First Flight!!!

Bobby T · Apr 3, 2018

Well, I finally got up enough nerve to take my new P4 out for a spin. I gotta say that I was shaking. Not from the cold - that came later - but from fear. I'm thinking that if I were to post my first experience on YouTube, it wouldn't go viral.

There was one mishap within two minutes into the flight and it was TOTALLY pilot error. I was in beginner mode. Auto Takeoff was perfect. I let it hover for about a minute and then sent it away from me to the default maximum distance of 98 feet. I kept it at around 4 or 5 feet off the ground. The next thing I wanted to do was to try out the RTH just to make sure it worked. By default. the lowest height for this maneuver is 30 feet. To a newbie out for the firs time like myself, 30 feet looks freaking high. It also seemed to be going very fast. I panicked and had a vision of it crossing the road and smashing into someone's house. My instincts told me to get on the sticks and manually keep it from doing so. Yes, me, who's total experience in flying a drone is to push auto takeoff and then send it 100 feet away from me.

There's one small, spindly tree at that park. The bird found it. Pieces of propellers went flying in all directions and the battery flew out. It fell from a distance of about 5 feet. I was afraid to go see the damage. Turns out, it was only 3 props. Good thing it fell on grass. I put on new props, put the battery back in and away she went, good as new. More good news is that I went through two batteries without any more mishaps. I also bumped it up from beginner mode to normal mode because I wanted it to go further than 98 feet. I also put it up 30 or 40 feet a couple of times. I did rectangles and circles and had a real ball!!! I'm hooked!!!

Nightwolf · Apr 3, 2018

Nice. You're lucky my first tree cost me a yaw arm and a flex gimbal cable. Plus I got to figure out how to take the gimbal apart and put it back together.

I know it's scary but you need to set the RTH higher than anything in the area to avoid this in the future

Well Done

WV. Rootman · Apr 3, 2018

The stress from the crash may cause small cracks. Watch the legs and where the legs connect to the body. Even the battery cover can develop cracks.

Bobby T · Apr 3, 2018

Nightwolf said:
Nice. You're lucky my first tree cost me a yaw arm and a flex gimbal cable. Plus I got to figure out how to take the gimbal apart and put it back together.

I know it's scary but you need to set the RTH higher than anything in the area to avoid this in the future

Well Done

The lone little tree was right on the edge of the park. There are no other trees around. My first mistake was to set it up too close to the tree. And of course, my second BIG mistake was to grab the sticks. I'm pretty sure it would have landed on it's own without hitting the tree. But, first time and all...

I really do understand that the drone has to be higher on it's way back. It's just that I wasn't anticipating 30 feet to look so high. And it came back so fast. But now I know what to expect on my next flight which unfortunately won't be tomorrow because of rain.

Bobby T · Apr 3, 2018

WV. Rootman said:
The stress from the crash may cause small cracks. Watch the legs and where the legs connect to the body. Even the battery cover can develop cracks.

I gave it a very close inspection while I was shining it all up so it will look great on her next flight. A man can't have a dirty drone, now can he?

I didn't find any cracks of any size - big or small. And the battery looks great as well. I guess I really dodged a bullet this time, but I can honestly say that I learned a whole bunch from it!!!

Meta4 · Apr 3, 2018

Oscar Myer said:
By default. the lowest height for this maneuver is 30 feet. To a newbie out for the firs time like myself, 30 feet looks freaking high

Next time, look closely at the altitude showing on screen and you'll find why 30 feet looks freaking high.
The default RTH height is 30 metres (100 ft).
Ever since the beginning of DJI, the RTH height setting is in metres regardless of what units you have set for the app display.
It's a silly thing that everyone gets used to.

Bobby T · Apr 3, 2018

Meta4 said:
Next time, look closely at the altitude showing on screen and you'll find why 30 feet looks freaking high.
The default RTH height is 30 metres (100 ft).
Ever since the beginning of DJI, the RTH height setting is in metres regardless of what units you have set for the app display.
It's a silly thing that everyone gets used to.

I'm sitting here giggling at myself and my dumbness... I've read the manual 3 times. You'd think I would have caught that. Oh well... another lesson learned... well learned.

Techguy56 · Apr 7, 2018

Sometimes you have to have a mishap as a learning experience. The problem is some people don’t learn from them but you’re already figuring out what you can do the next flight to avoid any further problems.
You’re on your way to becoming a great pilot!!

Bobby T · Apr 7, 2018

Techguy56 said:
Sometimes you have to have a mishap as a learning experience. The problem is some people don’t learn from them but you’re already figuring out what you can do the next flight to avoid any further problems."
You’re on your way to becoming a great pilot!!

The funny thing is that my mishap happened 5 minutes into my first ever flight.

But as the old saying goes - "when you fall off the horse you get right back up again" which is what I did and everything worked out good.

This future "great pilot" LOLOL!!! is wishing he could get out for a second go round of flying. But we actually had some snow last night and the wind is howling now, so it's not going to happen today.

Fordie · Apr 8, 2018

Best advice is to write down a pre flight checklist. Print one off and keep it in the case.
Force yourself to use it all the time until it becomes second nature.
It helps to prevent things like forgetting to set return to home altitude or forgetting to check vision sensors are on or off.
You can add to the checklist as you go on learning. I am still amending mine to include battery change checklists.
Glad you are having fun, it's a great hobby.

xspwhite · Apr 8, 2018

Oscar Myer said:
The funny thing is that my mishap happened 5 minutes into my first ever flight.
But as the old saying goes - "when you fall off the horse you get right back up again" which is what I did and everything worked out good.

This future "great pilot" LOLOL!!! is wishing he could get out for a second go round of flying. But we actually had some snow last night and the wind is howling now, so it's not going to happen today.

If you are beginner then your altitude should be higher then anything in your area that you don't want to smash into. It acually a lot harder to fly low sometimes because of all the obstacles .

Bobby T · Apr 8, 2018

xspwhite said:
If you are beginner then your altitude should be higher then anything in your area that you don't want to smash into. It acually a lot harder to fly low sometimes because of all the obstacles .

For now I'll be keeping it inside the park where I go to fly. There's virtually nothing there to hit - except for one little tree right on the edge of the park. Of course I found it during my first flight. I'll keep it at a reasonable height for now... one that I'm comfortable with and gradually work my way up. I won't be putting it up 400 feet or sending it out a mile just yet...

Bobby T · Apr 8, 2018

Fordie said:
Best advice is to write down a pre flight checklist. Print one off and keep it in the case.
Force yourself to use it all the time until it becomes second nature.
It helps to prevent things like forgetting to set return to home altitude or forgetting to check vision sensors are on or off.
You can add to the checklist as you go on learning. I am still amending mine to include battery change checklists.
Glad you are having fun, it's a great hobby.

I printed out a pre-flight check list last weekend. But I guess it isn't going to help me very much when it is sitting on my desk while I'm out flying.

I should also make a pre-turn on check list for when I turn it on in the house to do some calibrating. First item on the list... don't go through an hour of frustration looking for the reason the AC wasn't connecting to the RC and then realizing that the mobile device wasn't plugged into the controller.

mitchb2 · Apr 9, 2018

My wife says as soon as I pass my 107 exam I can get a P4P. You'd think that would motivate me, but I keep procrastinating because I'm afraid to put $1500 up in the air.

Posts like this freak me out. I need to get over it.

My only drone experience is with toys. I have a Parrot AR that is terrible. The smallest air movement causes it to flip over, turn off and crash.

I've never had my hands on a "real" drone like DJI.

Edit: I have a couple Hubsan toy quads and about a dozen 1S LiPo's. They only get 1 minute of flight time. If I could solve that issue I could get more practice.

MotorCycle-Man · Apr 9, 2018

Gee......then invest in a P3 Standard thats $1000.00 cheaper.......get 3 or 4 extra batterys and learn the rules of safe flights on it......seems to me you have not got no experience with the "Toy" drone like i did mine....I flew my $54.00 Toy drone all last summer in the house and at the park...and off my front porch...i became very good at taking to the air and having to control it All The time and it never had No GPS ! and Hey I never did crash it !

Bobby T · Apr 9, 2018

mitchb2 said:
My wife says as soon as I pass my 107 exam I can get a P4P. You'd think that would motivate me, but I keep procrastinating because I'm afraid to put $1500 up in the air.

Posts like this freak me out. I need to get over it.

My only drone experience is with toys. I have a Parrot AR that is terrible. The smallest air movement causes it to flip over, turn off and crash.

I've never had my hands on a "real" drone like DJI.

I know what you mean about being scared to put $1,000 up in the air. I have only flown my P4 once since getting it because of the lack of nice weather. Five minutes into that very first flight I had a minor indecent with a tree. Totally all my own fault for not trusting the RTH feature. But in my own defense, I had never flown any kind of drone whatsoever. Luckily for me there was no damage except for the props. It only fell about 3 feet. I changed them and put it back up and it flew great.

In my case, I see myself continuing to fly in a wide open space and keeping it about 10 or 20 feet off the ground and continue to do squares, circles and straight up and downs until I am extremely comfortable with what the remote control does. I think the fear will go away after a while.

mitchb2 · Apr 9, 2018

Holy cow, I didn't know the Phantom 3 4k was only $600! I've only been focusing on the P4P.

MotorCycle-Man · Apr 9, 2018

PLUS : Way Way way way too many new drone owners....."Think" yep i will take it out of beginner mode thats for babys.....Thats when we here on this Phantom Pilots read about ......." Ive crashed my New drone and broke it in tiny pieces" !