No Jim, I haven't.....yet. Every time I was going to play with it it was either windy or raining. Still haven't had much success with it (other than getting it out of a tree about25 feet up). A problem I run into is that the trim buttons are not labeled as to which one does what plus the orientation of them is different than the drone sitting in front of you. Also, the wind is a real issue especially since I'm a novice.
Sometimes these inexpensive drones are better to teach us to buy better drones than they are for flying.
I've had a dozen inexpensive drones, all of which were good to play with around (or in) the house, but they weren't much good to take pictures with or to fly any long distance missions with.
I learned how to use the controller by flying the el-chepo's but everything got better for me when I bought an Autel X-Star Premium. They had come to the end of their production life and were being replaced by the Autel Evo. As such, there were lots of them on ebay and for very little money. If I remember correctly, I bought mine for $499 and it came with everything, including a couple of batteries, extra propellers, carry case, etc. And it had a 4K camera that really worked well. Money well spent and I could fly as high as was legal (or higher) and it took some great videos. All-in-all, a great drone for not much money.
I was getting better with my drone and one day a friend said a company in China (no surprise there) would give us a free drone if we would give them an honest review on Amazon. (i.e. they wanted to
buy some good reviews.) OK, they sent one, I reviewed it, gave them an honest review and played with my free drone. Then they did it again, this time with a drone from Walmart. I took the drone for a flight, gave them a review, and everyone was happy. (As these drones weren't as good as the X-Star Premium, I would give them to my Son, who had a good time with them.) When they came back a 3rd time and I told them I had enough cheap drones and no I didn't want to do another review.
About a month later they said they would send me their flagship drone if I would review it. So I said sure, OK. I flew it, reviewed it, and again I played with my new drone. It should be noted that I never gave a fake review, I reviewed the drones and gave them the # of stars that I felt they deserved. All of this based on the drone and what could be expected for that price point. Here is one of the flights I recorded for their HS-170 drone, which was about $150.00 at the time.
Holy Stone HS720.mp4
Even though this HS-170 drone has a camera, it isn't really able to capturing good videos, but it is a wonderful drone to learn the basics with. And at a little over $150, it's affordable. It's easy to fly and has a lot of features that you find on more expensive drones. And if you lose it, well it won't ruin your day.
If I were you, I would look on eBay for a used DJI or comparable model drone. Don't get the X-Star like mine as they no longer make batteries for them. These higher brand drones will really make your day, and they are seriously easy to fly in GPS mode. And unlike the el-chepo's that are available, the nicer drones will shoot some incredible video.
