Figure 8 Training?

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I started with a P1 and now have a P3P.

I crashed many times with my P1 because I was new with the Phantom but it has held up well. I now have a P3P and would like to create a training/obstacle course that I could put in a field to get proficient at it.

I'm looking for a DYI thingy that I could use to do figure 8's with this, on any field I choose to practice my precision flying.

Thanks,

timmer
 
I started with a P1 and now have a P3P.

I crashed many times with my P1 because I was new with the Phantom but it has held up well. I now have a P3P and would like to create a training/obstacle course that I could put in a field to get proficient at it.

I'm looking for a DYI thingy that I could use to do figure 8's with this, on any field I choose to practice my precision flying.

Thanks,

timmer

Hi Timmer and welcome to the forum.
I'm just spit-balling it but how about a couple of helium balloons spaced however far apart with light ribbon off of them kind of like a tail? You could stake the ribbon tail end to the ground.
Personally I go to fields that have football goal posts and use them to go in and around and through.
BOT
 
nose-in for each apex.. keep it on the same vanishing point in the center, or whatever object you choose. you can easily check the video to see how you did.... then just go up a hundred feet, close your eyes and rotate it about... open them and then see how quickly you can recognize it's place in the world and guide it towards yourself.
 
nose-in for each apex.. keep it on the same vanishing point in the center, or whatever object you choose. you can easily check the video to see how you did.... then just go up a hundred feet, close your eyes and rotate it about... open them and then see how quickly you can recognize it's place in the world and guide it towards yourself.

Hey Bryce,
That sounds like you've got a real handle on what you're doing. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying though. Any chance of repeating yourself, keeping in mind some of us are a bit slower?
 
I think what he's saying is to circle an object while keeping pointed towards it.
Very easy to do (harder to do SMOOTHLY) when flying FPV, but I imagine it could be quite a challenge to do LOS.

In my pilot's licence when had a series of test manoeuvres to complete:
  • Fly out 30 metres and hover over a cone ... and be within a 2m radius of it. Really tests your ability to judge how far away you are, and it's way harder to do than you think. You'll invariably be too close or too far for a while. It pays to have a spotter off to the side of it the first few practice times to tell you when you're over it.
  • Fly a figure eight between two cones placed to your left and right. We were allowed to do this maintaining a nose out attitude, but it's fun to practice doing it by flying it keeping the nose in the direction of travel (like a plane would have to fly it).
  • Fly a horizontal square with nice neat corners.
  • Fly a vertical square with nice neat corners.
  • Fly a vertical square but with a triangular base where you take off at a 45 degree angle, do three sides of the square, then land at a 45 degree angle back to launch point (tests use of two sticks simultaneously).
  • Fly away from yourself, switch to ATTI, then turn around and fly a straight line back towards yourself (sucks to do in high side-winds like on my test).
There were other things, but I don't remember them all.

Whatever you do use, I'd suggest not flying it with all the gimbal and camera on board. No matter how soft you obstacle course is, gimbals don't like hitting the ground from any height, and even soft obstacles have potential to bring your bird down.
A supply of helium balloons tethered just with paper streamer might work, at least hitting that isn't likely to stop your prop or tangle in it, and you'll only lose a helium balloon.
If you wanted to go really fancy you could try the fan filled tubes of cloth like they use for the red-bull aerial slalom courses. A couple of old cheap hairdryers and some lightweight cloth tubing should work, but powering them is another matter all together if you're away from home.
 
As a noob I’ve heavily practiced figure 8’s but I think the trickier and potentially more useful MR (multi rotor) maneuver is “orbiting” around a subject.

The guy with the Las Vegas house fire video 4th July did a pretty good job with that technique.

I tend to practice “orbiting” more and more. Around a tree, pole, anything as reference.
 
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I was out yesterday in a field honing my manual flying skills.
Maybe it's just me but I think too many Phantom owners rely on the Phantom to fly itself rather than taking the time to really learn how to cotnrol it manually.

Some of you guys are braggin :p
Noobs like me have to learn some basics before we can try the advanced stuff some of your take for granted.

What I did was practiced flipping the quad 180 in flight and maintaining control. I first mastered nose out flight. Next, I mastered nose IN flight. Now I'm working on changing from nose in to nose out randomly in flight. In just a few days I've come a LONG way and my confidence is building quickly.

A few more days of practicing randomly changing from nose in to nose out and I think I'll be ready to practice Quadcopter101's orientation drills. Flying out, then determining direction it's pointed and compensating to return to origin.

I think within a few more weeks I'll be pretty damned good at this :)

This training should come in especially handy when one of my Phantoms decides it wants to head off into never never land. Manual mode to the rescue.
 
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iflyinwn.... the next poster did pretty good at explaining really good steps. the other thing would be to get yourself out of wonks, so to speak on purpose, and get back in control and orientation through as few steps as possible. kind of like spinning around on the baseball bat 10 times when you were a kid and walking back to home plate the quickest... a few visual cues on your bird and known behaviors can get you back in line quickly.
 

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