David J. W.
Posted
Flightelf Falcon drone purchase
I recently purchased a Flightelf Falcon Drone which arrived packaged as a Global GD98 drone which looked identical to the Falcon Drone pictured on website. To The manual provided with the drone showed a different remote control than what was provided. A small supplement manual was also provided for the updated remote but that supplement was very small and difficult to read. I found a You Tube tutorial video online provided by Flightelf which was helpful in the setup process. In the USA, this drone requires registration with the FAA as it is above the .55lb weight limit. It also requires the operator to take a free online safety test to obtain a drone operator flight certificate if it is to be used only recreationally. If it is to be used commercially to earn money, an FAA 107 course may be necessary which usually requires a written test at an FAA approved test center. As a beginner drone operator, I was able to familiarize myself with takeoff, basic flight and landing characteristics without too much difficulty. I used the one touch takeoff feature along with the return to home feature for landings. On my initial flights, I sent the drone up directly overhead and turned it to take pictures. On the one touch takeoff, after I moved the joysticks to get the propellers spinning, and hit the one touch up control the drone lifted off to a couple feet off the ground where it hovered until I then took over control with the joysticks and manually raised the drone up to the altitude I desired. When I pressed the return to home button, the drone slowly descended and landed pretty much within a foot or two of the takeoff point as I stood nearby. Battery life seemed short to me which is why I rated it as a 3 out of 5 stars. I used over 50 percent battery capacity in less than 10 minutes of flight and the remote controller battery capacity drained almost all the way down within 10minutes...something to keep in mind for flights. Overall, this drone is simple to use and helpful for beginners who may want to eventually upgrade to a more expensive drone. *Update* 3/16/2025 I took the drone up after 4 months of not using it over the Winter. I found two issues.... The battery life seemed to have shortened even more. I am getting only 5 minutes of flight time before drone gives low battery warning and lands itself with two out of four battery lights still lit. I put batteries on charge and one of the batteries is still not fully charged after 12 hours of charge...4th battery light still blinking on charge where all 4 lights should be solid when fully charged. Battery life per charge is nowhere near the 35 minutes claimed on the Flightelf website. On my drone, in order to get 35 minutes flight time, I would need to land and swap the batteries at least three times as I am lucky to get 10 minutes maximum flight time out of one battery. Second issue was on my most recent flights, the drone was not obeying certain commands from the controller. I had the drone up in the air and tried to rotate it and drone would not turn. Then after I released the joystick, the drone rotated way beyond where I wanted it to and would not obey my joystick commands to stop turning for several seconds longer. At the same time, it would not obey my thumb wheel commands to raise and lower the camera angle... This occurred for several seconds until it started acting normally again. This had never happened before in nearly two dozen flights with this drone. *Update 5/31/25 Random issue has developed with my drone. The issue that I described above in my March 2025 edit has gotten worse. I am now having issues where the drone is not obeying start up/ take off commands from the controller. I move the joysticks to get the propellers spinning and nothing happens. Controller is synched to drone and message that GPS connection is successful. Batteries in drone and controller are fully charged. I have to shut down and restart in order to start the drone. I also had an issue where I had the drone in the air and it stopped obeying all commands from the controller. It would not turn or move at all. I tried sending it back down via joysticks and return to land commands which it ignored. It just hovered in the same spot 100 feet in the air. Finally after a minute of this, it began working properly again and I was able to land it. I am now wondering if there is a fault developing in the drone or controller. I am now concerned that this issue may cause me to lose the drone in flight if it fails to obey commands from the controller and ends up crashing or running out of battery and fails to return to the takeoff/landing site.