Man buys near-$4k drone and crashes it into house

A US man has spent nearly $4000 on a drone only to crash it into his garage door on its maiden flight.

Luckily for Mark Taylor, from the west coast, the expensive toy managed to fly another day, despite it looking otherwise in footage of the crushing impact.

The video, posted by Mr Taylor to YouTube yesterday, shows the enthusiast testing the DJI Inspire 1 craft on auto-pilot when it makes a sudden beeline for the metal door.

"No," he screams, as it ricochets off the solid surface and falls to the pavement below.

In a comment on the video, Mr Taylor maintained the crash was not "operator error". Rather, the craft's navigational system was at fault.

"We went out and checked everything recalibrated the compass again even though we hadn't moved - and this happened," he wrote.

"To all the people who say I can't fly: wrong. I have dozens and dozens of flights. The day before did four flights perfectly - the unit was calibrated and triple checked - hit the auto take off button and that's what you see."

Source: YouTube