Dear 3DR

[SoloUser]

Its just great that one of them turns out to be a Staff member on these boards - although the staff badge didn't appear until after earl called him out. You'd expect a staff member to stay out of the fray and hold himself to a higher standard.

+1

 

[Earldgrayjr]

+1

+1

 

[Dunginhawk]

Look, just because said "staff member" tells it how it is , thats all he has ever done. HIs reputation on these boards and the other one have been beyond reproach for a LONG time. Bang on me all you want, although we take largely the same stand.
However Ive been nothing other than supportive of the solo. In fact I got called a fan boy on the other site for weeks after this post http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/solo-and-p3p-owner-real-honest-discussion-please.531/#post-7899 and others I made lauding the solo.
I want this thing to succeed very badly. If version 2.0 next spring is solid, ill likely buy it.
My pros and cons list largely still stands as a pretty accurate view (of course its MY opinion) of the 2 platforms.
My decision to return mine had everything to do with gimbal delays (however you want to spin it, there were delays, period) and range issues (4200ft was the best i achieved with DBS, 20,000 with p3p).
Thats about it. Everything else about the solo I loved ,and want to love again.
My problems with 3dr and their support didnt arise until i tried to return it and got 5 NO's from support, management etc. This doesnt mean their support sucks, its 1000x better than DJIs, but personally I didnt have that experience, perhaps just back luck , or a bad day by a few 3dr folks.

Believe that or not, quite frankly I dont care. Like I said above, beat on me all you want, but calling out rmmcabe for telling it like it is, striving to make a better product, working with the company themselves doesnt deserve this (all be it small) amount of backlash. Rich wanted to give more money to DJI like he wanted a hole in the head but given the fact but in the end there wasnt much choice offered.

 

[erikgraham]

Look, just because said "staff member" tells it how it is , thats all he has ever done. HIs reputation on these boards and the other one have been beyond reproach for a LONG time. Bang on me all you want, although we take largely the same stand.
However Ive been nothing other than supportive of the solo. In fact I got called a fan boy on the other site for weeks after this post http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/solo-and-p3p-owner-real-honest-discussion-please.531/#post-7899 and others I made lauding the solo.
I want this thing to succeed very badly. If version 2.0 next spring is solid, ill likely buy it.
My pros and cons list largely still stands as a pretty accurate view (of course its MY opinion) of the 2 platforms.
My decision to return mine had everything to do with gimbal delays (however you want to spin it, there were delays, period) and range issues (4200ft was the best i achieved with DBS, 20,000 with p3p).
Thats about it. Everything else about the solo I loved ,and want to love again.
My problems with 3dr and their support didnt arise until i tried to return it and got 5 NO's from support, management etc. This doesnt mean their support sucks, its 1000x better than DJIs, but personally I didnt have that experience, perhaps just back luck , or a bad day by a few 3dr folks.

Believe that or not, quite frankly I dont care. Like I said above, beat on me all you want, but calling out rmmcabe for telling it like it is, striving to make a better product, working with the company themselves doesnt deserve this (all be it small) amount of backlash. Rich wanted to give more money to DJI like he wanted a hole in the head but given the fact but in the end there wasnt much choice offered.

As long as we are "calling them like we see them" then I call BS. Debate is good. But when the debate moderator takes sides that is bad... no matter how genuine his or her beliefs. When the debate moderator takes sides AND doesn't reveal he is a moderator until long into the debate, that is very bad. When the moderator takes sides, doesn't reveal himself to be a moderator, doesn't even own the product, posts more than anyone else, then that is downright reprehensible. You can say he's beyond reproach, but that doesn't make it so.

 

[Dunginhawk]

As long as we are "calling them like we see them" then I call BS. Debate is good. But when the debate moderator takes sides that is bad... no matter how genuine his or her beliefs. When the debate moderator takes sides AND doesn't reveal he is a moderator until long into the debate, that is very bad. When the moderator takes sides, doesn't reveal himself to be a moderator, doesn't even own the product, posts more than anyone else, then that is downright reprehensible. You can say he's beyond reproach, but that doesn't make it so.

1. Being a moderator doesnt mean you cant have opinions. Supreme court justices sit on the highest bench in the land, and they have biases too. Thats ridiculous to say once someone becomes a moderator that they lose the ability to have opinions. This isnt Iran
2. He has not been a moderator more than a couple of days, so that whole argument above, while completely ridiculous in the first place doesnt hold any water anyway. Just so you are aware, he was made a moderator AFTER every single post on this thread was made.
3 Debate moderator? as if #1 and #2 werent enough ammo, since when do Debate moderators not take sides? Candy Crowley in the 2012 presidential debate ring any bells? Besides this is a freaking message board about Toy Aircraft, lighten the hell up. Just because his, or mine, or some others dont match your own doesnt mean you have to go all political.
4 This has never been a debate in the first place. Everyone agrees (including me who had a bad experience) that 3DR's support is a million times better than DJI's. Everyone, except you more or less agrees the gimbal has been delayed for months. There isnt a debate here.

 

[Michael Stevenson]

Wow, you Bloviators are Amazing.

 

[Dunginhawk]

Wow, you Bloviators are Amazing.

Is that like Warren G "Bloviators Mount Up"

 

[Raybro]

Give it up man.

 

[DodgeP]

Wow.. totally missed this entire thread and I missed a lot. My take on things is this, being that I own both companies products; The Solo has great potential. Potential that is basically untapped at this point in time and potential that has yet to be put on display in any real world capacity. If you believe everything you see in a "promotional ad slot", I've got some land to sell you on the moon. Flights leave every 3 years on February 29th, no flights on the forth year because of aircraft maintenance.

I have self grounded Solo out of frustration, not with frustration with anything that the Solo is having problems with, but frustration with not being able to do anything that I bought Solo to do. Since I've grounded Solo, I've posted less and less but I might visit every day just to keep my finger on the pulse.

I say that to say this (this is not directed at anyone in particular); I know Solo bashing isn't welcomed and it makes it worse if you don't currently have one however! Not having a solo doesn't mean that you can't still provide valuable insight. There were many of us that were flying/trying to fly Solo every single day. We all know that Solo works very well when it's actually working and even with this relatively small sample size of Solo owners there are a lot of mixed experiences.

I don't honestly believe that anyone didn't know the gimbal was delayed. I also think that was the reason why 3DR offered the free battery but then, there was issues with that. Like....... I totally get it. If I would have had half the problems that some people have had, I would lose my sh*t too! There's a tipping point and many owners and ex owners have reached that point while others are having great experiences. Does that suck? Hell yeah it does.

I think there is still a plethora of knowledge to be shared and absorbed on this site and I appreciate the fact many users are very, very active and have pretty decent web etiquette.

 

[Del]

This is getting good.....

 

[erikgraham]

Edit:

I deleted this because it was to negative.

 

[Dunginhawk]

So if the guy who started this forum all of a sudden sold his solo his input would be immediately discredited? thats the dumbest argument ive ever heard.

Rich and I both flew our solos ALL THE FREAKING TIME. I grounded my p3p because I was wearing out my keyboard changing parameters in the tower app to try to get more holeshot etc.
So since I sent mine back (after about 200 flights) and Rich sent his back a month or so ago that makes my 200 flights null and void, and no longer able to give an opinion on the state of the product?

No where in the history of the internet does a moderator or a staff member of a messageboard need to be or has been impartial. Not one site in the world would a moderator be expected to be Nuetral, its not human nature. A moderators job is to remove flaming posts, or curse words, keep the children from killing each other, or when it gets completely out of hand (which this thread has run its course, it should probably be locked anyway).

Rich has never tried to "masquerade" as anything other than what he is, someone who loves flying quads, of all brands and offers his opinions, good and bad. Hes never claimed to be a DJI fan boy, in fact he has been very outspoken about disliking them. He has also been more than fair to 3DR, and says a version 2 will likely be on his shelf.
You folks are very very touchy about anyone calling your baby ugly. News flash, Solo isnt perfect, same as P3P isnt, nor Yuneeq or any other product.

 

[SoloUser]

As long as we are "calling them like we see them" then I call BS. Debate is good. But when the debate moderator takes sides that is bad... no matter how genuine his or her beliefs. When the debate moderator takes sides AND doesn't reveal he is a moderator until long into the debate, that is very bad. When the moderator takes sides, doesn't reveal himself to be a moderator, doesn't even own the product, posts more than anyone else, then that is downright reprehensible. You can say he's beyond reproach, but that doesn't make it so.

My thoughts exactly. Thank you!

 

[SoloUser]

I call more BS. This guy has always been part of the staff. He was the very first to reply to the very first post ever on this site. The only person who posted something before him was a dummy account that's only posted 2 times ever. He's obviously pals with the rest of the staff, and I even remember checking his profile early on, and it did have Staff indicated... briefly. He's been mascarading as just another one of us for months.

Here's the post: http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/hello-folks.2/#post-3

Usually the point of a community like this is to have an honest discussion, debate or whatever you want to call it. Normally a board like this is created as a place where people can help each other. But that is completely subverted when the very guy who helps run this forum doesn't own the product, and repeatedly sprinkles inaccuracies and passive aggressive (and ridiculously repetitive) comments everywhere. Again and again and again. 2 or 3 times is ok, but not hundreds of posts. Yes. Hundreds.

Moderators and staff should stay neutral, otherwise it undercuts the entire purpose of a community like this. No wonder people are pissed off. We are tired of the same old drum beat over and over again. So he got called out on it. Sorry it's uncomfortable, but he should know better. He's a 53 year old man for Christ sake.

(I'm not going to even engage on your candy Crowley point because that was a political debate, and she did a piss poor job)

+1

 

[DodgeP]

What difference does it make to anything if someone is staff or not? Did I miss that part? Has the info provided by Rich not been helpful and accurate? I feel like I have been watching this movie with a blindfold on the whole time if I'm missing something.

I can only assume that there was cross promotion on one of the other websites that lead EVERYONE to this site or perhaps it was a search engine that lead us here. Does being the first.........wait scratch that, does being the second automatically make you the villain? That argument sound ridiculous. Was anyone dragged here by the earlobe by someone else or did you happen upon the site, realize it was a pretty good meeting place - compared to the others - then decided to join and participate.

What is to be gained for actually being staff from day one but not sporting the label until; you're so fed up with product that you once had googly-eyes for - that you send it back. TWICE! Again, I don't get it. What am I missing?

 

[Raybro]

Is this about Rich or Solo? Rich has been here since the beginning. He IS the 3DR Solo forum. We have all been on this roller coaster ride since April which probably hasn't been as bad for most of us as it was for Rich.

But he hung in there after ranting and raving. I can say I don't think he ever bashed any of us for our supporting Solo and he never really came down hard on 3DR. He had his opinions and let us have ours and he never let that come between any of us.

He has stayed here despite not having a Solo because this is one of the best forums on the internet for Solo and despite his feelings about it, he is still interested in it. He's always been helpful and kept us laughing.

He's in a well deserved spot right now and with everything coming together for Solo, I have a feeling he will be a Solo owner once again despite all he's been through. As Dodge said, there is just too much potential for Solo.

I own a Phantom and Solo and I like both of them. But overall, Solo wins for me because I think the company is here for us, not the CEO.

 

[DodgeP]

Actually I think we should all abandon this particular thread as it is doing nothing good for this site and is only leading us down the path of every other RC site on the web right now.

With that said - I'm gonna +1 my own post..

 

[DodgeP]

Actually I think we should all abandon this particular thread as it is doing nothing good for this site and is only leading us down the path of every other RC site on the web right now.

With that said - I'm gonna +1 my own post..

+1

 

[Psywarrior]

I bought my Solo because I drank the cool aid. I believed the promotional ads. Solo fit perfectly into my business plan. I was super excited. I bought two. I've got about $8,000 invested. But everything is dependent on Solo flying. Each and every time. You can't run a business without reliability. Solo one is on it's way back to 3dr for repair. It won't fly. Solo two is on the shelve because I at least want to see how it works with the gimbal before it won't fly for an endless list of reasons none of which is reasonable to me as a business person. If my expectation was that as long as it worked some of the time that would be cool. Then I would have no issues. For me personally, unless it's reliable it's just a black piece of plastic. In contrast, my three GoPro cameras and in fact all of my other equipment works as advertised every time. So now I'm flying my Blade for obvious reasons. Why did you buy your Solo?

You could get the DJI with the modified twitchy zenmuse gimbal and the imitation gopro. Of course their customer service is top notch there. I am still waiting on ANY reply to the multiple emails and voicemails sent about their twitchy POS Zenmuse H3-3D and that has been over 8 months.

On the other hand, every time I contacted 3DR with any questions at all, I get a response in no more than 4 days including weekends. I have also had ZERO issues with my Solo but many issues with my flame wheel and Naza M V2

 

[erikgraham]

Actually I think we should all abandon this particular thread as it is doing nothing good for this site and is only leading us down the path of every other RC site on the web right now.

With that said - I'm gonna +1 my own post..

Fine. I'll stop. I've made my point and I'll leave it at that. You are 100% correct. This "is only leading us down the path of every other RC site on the web" - so I'll stop adding fuel to the fire.