
If you’ve been watching Good Morning America’s “Game of Drones” series this week, you’ve seen some of MultiRotor Pilot magazine’s team members using “drones” to perform some fun stunts like delivering coffee and scripts to the anchor desk, playing stage manager, shooting video in the studio and even “walking a dog”…OK, the dog was pretty mellow and it was inside but they did it. Outside the studio, the show presented a fascinating drone flyover of an erupting volcano, showing just one of the ways multirotor vehicles make getting to difficult places easier and less expensively than ever before. We don’t recommend you try this, or any of these demonstrations, at home but that doesn’t mean you can’t have lots of fun with multicopters!
To get you started, we wanted to answer a few questions:
WHAT DID OUR TEAM FLY ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA?Our experts showed up at the Good Morning America studio with a stable of hobby-grade multirotors that you can purchase at most hobby shops as well as a couple of their own custom-built, high-end machines to enable them to stream video directly onto the television feed and to “walk the dog.”
The drones you saw on camera delivering coffee and scripts to the anchor desk, and hovering in the hallway with a message to the anchor were from the very popular Blade series of multirotors from Horizon Hobby. You can find more information about these exciting and versatile machines at http://www.bladehelis.com
We flew the following for these segments:
Blade 200 QX, Blade 350 QX3, Blade Nano QX and QX FPV

WHAT DRONES DID THE ANCHORS FLY IN THE STUDIO? Those speedy little multicopters were the Estes Proto-X FPV, a new mini multi-rotor that comes equipped with an HD video camera that transmits video directly to your transmitter. Find more information about the Proto-X FPV and other models in the Proto-X series at http://www.protoquad.com/protox.html


CAN I FLY A DRONE? Is it time for you to bring a drone into your life? We think the answer is always “yes” because flying multirotor aircraft is not only a great way to get your very own eye in the sky, it’s a very satisfying hobby and flying these machines yourself is getting easier and easier to learn.
HOW DO I GET STARTED? We encourage you to put safety first and recommend that you start out slowly, with the guidance of knowledgeable people in your local hobby shop or model aviation club (find contact information at the Academy of Model Aeronautics website, www.ama.org ).
We also keep you up-to-date with the comprehensive information on safety and regulations in MultiRotor Pilot magazine (find it at your local newsstand or hobby retailer or online at www.shop4rc.com)