I was one of the Beta Testers for the SD2, I had tested out the R1 for them about a year ago but it reaaly didn't work for my use. They asked me to try out the SD2 a few months ago and I had it for 2 weeks in Sept. Unfortunately I had some big work projects that limited my time flying it. I found the hand launching and recovery pretty easy. Like Pappy said it's best to grasp it from the rear as the front props are facing downward. If it's tilted when you release it the drone will dip in the direction of the tilt, it's best to let it pull itself out of your hand rather then just releasing it. It's landing is very predictable, walk up behind it and basically stick your hand out palm up. If you're like me it's easy to trip over something walking up because your eyes are locked on the drone.
The APP that we were provided didn't do waypoints, you can pull up google maps in the app (terrain or map) and tell it where you want it to go. Better be way zoomed in or the drone will attempt to fly off somewhere possibly miles away depending on how precise your finger is. Because of the autonomous capabilities and the commercial push I wouldn't be surprised to see waypoint capability added in an update. The other thing I read was Skydio has made the API available to developers, no telling where that might lead capability-wise.
The battery attachment didn't present a problem, if the drone hits something pretty hard I suspect the battery will come loose but by that point it doesn't really matter the drone would likely come down from an impact like that. The thing to remember is this drone should never hit anything and it does that very well. It's good enough to fly inside a room. The drone's frame is machined titanium and it feels solid and sturdy, no flex.
You must plug the charger into the drone with the battery attached to charge it, supposedly there's a dock being developed to address that.
Here's my impression of the SD2; you could literally give it to a 6 year old and they'd be able to fly it without crashing and be decent at it in a little while, it's very easy to fly, when you aren't worried about crashing it's easier to become comfortable with the controls and try more stuff. When it's tracking you it's kind of unnerving, it's intelligence is obvious and it sticks to the subject very well. When you guys fly yours tracking you for the first time you're going to think I'm glad it isn't armed and after me.
I'm far being a good pilot and I had no problem flying with the app or controller. The Beacon was the feature that most interested me, my other drone is a staaker that uses wrist band type tether. IMO the dual GPS technology is the only consistently reliable tracking method, especially if there's any speed. I had zero tracking issues with the SD2, for any of the faster tracking I used the Beacon, mainly because my testing was limited and I wanted to really test that feature out. Using the beacon it tracked me for literally miles at speeds up to 35mph. If there was 2 things I could change, it would be a 30 min battery and 45 mph top speed. A tall order with the SD2s frame size. My Staaker will do that but it's a larger aircraft with no avoidance.
I liked it enough to put my $$ down the first day it went on sale. Later after I posted a YT video a chinese guy offered me $2K for the one I ordered, I politely refused.
