That is the HoverAir X1 Professional, and that is the gauntlet. The very first stage of this take a look at is the tree tunnel right here. It’s the one which kills essentially the most drones, however it’s not essentially the most harmful stage of the route. From there, I transition to one thing a bit extra open, but virtually each single drone by some means messes it up in some capability. After that, we get into the high-speed stage. We’ll go full velocity on this to see how effectively it tracks at greater speeds. Then, if it survives all of that with out plunking right into a tree, into the deep darkish woods we go to see how effectively it might deal with the ever-increasing tightness of the forest till it lastly crashes. That’s how each one among these drone checks ends, and we’ll see if this factor can keep away from that very same destiny.
Monitoring Modes of the HoverAir X1 Professional
There are primarily three core methods the HoverAir X1 Professional can observe you. The primary is to easily use the drone by itself—no further issues, only a drone. Faucet, and it follows you. Easy, proper? That’s the way in which we’re going to make use of it.


It’s also possible to use your cellphone to manage further settings and get a little bit of a preview, or you should use the beacon to successfully do the identical factor. I’ll cowl all these in my full Evaluate, however for the gauntlet, we’re simply going with the clear, easy model of simply the drone itself. For the mode I’m utilizing, I’m choosing the brand new biking mode in slim. There are two choices: slim means it’s going to observe the precise path and never take any shortcuts, versus open, which could clean issues a bit extra and take shortcuts. We don’t need that—we don’t wish to hit a tree. Off we go!
Tree Tunnel Stage


As you’ll be able to see from a peak standpoint, it’s not that top proper now—it’s simply a few meters above me. The whole lot within the tree tunnel needs to be good up to now. Nonetheless, that is the place I kill a whole lot of drones, particularly greater ones. Smaller drones are inclined to do a greater job of this for no matter motive. I feel it’s as a result of smaller drones simply know to not do silly issues, whereas greater drones usually go off and do dumb stuff like going up into the timber, swinging out to the left and proper, and all of the issues that kill drones. Proper now, my velocity is about 28 km/h, so roughly 15–20 mph or one thing like that. Thus far, so good. We’re going to make a flip up right here to the left in only a second. We’ll convey the velocity up slightly bit—we’re about 30 km/h now, so 20 mph. It’s undoubtedly slightly greater than I might have most well-liked, however up to now, so good. It’s solely received one other 100 meters earlier than we flip off and make it into the following stage—the transitionary stage—a stage that has downed a whole lot of drones for no good motive in anyway.
Transitionary Stage Challenges


Let’s see how we do. Generally with individuals over right here, we might need to reset issues slightly bit. Yep, we’re going to make an adjustment to the stage. What I’m going to do right here is look ahead to the individuals to maneuver out of the way in which. Hey, future me from the tree part proper right here—in the event you’re discovering this video attention-grabbing or helpful, simply watch it all over. That’s the one factor the YouTube gods care about lately, and it will imply fairly a bit to me and the channel (which is, I suppose, simply me). Thanks for watching! Right here we go—off we go, after which to the appropriate into the transitionary section. This transition additionally takes down a whole lot of drones for some motive. They’ll hit a type of two indicators proper there, and my tire is feeling slightly flat abruptly. Okay, so we’re going to need to go off-roading up right here to get round this canine walker. We’ll go over right here—straightforward peasy stuff—however the DJI Flip managed to hit that tree over there simply an hour in the past. One thing that shouldn’t be all that tough to observe right here, however generally drones do bizarre issues. I’ll get myself again on the trail up right here, and we’ll transition into the high-speed part.
Excessive-Pace Part


Right here we go in three, two, one—yeah, we’re off! Okay, we’re going to slowly convey it as much as about 40 km/h or so. Proper now, we’re at 30 km/h, so 20 mph, going by way of 33, 35, 38, and we’ll convey it as much as 40 now—41, 42. It begins slowing down as a result of we’ve received individuals up right here, and I do know from previous testing that 44 km/h is the restrict on this street. Again on the course right here, you’ll be able to see it’s following me with no issues in any respect. That stated, I’m going to fast-forward by way of all this as a result of, actually, it’s slightly bit boring and repetitive. As an alternative, we’re going to leap forward to a number of the extra thrilling and sophisticated stuff.
System Errors and Dolly Monitoring Mode
“Backside digital camera communication failure, please restart the gadget. System error, please restart your gadget.” This is without doubt one of the issues with the HoverAir—it at all times has a whole lot of excuses, errors, and random issues that occur for no apparent motive. So, we’ll attempt once more. Okay, subsequent step—we’re going to place it in Dolly monitoring mode. Dolly monitoring means it ought to keep in entrance of us and movie from forward earlier than it would finally fall behind. We’ll see how effectively it really works out right here. There’s slightly little bit of a breeze, however it’s actually not an excessive amount of, to be sincere. I’m going to start out off slightly sluggish right here as a result of velocity is certainly a consider Dolly observe mode. However watch what occurs as I get going slightly sooner. It’s doing actually good proper—whoa! Dude, what are you doing, little buddy? Making an attempt to kill me? It’s doing actually good proper now—up till the very second I say that. Each time I give these drones a praise, they go off the rails. Okay, you’ll be able to see it’s on this little flip—it’s going to observe me now. So at this level, it’s mainly simply monitoring from behind. For enjoyable, if I sluggish again down once more, let’s see what occurs. We’ll transition again to Dolly observe—decelerate a bunch. Let’s see—will it make that transition? No, it is not going to.
Deep Darkish Woods Problem
Up right here is the beginning of the deep darkish woods. I’m going to place it into follow-flat-mid mode, and let’s give this a roll. There we go—it’s in mid. I put it on flat for the altitude, so it ought to keep mainly beneath my head, which implies it needs to be secure. If I can cycle by way of it, it might observe by way of it into the woods. Now, this little department right here could possibly be an issue proper there. We’ll see the way it handles that—it doesn’t even blink, it simply goes straight by way of. By the way in which, at this level, the DJI Flip had crashed thrice within the final 40 meters. So yeah, we’re going to go this fashion. We’re going to start out yolo-ing by way of right here, and it’s going to get incrementally tougher as I maintain driving—each for me, possibly the mud, but additionally the route itself. We might make it much more difficult if we have to. If this factor doesn’t simply crash into one thing, we’ll simply add increasingly complexity to it.


Growing Complexity
So, we’ll go over right here—slightly mushy in there. That is too straightforward—we’re going to go elsewhere. Dangle tight! Let’s see if we will do it proper. It’s executed it working, so let’s see if it might do it whereas biking. We’ll go sluggish at first—don’t fear. That is hilarious—this can be a true take a look at of how effectively it might observe instructions on my exact path utilizing that slim mode, and that is undoubtedly spectacular. There we go—good job! Now we’ve received the following part throughout the road right here. We’re going to select up velocity slightly bit, only for enjoyable. I respect that they put down some new bark on this—it makes it slightly simpler to go sooner proper now, no mud. Right here comes a pointy flip—will it reduce the nook and discover loss of life? This tree proper right here could possibly be tough—oh, straightforward peasy, mac and tacky! It’s received this.
Pushing the Limits On The HoverAir X1 Professional
We’re going to go backwards loads sooner although—as a result of why not? Simple once more, demonstrating this factor is totally the king in terms of monitoring. Even the Skydio couldn’t pull off that sort of stuff—it will’ve been caught up by its minimal thresholds on both facet. However now we’re going to select up the tempo slightly bit, and that is the place following instructions is much more vital so it doesn’t attempt to shortcut something. This in all probability doesn’t look tremendous quick, however it’s attempting to get its finest shot—me too! There we go, again throughout into the arguably tighter part, I feel. Actually the extra complicated part. Oh, that is wonderful—come on, you are able to do it! You’ve received like 30 meters left. That’s tough—tough for me on a motorbike. There we go—can it do it? 10 meters left—did it clear it out? That’s astonishing—simply, by far, the perfect monitoring drone on the market, interval.
Last Ideas
Oh, it even got here in direction of me—yeah, I’m speaking about you! Good job, little buddy—excessive 5! There we go—good job. That’s wonderful. Now, the factor is, monitoring is just one piece of a drone—particularly if that drone leads to a number of items. By way of whether or not or to not purchase this drone, I’ll have a full assessment arising that covers all the opposite items. Whereas this factor is wonderful at monitoring like this, it’s not tremendous superior at most different issues. So, that is actually a drone you need for monitoring greater than the rest, versus the DJI world, the place it’s the perfect for every thing else however so-so—and getting higher—at monitoring. So once more, a separate video on this as a common drone, together with a number of the quirks you noticed earlier, prefer it wouldn’t take off and gave random error messages—all that sort of stuff. However when it comes to the gauntlet, this factor reigns supreme.
A Little Secret
Right here’s slightly secret: that is truly the second time it’s executed this. I did this a few months in the past and by no means completed enhancing it. I’m blissful to say: one, it’s nonetheless the identical drone, nonetheless alive, with a pair extra scratches; and two, it did precisely the identical factor as the primary time round, however even higher. The primary time, I didn’t do that on the bike—I simply ran it—however now it nailed it on the bike, and that’s tremendous cool. So anyhow, there you go. Thanks for watching, and have an excellent one!
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