OnagoFly is another IndieGoGo crowd-fund drone. This small form-factor quadcopter rapidly generated sales of over $3.2m (£2.3m) due to its claims of autonomous flight. We received one and gave it some testing!
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Introduction
Around 500 first-generation units were despatched last month to users in the USA, unfortunately this first release was plagued with issues and very few of the units sent took flight.
OnagoFly listened to the complaints from their backers and corrected a number of the problems reported, consequently they launched an ‘Updated v1.0’ which is now the version being sent to backers, it was also offered to the initial 500 as a replacement.
Our Testing
Unfortunately we only realised after our testing had commenced that we had been sent one of the first-generation models, consequently we suffered from a failed battery (one of the reported issues) and an inability to recharge it.
Review Highlights
In this review we cover the following:
- Unboxing and Accessories
- Setup and Charging
- App
- First Flight
- Summary
The Good, The Bad
During our time with testing, the key issues that we observed were as follows:
- OnagoFly struggles to fly in wind, try to fly only on a still/calm day because a breeze of only 3mph seems to push OnagoFly beyond it’s ability to recover.
- Only fly when you have a GPS lock, this is when the GPS text turns Orange.
- The battery indication is not particularly accurate, don’t fly until you’re at the extremes of it’s capacity, instead land early and charge it back up.
- Tilt mode requires the phone/smart-device to be completely flat before you take off, otherwise OnagoFly will fly in the direction that you’re tilting as soon as it lifts.
- The supplied propellers are of poor quality and are easily broken, even during the most gentle of touchdowns.
- Not quite a drone for the beginner as it isn’t quite intuitive nor easy to fly.
- Don’t fly it indoors, it is unpredictable and can surge in any direction regardless of control inputs.
- Don’t use auto-takeoff, it isn’t advisable as you’re not in control of the aircraft.
Next Steps
Part 2 of our review will be published as soon as our replacement battery arrives.