It was an impulse buy. I stared at the handsome box for several minutes. I touched it, then withdrew my hand. I touched it again. Eventually the thing found its way into my shopping cart. I own a drone.

This purchase was difficult for me. Not to afford the drone; it cost $90, which isn’t cheap, but it’s less expensive than the evil drones you read about in the press. And that’s why the purchase was difficult: I believe drones are useful tools but ripe for abuse.

My drone is a Propel Altitude 2.0. Basically, it’s a sophisticated flying helicopter toy, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The drone.

The drone is similar to other toys I’ve owned in the past. I once had a flying blimp toy. It was fun to play with and navigate around the house, but I could never find helium to inflate it.

A while back, I purchased a remote control helicopter for my son Simon. He had fun with it — until it slammed into a cupboard and broke its tail rotor. The thing hasn’t flown since.

The drone is far more robust than the blimp or the helicopter. It’s four rotors offer rotation and tilt control. In fact, I find its “advanced” mode of operations easier than the basic mode. And so far, I’ve been able to fly the thing where I want and control it to a modest degree without slamming it into a fence. Well, as least not as often as I originally did.

The drone features a digital camera, which is what makes it a drone and not just a flying toy. The camera snaps still images as well as videos, storing them on a MicroSD card. The camera isn’t a remote camera; I can’t see what the drone sees until I land the thing, remove the MicroSD card, and view the media on a computer. In Figure 2, you see a photo the drone took as I was flying it in my backyard.

Figure 2. The drone’s angle is high enough that I don’t look as fat as I really am.

I didn’t need a drone, but I impulse-purchased the thing just to see what all the buzz [sic] was about. I suppose I could use it later to inspect the house’s gutters, though something leads me to believe that climbing a ladder would be far more efficient.

Other, more advanced drones have greater capabilities than my basic, starter drone. They have more sophisticated communications, so the drones can fly farther away from the operator. They also offer remote video capabilities, which my drone lacks. And I assume some drones also generate more lift, allowing them to hoist a payload. My drone weighs only 5 oz. (143g) and even if I received cooperation, I doubt it could lift the cat.

Yet, my drone isn’t the problem. The problem are those more expensive drones. They’ve been caught spying on backyard sunbathers or peeking into bedroom windows. Armed drones used by law enforcement will eventually be a thing. Is that what the public wants? Time will tell.