GDU Byrd Standard

Meanwhile (while I was working on my S500 homebuilt quadcopter), I joined a Dutch drone forum that had just started: www.dronepilots.nl.

After a while, they organised a price draw of one of the drones they had received for a review. And guess what? I won! 😃

It's a GDU Byrd, formerly known as ProDrone Byrd. I won one with the old ProDrone logo still on it.

It's a full size foldable drone, with a modular gimbal system. Mine came with the standard 1080p camera. It has a holder for a phone or tablet on the controller, and after the accompanying app connects to the controller's WiFi, you get pretty much all the functionality you'd expect from a drone capable of autonomius flight: auto take-off, auto land, GPS and baro assisted position hold, (auto) return to home, waipoint missions, video and photography remote control, etc. Full resolution video is stored on an SD card inside the camera, and (if you indicate that in options) a lower resolution version on the mobile device.

I must say, it takes a little getting used to, this flying with GPS assisted functionality. Both sticks center when released, and when moved, the quad seems to respond very sluggishly. But that is compared to my home-built quadcopter, which has autolevel as it's most advance feature 😉

It flies pretty easy, once you get used to it. And it stays steady, even in moderately high winds. It should be capable of lifting about 1.5 kg. Almost it's own weight.

I just had to go try this one out on the camping, to film our caravan and the forrest around it!

I live within the Schiphol CTR, and that is, of course, controlled airspace, so prohibited to fly. But pretty much every weekend, my wife and I spend on the camping in the center of the country. It's in a military low-flying area, but at least it is not forbidden to fly there. During weekdays, a spotter is required. But that's it for as far as regulations go.

It turns out that heavier drones are well suited for leaf-blowing tasks 😂

I have flown the Byrd a couple of times now, and it does what it does great! Only two things I would like to see change are the planning of waypoint missions (not possible to do that "off line"; it has to be done at the scene, costing time and battery life), and the video quality. I am slightly dissapointed at the 1080p quality. Maybe it's because I would have wanted 4K resolution, as that seems to be the standard these days. I don't know. It still looks a bit grainy to me.

Another thing I am a bit dissappointed about is the battery. I hear that on the newer ones with the GDU logo on them, there is a different battery. But mine started to puff up after two or three charges already. And you can only charge with the charger that comes with the kit, so if I over-charged, then it is the kit charger that probably does not cut off charging in time. Anyway, I am not sure if I want to spend in excess of €100 on a new battery to get this Byrd flying the full 20 minutes again. Because it actually did keep it's promise of flight time when it was new. Now, we are down to 14 minutes.

I must say, it is an easy to transport quad for it's size. It comes in a convenient box that can well serve as a travel case, and I have taken it around the country many times now. I have even used it as a rescue quad, but that is for a post still to come...

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