Those are good points, Maddog. I guess I like the X-Star because I have flown it a lot, about 30 hours, and it has been easy to keep it safe and out of trouble. For me it is reliable and gives great imagery. Like most companies, Autel has to follow the technology. For what it can easily do for me, which is to do VLOS flying, required by the FAA anyway, mainly vertical flights within 400 feet altitude, it is a great machine. I do want to add a better aircraft when I decide what it is, and if I needed something better for when my services are in higher demand. I guess I just do not want to (at this point) to get into the DJI maze. I have read plenty of nightmare scenarios about dealing with DJI aircraft, updates, etc., and that thought just turns me off. My X-Star has not needed spare parts and it should not if kept within its standard operating envelope and I own three batteries so I can do about an hour and a half flying at once. One has to weigh the negatives against the positives and initially for my first expert drone I wanted to be able to get help from the company if needed. Autel looked best at that time and still boasts of the best CS. I only called a couple times about minor issues and I got quick responses. The updates did take longer than we all hoped, and we never did get the SDK stuff we waited for, no mapping software, etc. So now Autel claims they wanted to abandon a losing idea, in this case modifying and improving the X-Star's capabilities, and go for something much better. If the Evo does what Tim at the show claims it will do, it will be pretty fantastic, if Autel can still survive DJI's lawyers. I will pray for miracles the first half of this year. If it does come out in production, I will probably see it at Best Buy like I did the X-Star, and pull out my BB credit card!
