It was great footage, backing away and up from the historic Nyland Motel and Café on the Lincoln Highway in Iowa.

It was nice and smooth right up until the moment I flew the drone into a tree, and it came crashing down 70 feet to the pavement.

It wasn’t pretty.

There was a hole in the case.

Two blades were broken.

And the camera was hanging from its semi-detached wires.

I fix things for a living.

Sure, I’d never fixed a drone before, but how hard could it be?

I found all the parts online and proceeded to disassemble the tiny contraption.

I ordered more parts to replace one’s I didn’t realize were broken until I had it apart.

I got it all back together looking (almost) brand new.

And the camera wouldn’t align.

I researched and got the right programs to calibrate it just right.

I ran through the calibration… many times.

It would fly but the camera would jitter all over the place.

My new drone is 4K.

And it works great.

And it’s compatible with many of the mechanical parts of my old drone just in case – nope, not gonna say it.

I won’t be taking my eyes off of this one when I fly it.

I’ve made worse mistakes.

• That bush I thought I could pull right up to until a branch went through my radiator.
• That flooring in our sunroom that could not handle the sun.
• The Pinto. (You old-timers know what I mean by that.)

Those and many other painful mistakes have one thing in common.

No, I’m not talking about my stupidity. Some mistakes I made seemed to make sense at the time.

It’s the fact that I survived.

Sure, I might have more money in the bank if I hadn’t made those mistakes.

But I learned (most of the time) and tend not to make the same mistake twice… umm, three times.

More importantly, I can tell those stories and pass those lessons on to another generation.

Some of those stories have helped me to help others find and follow Jesus.

Maybe I’m done with expensive mistakes. (Stop laughing!)

But I’ll never be done telling others about them.

I’d love to hear your expensive mistakes and what you learned from them.

Feel free to share in the comments here or on my Facebook page.

And be careful out there!