Hand-Flying

[athearnsd45]

Just curious how many of you folks are adept at hand-flying complex maneuvers vs. letting your control app handle things autonomously. By complex maneuvers, I mean keeping the gimbal pointed at a point of interest as you fly past in a straight line, or circle an object while keeping the gimbal pointed at it.

I don't find simple hand-flying to be at all difficult, but since on the Phantoms, you have to rotate the drone to rotate the camera, that adds a lot of complexity to the flying chores when you want to look to the side or change to a backward view while maintaining smooth, straight flight. The easy solution is just to use an autonomous mode, but there are times when it would be nice just to hand-fly exactly the angle you need.

Any suggestions or tutorial videos out there that would be a good starting point?

Thanks!

John

 

[Geoelectro]

I was flying over a building once and when I cleared it, wanted to do a 180 turn filming the building as it flew away. Well, to my surprise, I was flying back to it because I forgot that turning it 180 degrees without changing the direction simply turned it around, heading back. So, I practiced that maneuver in an open space until the stick movement felt natural. In fact, as the quad it turns, the direction changes continuously. I think of it in quarter stick movements. Forward, halfway through the turn sideways, then finally with turn completed backwards.

I don't always get it perfect but once I nailed it going over another building. Felt pretty good! Here's the clip, 1:23 to 1:55.

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Practicing point of interest circles helps as well. I always use the POI function now that I have it but I had done it manually for a couple of years.

Geo

 

[Just_nick]

Just curious how many of you folks are adept at hand-flying complex maneuvers vs. letting your control app handle things autonomously. By complex maneuvers, I mean keeping the gimbal pointed at a point of interest as you fly past in a straight line, or circle an object while keeping the gimbal pointed at it.

I don't find simple hand-flying to be at all difficult, but since on the Phantoms, you have to rotate the drone to rotate the camera, that adds a lot of complexity to the flying chores when you want to look to the side or change to a backward view while maintaining smooth, straight flight. The easy solution is just to use an autonomous mode, but there are times when it would be nice just to hand-fly exactly the angle you need.

Any suggestions or tutorial videos out there that would be a good starting point?

Thanks!

John

While I can do it, I find that using the smart functions for things like circling are significantly easier. A single mishap on the sticks can turn a beautiful, circling POI into another go-around.

 

[athearnsd45]

Awesome video, Geo. And thanks for the reply, Just_nick - I agree the functions are worth their weight in gold, but it would be nice to have the ability to hand-fly in a pinch. Sounds like I need to get out to a field and practice!