a second problem with the coupling of the camera and gimbal to the drone.  Contact was somehow lost.   Technical support was sympathetic and told me to take it to Fedex and provided several explicate pages of instructions on shipping it back. The repair facility is in nearby Carson but they demand it be shipped by Fedex eve...

Los Angeles, CA —The explosion of civilian multi-rotor camera drones is just beginning.   People are reacting to seeing them for the first time.   My experiences with the public seeing my drones in action has been mixed.   Thankfully the vast majority of people are amazed and they enjoy seeing them fly. A minority of “drone detractors” react with exhibitions of hostility, hatred and ignorance.   In the last two years I’ve had just a scant few unsettling encounters while flying my drone. For reasons I don’t understand I’ve been only been confronted by women.   They advise me I’m breaking the law, and then they call or threaten to call the cops.   They obviously don’t know the law.   I usually ignore them, shoot my video and leave the area when my flight is over.   If the cops respond to their call I don’t know because I’ve always moved on prior to their arrival.   Three women on separate occasions were downright nasty and even e...