Another small tip for Noobs...

gunslinger

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When taking off, you always want to give it full throttle. Once it's off the ground and stable, you can back off the throttle, no worries.

I forgot to tell myself that today when doing a low level test flight in my yard and was too cautious with the throttle... It got off the ground about a foot, went forward along the ground, the props dug in and it flipped. I knew exactly what I'd done wrong while it was happening. Dope...

I gave it full throttle after I cleaned the grass out of the props, checked each prop, checked the battery, etc... and up it went, ran like a clock and did everything I asked of it. Perfect flight.

Just thought I'd share that since there are so many new people on here lately, and there'll probably be even more after Christmas.
I'm still pissed at myself... :oops: :oops: :oops:

Also... instead of trying to land it, let it hover a foot or so over your head, grab onto one of the landing gear and, with your other hand, power it down until the motors stop. You'll save a lot of money on props...

-slinger
 
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Good advice here... altought I haven't found a way to take off slowly... it just suddenly jumps into the sky about 4 feet... and in landing maybe if people want to do it on the ground what works for me is to hover about a foot from the desired landing point... the wind will push the phantom slightly... but there is always a moment when the phantom just hovers perfectly in one spot... THERE I pull down the stick slowly and then all the way down till it shuts down... never had a problem with that but it does require a bit of patience, definitely easier to just grab it if your hands are free...

Remember guys always power down with the left stick fully down... NEVER with CSC (same as arming engines) you risk a tip over.
 
gunslinger said:
When taking off, you always want to give it full throttle. Once it's off the ground and stable, you can back off the throttle, no worries.

I forgot to tell myself that today when doing a low level test flight in my yard and was too cautious with the throttle... It got off the ground about a foot, went forward along the ground, the props dug in and it flipped. I knew exactly what I'd done wrong while it was happening. Dope...

I gave it full throttle after I cleaned the grass out of the props, checked each prop, checked the battery, etc... and up it went, ran like a clock and did everything I asked of it. Perfect flight.

Just thought I'd share that since there are so many new people on here lately, and there'll probably be even more after Christmas.
I'm still pissed at myself... :oops: :oops: :oops:

Also... instead of trying to land it, let it hover a foot or so over your head, grab onto one of the landing gear and, with your other hand, power it down until the motors stop. You'll save a lot of money on props...

-slinger

I don't agree that you should be using "FULL THROTTLE" on initial take off, let alone a "newb". Granted you should give it more than just a wee move on the throttle stick. If given too little throttle there's the chance you may catch some drift and have the landing gear skid against the ground tilting your Phantom over for a potential crash. Though at the same time you don't want your bird shooting off into the sunset to quickly by using "Full" throttle without even knowing if it's fully stable or satellite locked yet.
 
James Cole said:
Good advice here... altought I haven't found a way to take off slowly... it just suddenly jumps into the sky about 4 feet... and in landing maybe if people want to do it on the ground what works for me is to hover about a foot from the desired landing point... the wind will push the phantom slightly... but there is always a moment when the phantom just hovers perfectly in one spot... THERE I pull down the stick slowly and then all the way down till it shuts down... never had a problem with that but it does require a bit of patience, definitely easier to just grab it if your hands are free...

Remember guys always power down with the left stick fully down... NEVER with CSC (same as arming engines) you risk a tip over.

The "grab in your hands" landing, to me is a cop out for learning how to properly control your Phantom so that you can actually perform a proper and safe landing on the ground. Landing straight onto the ground is the only way I will ever do it, unless I was looking to take off and or land in a location I couldn't place the Phantom level to.
 
Keep in mind my only other RC experience is a Nano QX. Please be nice.

The takeoff on the Phantom 2 seems like the controller is giving it more boost intentionally. Even if I lift just a bit, it jumps off the ground a couple of feet. I wouldn't recommend keeping it letting it shoot up 10s of feet, or keeping it a foot off the ground. I have been getting mine 4-6 feet up, letting it hover, making sure it feels stable, then doing whatever I had planned. Close to the ground can be kind of chaotic for a helicopter. There's a "bubble" of resistance there from the down draft, but a crosswind can easily take that out and turn a 1ft hover into a crash. There's too little time for you or the electronics in the Phantom to react.

Landing is similar, I bring it to somewhere around eye level then slowly bring it down. You'll feel the "bubble" build up as you get close to the ground and probably have to give it a little bit "more" down throttle (I don't know what else to call it on these self-centering sticks). Don't ever CSC to land. I would only CSC during a flight is some or something else was in danger because of the Phantom.

As a noob myself, I'm practicing takeoff and landing on hard surfaces quite a bit. Just do it 3-4 times every time you go out in a controlled flat sort of hard surface.
 
Always doing a full power takeoff is probably unwise, but learning
to do controlled takeoffs and landings is a valuable skill.

Snatching any object with whirling blades is risky, and an
unexpected event, interference, gust of wind, etc. could
even make it deadly. Not really something for a beginner?

Best advice for beginners is to take off and land at least 50 feet
away, to give some reaction time if the P2V starts to come your
way, which it could do if it lost the 6th GPS satellite the moment
before your takeoff. And, if there is any breeze, stand upwind, and
not facing into the sun, where the copter could get lost in the sun.

But, what do I know, I am only an old beginner.
 
kbyrd said:
Keep in mind my only other RC experience is a Nano QX. Please be nice.

The takeoff on the Phantom 2 seems like the controller is giving it more boost intentionally. Even if I lift just a bit, it jumps off the ground a couple of feet. I wouldn't recommend keeping it letting it shoot up 10s of feet, or keeping it a foot off the ground. I have been getting mine 4-6 feet up, letting it hover, making sure it feels stable, then doing whatever I had planned. Close to the ground can be kind of chaotic for a helicopter. There's a "bubble" of resistance there from the down draft, but a crosswind can easily take that out and turn a 1ft hover into a crash. There's too little time for you or the electronics in the Phantom to react.

Landing is similar, I bring it to somewhere around eye level then slowly bring it down. You'll feel the "bubble" build up as you get close to the ground and probably have to give it a little bit "more" down throttle (I don't know what else to call it on these self-centering sticks). Don't ever CSC to land. I would only CSC during a flight is some or something else was in danger because of the Phantom.

As a noob myself, I'm practicing takeoff and landing on hard surfaces quite a bit. Just do it 3-4 times every time you go out in a controlled flat sort of hard surface.

Yeah you're right as you get lower to the ground there's more turbulence from the down draft but it's nothing that can't be compensated for with practice.

Also the proper way to turn the motors off once you touch down is holding the left stick (throttle) down for roughly 4 seconds and the motors will shut. You would do the CSC shut odd if you were landing it by grabbing the landing leg with your hand then shutting off that way.
 
Maybe the important thing for someone new to understand first is why, then eventually it becomes intuitive: When hovering too close to any surface the aircraft can get caught-up in its own prop wash which tends to destabilize it, if it doesn't crash it will bob up & down and sideways. Similar problem happens when descending vertically too quickly, instead of "calm" air underneath, the air is turbulent and the aircraft wobbles coming down on top of its own wash. Slinger is right in that you want to get off the surface and clear your prop wash quickly. When descending apply a slight lateral movement to "escape" your on prop wash.

Here's a video of a quad caught-up in its own prop wash, destabilizing & bobbing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4hXA_w0qU[/youtube]

iDrone
 
I disagree as well.
Just get the "feel" of how the Phantom takes off.
giving it full throttle might make it zoom up too fast.

with the newer firmware, you should be able to give it only >50% throttle and the Phantom should gently take off on it's own.
if your Phantom is front have tho, use the right stick a little to keep it from tipping.
 
I was just out flying and after seeing two or three suggestion for landing of grabbing it I thought about it. With any wind like I had tonight, NOPE NOPE NOPE. I grabbed it once on a windless night in the middle of nowhere, and wasn't sure about doing a power off as it was doing it's best attempt to hover in place.
 
Cjrt546 said:
Slinger the idea of grabbing it midair and shutting it down was not yours. It was Khakis1999. Stop trying to take others ideas and pass them off as your own. Give the credit to the original thinker don't be fake.


That wasn't Khaki's idea. If you watch any of he videos from DJI Colin does it pretty consistently. I thought it was a good idea and passed it along. Did I say I invented it? I'm not a fake and I'm also not a forum troll...

Hey... have a great Christmas...

-slinger
 
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BenDronePilot said:
gunslinger said:
When taking off, you always want to give it full throttle. Once it's off the ground and stable, you can back off the throttle, no worries.

I forgot to tell myself that today when doing a low level test flight in my yard and was too cautious with the throttle... It got off the ground about a foot, went forward along the ground, the props dug in and it flipped. I knew exactly what I'd done wrong while it was happening. Dope...

I gave it full throttle after I cleaned the grass out of the props, checked each prop, checked the battery, etc... and up it went, ran like a clock and did everything I asked of it. Perfect flight.

Just thought I'd share that since there are so many new people on here lately, and there'll probably be even more after Christmas.
I'm still pissed at myself... :oops: :oops: :oops:

Also... instead of trying to land it, let it hover a foot or so over your head, grab onto one of the landing gear and, with your other hand, power it down until the motors stop. You'll save a lot of money on props...

-slinger

I don't agree that you should be using "FULL THROTTLE" on initial take off, let alone a "newb". Granted you should give it more than just a wee move on the throttle stick. If given too little throttle there's the chance you may catch some drift and have the landing gear skid against the ground tilting your Phantom over for a potential crash. Though at the same time you don't want your bird shooting off into the sunset to quickly by using "Full" throttle without even knowing if it's fully stable or satellite locked yet.


That's full throttle for a second or so, just to get it clear of the ground so it doesn't drag its skids and flip. Try it. I get it up to about four feet and test from there. But I get there with full throttle.

-slinger
 
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iDrone said:
Maybe the important thing for someone new to understand first is why, then eventually it becomes intuitive: When hovering too close to any surface the aircraft can get caught-up in its own prop wash which tends to destabilize it, if it doesn't crash it will bob up & down and sideways. Similar problem happens when descending vertically too quickly, instead of "calm" air underneath, the air is turbulent and the aircraft wobbles coming down on top of its own wash. Slinger is right in that you want to get off the surface and clear your prop wash quickly. When descending apply a slight lateral movement to "escape" your on prop wash.

Here's a video of a quad caught-up in its own prop wash, destabilizing & bobbing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4hXA_w0qU[/youtube]

iDrone

Yep... That's exactly what happened to me today. Was too conservative with the throttle, got caught in my own prop wash and it only took a second for it to slide away, drag a skid an slam the props into the ground.

I just thought these were good ideas and both were passed on to me by others. More than one person in both instances. And both have worked out very well for me as when I use these methods my props always stay clean...

-slinger
 
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BenDronePilot said:
kbyrd said:
Keep in mind my only other RC experience is a Nano QX. Please be nice.

The takeoff on the Phantom 2 seems like the controller is giving it more boost intentionally. Even if I lift just a bit, it jumps off the ground a couple of feet. I wouldn't recommend keeping it letting it shoot up 10s of feet, or keeping it a foot off the ground. I have been getting mine 4-6 feet up, letting it hover, making sure it feels stable, then doing whatever I had planned. Close to the ground can be kind of chaotic for a helicopter. There's a "bubble" of resistance there from the down draft, but a crosswind can easily take that out and turn a 1ft hover into a crash. There's too little time for you or the electronics in the Phantom to react.

Landing is similar, I bring it to somewhere around eye level then slowly bring it down. You'll feel the "bubble" build up as you get close to the ground and probably have to give it a little bit "more" down throttle (I don't know what else to call it on these self-centering sticks). Don't ever CSC to land. I would only CSC during a flight is some or something else was in danger because of the Phantom.

As a noob myself, I'm practicing takeoff and landing on hard surfaces quite a bit. Just do it 3-4 times every time you go out in a controlled flat sort of hard surface.

Yeah you're right as you get lower to the ground there's more turbulence from the down draft but it's nothing that can't be compensated for with practice.

Also the proper way to turn the motors off once you touch down is holding the left stick (throttle) down for roughly 4 seconds and the motors will shut. You would do the CSC shut odd if you were landing it by grabbing the landing leg with your hand then shutting off that way.

You're saying you should use the CSC if you're grabbing it out of the air? Seriously? Have you ever actually tried that? If not... you might want to. Interesting things ocurr...

-slinger
 
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Gizmo3000 said:
I disagree as well.
Just get the "feel" of how the Phantom takes off.
giving it full throttle might make it zoom up too fast.

with the newer firmware, you should be able to give it only >50% throttle and the Phantom should gently take off on it's own.
if your Phantom is front have tho, use the right stick a little to keep it from tipping.

Try it. It gets clear of the ground very quickly but you can easily stop it before it gets six feet in the air. Everyone here seems to think if you give it full throttle on takeoff that it'll be 200 feet in the air before you know what hit you. Not the case at all...

-slinger
 
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BenDronePilot said:
gunslinger said:
When taking off, you always want to give it full throttle. Once it's off the ground and stable, you can back off the throttle, no worries.

I forgot to tell myself that today when doing a low level test flight in my yard and was too cautious with the throttle... It got off the ground about a foot, went forward along the ground, the props dug in and it flipped. I knew exactly what I'd done wrong while it was happening. Dope...

I gave it full throttle after I cleaned the grass out of the props, checked each prop, checked the battery, etc... and up it went, ran like a clock and did everything I asked of it. Perfect flight.

Just thought I'd share that since there are so many new people on here lately, and there'll probably be even more after Christmas.
I'm still pissed at myself... :oops: :oops: :oops:

Also... instead of trying to land it, let it hover a foot or so over your head, grab onto one of the landing gear and, with your other hand, power it down until the motors stop. You'll save a lot of money on props...

-slinger

I don't agree that you should be using "FULL THROTTLE" on initial take off, let alone a "newb". Granted you should give it more than just a wee move on the throttle stick. If given too little throttle there's the chance you may catch some drift and have the landing gear skid against the ground tilting your Phantom over for a potential crash. Though at the same time you don't want your bird shooting off into the sunset to quickly by using "Full" throttle without even knowing if it's fully stable or satellite locked yet.

Not knowing if it's satellite locked yet? Shooting off into the sunset? Why would anyone hit the throttle at all if he didn't have full satellite lock? What the hell does that have to do with this discussion?

Full throttle for approximately 1.5 seconds gets you around six feet in the air. Which is exactly where I want to be while I test stability and control response.

-slinger
 
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iDrone said:
Maybe the important thing for someone new to understand first is why, then eventually it becomes intuitive: When hovering too close to any surface the aircraft can get caught-up in its own prop wash which tends to destabilize it, if it doesn't crash it will bob up & down and sideways. Similar problem happens when descending vertically too quickly, instead of "calm" air underneath, the air is turbulent and the aircraft wobbles coming down on top of its own wash. Slinger is right in that you want to get off the surface and clear your prop wash quickly. When descending apply a slight lateral movement to "escape" your on prop wash.

Here's a video of a quad caught-up in its own prop wash, destabilizing & bobbing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR4hXA_w0qU[/youtube]

iDrone

Yep, the same problem that the first chopper had when trying to land in Bin Laden's walled compound!
 
Cjrt546 said:
Slinger .....Khakis1999 posted weeks ago about the safest way to land. You read it. You thought you knew better. You crashed on landing. You than posted Khakis1999 grab out of the air suggestion that he posted here on phantompilots.com weeks ago suggestion as if you came up with it. Give the man his proper pounds stop being a phony.[/quo

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. But that doesn't appear to be slowing you down much...
 
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