Free Vision+ Training Video Series

[kgarrison]

Some of you can disagree all you want but the reality is that manual mode is something you should have available as a last resort. There is absolutely no reason to have FailSafe on S1 for two reasons:

1. You can have Home Lock on S2 which allows you to return to home blindly and then land it yourself (maintaining control)
2. The Radar (my next video) allows you to visually see the distance and orientation and fly your aircraft back even when you can't see it

In a perfect world, you will never need to flip it into manual mode, but the world isn't perfect. So long as you have GPS working, Home Lock will perform almost the same function. If you lost GPS signal, FailSafe may cause a landing too far away and cause you to lose your aircraft and the Radar may be the only way to fly it back.

Yes, manual is not for beginners and hopefully you never need it, but FailSafe is simply not needed when you have two other methods that you can use almost as easily.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Have you tried flying out of line of sight and then flipping to manual mode to bring her home?

 

[kgarrison]

Have you tried flying out of line of sight and then flipping to manual mode to bring her home?

Sure, what's the problem with that? I wouldn't recommend it for most people but you have full telemetry to tell you speed and altitude and the radar to tell you distance and orientation and FPV to fly by. Manual is simply not as difficult as most people seem to think it is but why would you do that? I personally prefer to fly in ATTI mode 90%+ of the time. The problem people have with manual is that you actually have to FLY the aircraft. 50% throttle is not going to hover and you will be constantly moving the controls. Our early quads barely had stabilization and had no altitude hold or GPS position hold and we all seemed to manage just fine. People have been flying FPV with no ATTI or GPS for years so to think that this is all of a sudden impossible just tells me you don't have much experience with earlier generations of copters.

 

[cougar]

Ok well you stick to your own advice but dont be telling new flyers to follow suit. And I will urge any new flyers to disregard your videos.

I agree with you.

Geert.

Agree with this statement, you are free to post whatever you like/think is right, but please don't tell beginners to follow.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

My main problem is that the majority of new owners have never flown before and to even mention the word maunal mode to them is nuts. There is zero need for manual mode to get a phantom home. Look I'm all for you making educational videos, I really am but there are many more basic things people need to learn before even flipping into NAZA mode, nevermind manual. Just concentrate your videos on the baby steps first and maybe you can make a manual flying video at the end aimed at the more experienced flyers.

 

[kgarrison]

My main problem is that the majority of new owners have never flown before and to even mention the word maunal mode to them is nuts. There is zero need for manual mode to get a phantom home. Look I'm all for you making educational videos, I really am but there are many more basic things people need to learn before even flipping into NAZA mode, nevermind manual. Just concentrate your videos on the baby steps first and maybe you can make a manual flying video at the end aimed at the more experienced flyers.

if you watch the video, I specifically say that manual is a last ditch effort, I never said it is for returning to home. I have stated MULTIPLE times that there are two other options that are BETTER than FailSafe for bringing your Phantom home (Home Lock and Radar). Manual is ONLY for when nothing else is working and you need to take action to avoid a worse situation, not for normal flying.

You should also NOT be learning to fly with a Phantom, get a $60 Hubsan X4. Easy mode is harder than ATTI and Expert mode is like flying in manual.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Problem is that I guess 80% of phantom owners are first time flyers

 

[kgarrison]

Problem is that I guess 80% of phantom owners are first time flyers

Yes, that is a serious problem. A Phantom should come with a Hubsan and not be able to be armed until you have 20 hours of flight time on the "trainer".

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

But unfortunately that isnt the case, the cat is oit of the bag and you cant put it back in, its just a fact that such a high percentage of phantom owners are first time flyers and that cant be changed. It pains me to read around 2 new posts a day from new flyers who have wrecked their new pride and joy because they didnt learn the very basics and this is where I think you could be putting your training videos to better use. I'm just asking you to please reconsider your format. Look I think myself and the others members have voiced enough concerns on this thread for you to even take a step back and look at it again.

 

[tedw123]

I have put together some training videos for Vision+ users. There are more to come so feel free to bookmark it or subscribe for updates. I also would love to get feedback on topics people would like to see covered.

Not seeing any links?

 

[kgarrison]

But unfortunately that isnt the case, the cat is oit of the bag and you cant put it back in, its just a fact that such a high percentage of phantom owners are first time flyers and that cant be changed. It pains me to read around 2 new posts a day from new flyers who have wrecked their new pride and joy because they didnt learn the very basics and this is where I think you could be putting your training videos to better use. I'm just asking you to please reconsider your format. Look I think myself and the others members have voiced enough concerns on this thread for you to even take a step back and look at it again.

Thanks, I really appreciate good feedback. I am really open to suggestions on how to make the best videos possible. If you have suggestions on how I can improve them or topics for future videos, I am actually receptive, but to simply attack me for my opinion and my justification for it is going to put me on the defensive.

Link to videos
http://dronetechreport.com/vision-training-series/

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

Hey listen no hard feelings at all, we just got off to a rocky start mate. I'd certainly be up for giving you ideas and hopefully with the help of a few of the more experienced flyers we might be able to come up with a comprehensive training guide that can bring an out of the box new flyer to the point where they are quite proficient at flying and in turn can help out new flyers themselves.

 

[kgarrison]

Hey listen no hard feelings at all, we just got off to a rocky start mate. I'd certainly be up for giving you ideas and hopefully with the help of a few of the more experienced flyers we might be able to come up with a comprehensive training guide that can bring an out of the box new flyer to the point where they are quite proficient at flying and in turn can help out new flyers themselves.

Feel free to reach out with ideas. The last thing I want is a bad experience for new users.

 

[pyrophantom]

I agree I think the initial jumping on his bones was a little knee jerk, ive watched the videos and fair play someone wanting to do this to help noobs out. I know I would have found it helpful when I first got my 2 birds. We can always do things better with hindsight and I agree with the sentiment of some people that manual is really a skill best learned after you are proficient in phantom mode, then naza mode.......then you should have the skill and understanding of the perils and pitfalls that could befall you if you panic in manual mode which usually means scratch one expensive plus.

However, as an introduction to basic flying no problem mentioning the flight modes, but maybe with warnings to learn phantom and naza mode first until very proficient. I think the various flight modes are videos in themselves learning how to fly, with manual being classed as an advanced mode, and most people who become very good pilots will be able to take manual on board as a natural progression anyway, which is I think, the best way to learn it. Every person is different and learns at different rates, so making it as easy to fly safely, it is best kept basic, and the videos do give some useful info in that regard.

The guy is open to suggestions for videos so be positive and make constructive comments as he is taking his time trying to help others get started. New people may get confused messages when everyone is bickering about dont do this do that etc. We have to remember we all start at the beginning somewhere, and the videos should help promote that in an educational way whilst promoting safe practise through training progression.

Just my thoughts for both sides of the camp.

 

[PCB]

Some of you can disagree all you want but the reality is that manual mode is something you should have available as a last resort. There is absolutely no reason to have FailSafe on S1 for two reasons:

1. You can have Home Lock on S2 which allows you to return to home blindly and then land it yourself (maintaining control)
2. The Radar (my next video) allows you to visually see the distance and orientation and fly your aircraft back even when you can't see it

In a perfect world, you will never need to flip it into manual mode, but the world isn't perfect. So long as you have GPS working, Home Lock will perform almost the same function. If you lost GPS signal, FailSafe may cause a landing too far away and cause you to lose your aircraft and the Radar may be the only way to fly it back.

Yes, manual is not for beginners and hopefully you never need it, but FailSafe is simply not needed when you have two other methods that you can use almost as easily.

About radar, does it work while the phantom is stationary and rotated by hand and what direction should the > point in relation to the the smaller red and white <> next to it?
On my display the small red white <> the red side points to the left and the > points in the general direction the phantom is facing,I use an android tablet without a built in compass. Manual states if there isn't a built in compass that the pointer should point up, I believe, but it points to the left.
Not having used the radar I don't know how the display shows the travel on screen.
Last time I flew it got away from me and crashed in a tree at 74 feet elevation when I thought I brought it up to 40-50 to get above the house when it was unstable for some reason.
Being in a wheel chair limits where I can go to fly and after a couple unsuccessful attempts at liftoff I want to be sure everything is understood before I try again.

 

[kgarrison]

I use an HTC One and the compass simply shows a red > to indicate the orientation of the Phantom in relation to my position (more like its home lock position in reality). As it moves away the > gets further away. Tapping once on the radar will bring up a larger view of it with distance markers. If I completely lost sight of it and the FPV was not working, I can easily fly it back to the launch point using just the radar.

 

[RedRyderMedia]

There seems to be a lot of focus here on the manual mode and some of the content in the first video. I also watched the second video on the camera. I found the information generally poorly presented and in general full of errors and mistakes. I decided not to comment, but since there are now 5 pages of comments, I will add my 2 cents. I don't see the value in your videos and wouldn't recommend anyone watching them. Too hard to filter the errors from the little bits of valuable content. Sorry to be so negative because my sense was you're trying to be helpful. I just don't find much to be positive about the first two videos.....I didn't watch the third one.

 

[kgarrison]

There seems to be a lot of focus here on the manual mode and some of the content in the first video. I also watched the second video on the camera. I found the information generally poorly presented and in general full of errors and mistakes. I decided not to comment, but since there are now 5 pages of comments, I will add my 2 cents. I don't see the value in your videos and wouldn't recommend anyone watching them. Too hard to filter the errors from the little bits of valuable content. Sorry to be so negative because my sense was you're trying to be helpful. I just don't find much to be positive about the first two videos.....I didn't watch the third one.

Could you message me with what errors you found?