Maiden Flight

Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
1,211
Reaction score
299
Age
69
Location
KVNY
I have been flying toy drones (X5C) for the past couple months in my front yard and over the house/street etc. There are trees lining the street and so forth, but practice with the X5C has been such that the only real enemy now is the wind.

As such, I was thinking of doing the maiden flight of my Phantom 2 from my driveway as I should have at least 8 or so satellites based on satpredictor.navcomtech.com.

Had I not flown the X5C or any other quad before I could see where it would be best to learn in a big open field. Just wondering if anybody else has gone from the small drones to the Phantom in a more confined environment than a big open field.
 
Right. That's where the little quad helped hone the skills--avoiding hitting the trees. But you're right I need to gauge the risks myself.
 
And, may I add, Welcome to the Forum!

I have the X5C and smaller drones. I recommend the Symantec X5C-1 (upgraded version) on Amazon for around $60. It is good for pilots who want a slightly bigger platform.

Although we all would like a large open field out our back door, we have to settle for what we have available. I do recommend Google maps for locating possible flight locations. Then, contact the owner and ask for permission. I wouldn't use the word "drone" if possible.

I'm guilty of using it here but the name drone came from the military. (At least I think it did!) True drones kill people and also innocents. Instead of attacking the military, we are being attacked.

I suggest that you present yourself as a friendly and informative person as with every flight, your actions represent us all. I hope you get my point. Again, Welcome to the Forum!
 
Hey Snowghost, I'm sort of in the same situation. I started with a Dromida Kodo and learned the sticks and what not to do. After a number of incidents involving trees and extension ladders, I got better. After two weeks, I couldn't stand it anymore and bought the Phantom 1.1.1. I didn't rush out to fly, but waited until I had read the manual many times and watched dozens of videos.

There are a ton of trees here (southeast NC swamps) and most of the pines are 100+ feet high. So even my first FPV flight was kind of anxiety ridden. Line of sight is not an option unless I want to fly the same one acres field every day. We've had a LOT of fast air from Seymour Johnson AFB flying treetops here and that's really scary when your quad is "way up there".

So good luck on your maiden flight and please let us know all the particulars...
 
I had flown the tiny indoor 3ch and 4ch R/C choppers with various levels of success, and very successfully flown the Hubsan X4 and even a couple of the no-name micro ones that are the size of a finger tip. I had those successfully navigating indoors in my house with airconditioners and fans going, and still not crashing them, and quite a few flights in low winds outdoors with the Hubsan, so I felt quite confident with going to the P2, and took it off just for a hover in my backyard, which is this small:

I rose to above the roof line before trying any left/right/forward/backward/yaw movements on it.

I was amazed by how stable the Phantoms are. If you can fly the micro quads, which are as twitchy as all beggary, then you'll find a Phantom very very easy to fly.
I would add a proviso though, unless you're really comfortable with reversed controls when you turn back towards yourself, perhaps stick with flying only in one orientation for a while till you get the hang of it a bit, but I think you'll actually be surprised at how little room you need to fly one of these. I have hovered mine in my loungeroom once (but I did crash when I did it, but that was an IMU problem).
My gut feeling is slow and steady and you should be fine in your yard, but I haven't seen your yard, so can't be totally sure. I guess it comes down to, can you afford to replace anything that breaks? If not, then find a field. LOL
 

Attachments

  • 1010059_10152156416967048_1682163451_n.jpg
    1010059_10152156416967048_1682163451_n.jpg
    117.6 KB · Views: 371
PhantomFanatic said:
And, may I add, Welcome to the Forum!

I have the X5C and smaller drones. I recommend the Symantec X5C-1 (upgraded version) on Amazon for around $60. It is good for pilots who want a slightly bigger platform.

Although we all would like a large open field out our back door, we have to settle for what we have available. I do recommend Google maps for locating possible flight locations. Then, contact the owner and ask for permission. I wouldn't use the word "drone" if possible.

I'm guilty of using it here but the name drone came from the military. (At least I think it did!) True drones kill people and also innocents. Instead of attacking the military, we are being attacked.

I suggest that you present yourself as a friendly and informative person as with every flight, your actions represent us all. I hope you get my point. Again, Welcome to the Forum!

Thanks for the welcome. I did my maiden flight last weekend and several more without incident. The little quads really made the transition smooth. I also took it to a local park early on Sunday and flew over unpopulated hillsides for a stunning view. Too bad I forgot the SD card LOL.

I really did a lot of reading and flying the little drones before even thinking about flying the Phantom. Extension ladders, wind and trees were part of the learning curve.

There was one lone guy who showed up at the park with his dog and had a million questions. I did my best to be a good will ambassador for quads. :D Also joined the AMA today. Looking forward to this great hobby!
 
Awesome. Glad it went well. And I also have made the "Forgot the SD card" mistake. I now wrap a red ribbon around the handle on the Phantom Carry Case as soon as I pull the SD card out and put it into the laptop. I leave it there until I put the SD back into the Go Pro. That way there's very little chance of running off without it again.

I found the same things about my first flights with the Phantom that you found. I had many years of mini quadcopters, and even 3ch and 4ch helicopters, and even spent lots of time playing an RC Heli simulator on my ipad when I was really bored, or unable to fly for real. So I didn't consider myself all that inexperienced, and for me the first flight of the phantom was far from a first flight. It was nothing like a first flight for me as the pilot. My comments above were based on it sounding like you were coming from a fairly similar basis to me - previous experience but on a different aircraft.
Actually if, anything, the smaller they are the harder they are to fly, so if you've flown them, it's actually EASIER to fly a Phantom.
My micro is the most difficult to fly, the Hubsan takes easy flying up a big notch from flying that twitchy little thing. Then the step up to a Phantom is like stepping up from driving an old paddock basher with manual gears and no synchro mesh, to driving a fully automatic, cruise control and self parking equipped, Mercedes Benz.
I would hate to be a genuinely first ever flier learning on a Phantom. That's a lot of money to crash.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers