I received my
Tello today. The first initiation process should have been a piece of cake, but there were some issues. Luckily, I'm an IT professional, so I figured out what was wrong, or at least, how to overcome the issues, and finally got out around the house (inside) on the maiden flight. What generally seems to be going on is that the application software (in my case, on my iPhone) is still a little buggy. I kept getting different messages about different problems. And at first, the camera was not working.
The small instruction set that comes with the drone is virtually useless. It's quite thick, but that's because it includes pretty much every language in the known universe, except, perhaps, for Klingon (I guess Ryze figures that Klingons wouldn't read the instructions anyway). BUT, there IS a full owner's manual with excellent detail on the Ryze website. Downloads for all kinds of stuff can be found here:
Ryze Tech
But back to my story. I finally decided to try getting things going from my iPad. Absolutely flawless. Not a single error message, and I was flying within 5 minutes. I tried my iPhone again, and again I was met with all sorts of error messages, and no camera image. Since the iPhone and iPad use different versions of the OS, and Apple keeps that locked up tight, I don't know why my iPhone won't control the thing, and why I get so many error messages. I'll just try to use some uncharacteristic patience, (and my iPad) and wait until Ryze/DJI and Apple figure things out.
As far as performance, the drone behaves exactly as advertised. I haven't tried some of the maneuvers that need more room than my shoe-box sized living room, but as far as controllability, the drone is easy to fly, and quite forgiving. The only thing I'd warn a new pilot about, when using the app, is that there is a slight latency in response from input commands to the actual maneuver. It's not huge, but it's there. Though this thing is best flown indoors, or in very quite outdoor environment, stay farther away from objects and walls until you get used to the latency. I'll be ordering a game controller soon, to see if that works any better.
More details and impressions soon (as soon as the wind stops blowing in gusts, here in Sonoma County).