Do drones get boring? Of course they do. As with most exciting things in life, after a while, the magic begins to fade. That said, depending on your level of investment and passion investment, there are always new ways to spice drone flying up. There are endless amounts of entertaining ways to add some excitement to your flying time.
Do Drones Get Boring?
If you’ve never owned and operated a drone before, you’re probably wondering how piloting such a cool contraption could ever get boring. The truth is, that as awesome as drones are, once you’ve become familiar with a particular model, the excitement factor may begin to fade.
Learning to properly pilot a drone is an exciting and rewarding pastime. However, once you master taking off, landing, making figure eights above your friend’s and family’s heads, and all of the ins and outs of your remote control, the challenge of operating a drone lessens.
Once flying a drone becomes regular, and you’re left with little to no challenge piloting the thing, it may indeed start to become dull. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re here reading this article, you’re probably just as impressed with drones as everyone else (myself included). And, honestly, they are more than worthy of our praise.
Regardless the how and why, or the length of time it takes to happen, if you are a drone enthusiast, sooner or later you’re going to go through a range of emotions about the hobby. One of them is going to be boredom or lack of interest.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of some of the coolest (and wackiest) stuff you can do to add some excitement back into your drone-time.
How to Add Some Excitement to Flying Drones
When you get your first drone (if you haven’t already), you’re going to fall in love even before you get it out of the packaging. By the time the battery is charged and you’ve double and triple-checked all of the components to make sure that they are functioning properly, you will be dying inside to get that bad boy off the ground and into the air.
You’ll spend hours, days, possibly weeks or months, enjoying your new drone and getting to know everything you possibly can about it. From aspects such as how wind levels affect its flight patterns to just how long you can push the battery pack between charges, you will greedily soak up every bit of knowledge and experience along the way.
And then… your drone may begin to become boring to you.
When this begins to happen, refer back to this article and our list of cool stuff to do to make flying your drone more exhilarating again (if not more exciting than ever).
Build a UFO or Other Unique Drone Body
One of the most amusing things to do for a bit of good drone-fun is to build (or purchase) a UFO and cause a sighting hoax. Even if you don’t feel like masterminding a staged UFO event, it will still be enjoyable to mess with grandma and grandpa, or the kids down the street.
If you decide to purchase or create a UFO-like drone, you may end up causing a UFO sighting news story like this one in New Jersey.
Exercise Partner
Are you an athlete with no partner to keep you company while you train? Perhaps its time to invest in a drone capable of not only keeping up with you but recording and tracking the progress of your activities. Although still somewhat of a new concept, there are successful models built for exactly this purpose. Check out the AirDog which is currently on the market.
Take Air-Selfies
For selfie lovers, drones allow you to take your levels of exposure to new heights (pun intended). One of the easiest and most exciting things to do once you’ve become a master pilot of your drone is to practice taking air-selfies (both stills and action). Some selfie-drones even come with an option to share your photos straight to social media in real-time via Wi-Fi.
Develop an Air-Show with LED Lights
Piloting a drone can be challenging at first. But once the controls have become familiar to you, however, you’ll be ready for pulling off smooth and truly amazing maneuvers such as front and side flips, barrel rolls, and more.
Grab some LED lights for drones and put the show on at night! It will make for an event to be remembered.
Create 3D Maps and Models Places and Structures
For those who’ve grown disenchanted with their drones (so long as they’re equipped with camera/video), creating 3D imagery is an extremely satisfying and profitable experience.
Once you’ve mastered various flight patterns, including landing, taking off, and smoothly circling targets at various heights, you’re ready to undertake the task of creating 3D maps and models. 3D imagery of people, places, and things have never been easier to create.
With software such as Pix4D, all you have to do is fly your drone around the target you wish to map or model from various angles and heights and then plug your footage into the software. The 3D imagery software will take care of all the technical stuff. You do not have to be a computer wiz to have fun creating 3D maps and models with your drone!
If you want to take it a step further, check out this Guide to Making Money Drone Mapping that we wrote.
Monitor Wildlife, Especially Birding and Hunting
Birdwatchers have never had it so good as they do today. With the evolution of personal drones to watch birds in their natural habitat is both easy and exciting. Whether you’re flying high with hawks and eagles or buzzing around with the robins and blue jays in the backyard, drones are most excellent for bird watching.
Even more, today’s drones are more than capable of watching, even tracking/stalking, much larger creatures than merely the feathered sort. Deer, elk, and other big game can be watched from afar, giving hunters a fantastic edge. Drones equipped with live video feeds and night vision can help hunters stalk wild pigs and packs of troublesome coyotes.
Photography and Videography of Real Estate, Weddings, and Live Events
As with creating 3D mapping and models, many drones are more than capable of taking photos and videos for friends and family, as well as paying clients.
Weddings are probably the easiest to employ your drone as a photography or videography service. Depending on your location, there are loads of live events for you to capitalize on with the aid of your drone.
Real estate agents also provide an endless amount of money earning opportunities for drone owners. Photographing the exterior of properties from as many angles as possible, as well as creating virtual tours of the inside, is a terrific way to hone your piloting skills while having fun and making cash.
Follow your Children
Today, you don’t need to be a member of law enforcement to use a drone for spying. Whether you use it to follow your children to the bus stop to make sure that they get to school, or to make sure that your teenager is really driving to their friend's house, modern drones are incredibly adapt as a tool for spying.
Advertise with Flying Banners
Albeit a bit of an old school form of advertising, flying banners with personalized messages is another simple way to make some money with your drone and have fun while doing so.
If you happen to live near a coastal area or other tourist-type regions, advertising in the air is both interesting and exciting. Sure, sometimes you may be flying a less than profound message across the sky, but other times you’ll be the pilot flying the “Will you marry me?” banner across the skyline (how romantic is that?).
Secure Your Property by Spying on the Neighborhood
Homeowners around the world are buying personal drones. Many of these consumer-class drones are used for little more than zipping around the house and surrounding property. Securing your property with a personal drone is easy and exciting. You will see your property (and the neighbor’s) from angles you’ve never seen. Hovering, panning, and swooping around the property is exhilarating and makes you feel like an empowered spy.
Peek into your house's windows (not your neighbor's!) to “check-in” on your family throughout the day. Never miss out on what's happening around your home. Secure your property (and neighborhood) with your personal drone.
Start a Drone League or Club
Last but not least, you always have the option of starting a drone league or club of your own. All it takes is just one or two other pilots (friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers) to found a group and start meeting.
The best part of founding your own club is that you get to help set the ground rules, purpose, and direction of the group. Perhaps you enjoy racing drones, or putting on air-shows. Maybe you're into building DIY drones or something altogether different and creative. When you start the club, you set the rules.
Whatever it is that gets you excited about drones, we're sure that there are others out there who get just as hyped up about it as you. These are the fellow pilots that will build your community and help you start a drone league of your own. If you live in a small town or rural area, consider starting an online club or forum.
A Final Word About Adding Excitement When Drones Get Boring
When flying your drone becomes boring, we hope that our list of some cool and wacky things to do with your drone will help add some serious excitement to your flight time.
If you don’t have excess money lying around to build a hoverbike, human-carrying drone, or equally ridiculously expensive flying machine, our list gives you some great alternatives for making drone flying more exciting.
Do you have a fun and exciting drone-related activity or idea to suggest to our audience? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.
Or, if you try one of the exciting things to do from our list, come back and let us know how it went!
Have fun spicing up your drone-time!
