Noob here who needs advice

[GeneralKitFisto]

For my birthday yesterday, my dad got me two drones. One was a DJI Phantom, and the other was a palm sized Nano QX Blade. According to my dad (Who has 0 experience with anything of this sorts), I should fly the Nano for a month before I can even take the Phantom out of the box.

Is he right? Should I do this? Or would it be fine if I went ahead and started flying the Phantom? If it helps, I've flown the Nano a ton in the 24 hours since I've gotten it.

 

[rexster314]

I have 2 questions: How old are you and are you living under your dad's roof?

 

[GeneralKitFisto]

I'm 14, living with him part time. I should have pointed out that the "training drone" thing was just a suggestion by him.

 

[Fplvert]

Welcome to the forum.

Your dad is very generous for your birthday. You should listen to his advice. It would be embarrassing to crash or lose your Phantom the first month.

Also, spend some time with YouTube tutorials and this forum. Then you will know how your bird works, and make your dad trust you enough to give you the keys to the car one day!

MHL

 

[sdtrojan]

I'm 14, living with him part time. I should have pointed out that the "training drone" thing was just a suggestion by him.

That is great advice by dad and it will not take you more than a week or so (about 10 hrs flight time I think) to master the "nano". Once you have that down, then break open the Phantom and make sure you follow the directions and the advice of seasoned posters on this board (those guys/ladies with 200+ posts usually have good advice).

I did the same thing, flew a little Hubsan around inside my house until I mastered it, it's a lot harder to fly than a Phantom because there is not as much control help (GPS, compass, etc). I got to the point that I could land it in a controlled manner on the blade of my ceiling fans in my house, so I knew I was ready at that point.

Have fun, kid. Your Dad hooked you up!

 

[GeneralKitFisto]

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Marlin009]

Solid advice from your dad. Although, a month may be overkill.

Go to DJI's website and download the manual. When you've read it, read it again. It's not the easiest read but you will be glad you did.

Download this and read it too.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=23597&hilit=Guide#p216660

There are a lot of good YouTube videos that explain all functions of the Phantom and the software (also download that from DJI). I find Simon Newtons to be very good.

 

[kitari]

Welcome to the forum!

Like others said, keep practicing with the nano until you have orientation control down. You should be able to fly it in any direction and not get your controls mixed up, so when you take the phantom out, you don't accidently freak out and slam it into something by moving it in the wrong direction. Also keep in mind that the phantom is probably going to be much faster, but comared to most nanos out there, it'll actually be easier to control, so if you get good with the nano, you'll be great with the phantom. Now with that out of the way, I'd also like to add that you should also be safe with your phantom and try to fly away from other people if you can, and don't fly it too far away or too high as that's just asking for trouble. Keep it within line of sight and you should be fine. Also no peeping on your neighbors! :lol:

 

[Larry L]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the phantom. Just make sure you read manual & when you understand it, read it some more. Good luck & enjoy your quads!

 

[n6vmo]

I've flown the Nano a ton in the 24 hours since I've gotten it.

I practiced on an inexpensive quad copter for two weeks before ordering my Phantom. Got good at maneuvering it throughout the house and landing it on target.

How many times, the that 24 hour period, did you run the Nano into the ground or other obstacle?

 

[GeneralKitFisto]

Thanks once again. Against the wishes of my dog, I'm going to fly the nano for a bit longer (I've just managed to go under a chair, and land on a ceiling fan blade).

I showed this thread to my dad, and now he agrees that a month is overkill. He wants me to keep practicing, and said he would take me to a field after school on Wednesday or Thursday to start learning the Phantom.

 

[kitari]

Thanks once again. Against the wishes of my dog, I'm going to fly the nano for a bit longer (I've just managed to go under a chair, and land on a ceiling fan blade).

I showed this thread to my dad, and now he agrees that a month is overkill. He wants me to keep practicing, and said he would take me to a field after school on Wednesday or Thursday to start learning the Phantom.

You can land on a ceiling fan blade? That's actually pretty impressive, I think you'll be ready to fly the phantom in no time. I'd also like to add, that the phantom is going to be different when it comes to landing, so if you're the type of person that hovers and drops to land, you might want to work on bringing it down slowly to do your landings as that's how you'll land the phantom since the blades don't cut off like a nano will unless you're flying manual, which I don't recommend doing for quite a while. If you bring the phantom down too hard, you could damage the landing gear and/or cause a bad tipover.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Welcome to the Forum! Just one thing to add, download the complete manual at DJI and study it, over and over. If you have questions, just ask us!

 

[Happyflyer]

Thanks once again. Against the wishes of my dog, I'm going to fly the nano for a bit longer (I've just managed to go under a chair, and land on a ceiling fan blade).

I showed this thread to my dad, and now he agrees that a month is overkill. He wants me to keep practicing, and said he would take me to a field after school on Wednesday or Thursday to start learning the Phantom.

In such a short time? You must be a natural pilot. More hours than I can count into mine and still not much good.
Enjoy your Phantom and fly safe.

 

[Stanza_guy]

I tried and tried to land on a ceiling fan blade with my Nano, and while I got very close many times I finally had to turn the fan off to manage it.... That was a lot easier. :lol:

 

[landmannnn]

You are younger than most of us do should be able to master the little quad more easily...
The other reason for a mini quad is that it is great for playing and doing tricks, you will be far less tempted to play around with the phantom and break it.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Now, when you can land on a spinning fan blade, you are there! Joke! Don't try! I also think a month is a bit long, but I wouldn't go against the advice of someone who gave me a free Phantom? Now, if you feel ready at 2-3 weeks, talk to your Dad about it. Let him see your current skills and he might change his mind.

But, flying a smaller drone isn't enough. You need to understand your Phantom, inside and out. One suggestion: On EBay are decals for your controller. They are very useful when beginning and in a panic situation, when everything you learned, goes out one ear, the labels will help. I don't recall the price, but it was reasonable.

The dealer, that I purchased from, included a second set of decals. That proved to be invaluable. A knive's edge or better, an Exacto knife help a lot. Be careful of the Exacto as it is razor sharp!

 

[Great Pumpkin]

And I think you'd do better to fly your Phantom outdoors - welcome to the forum.

You might find this manual much more user friendly than DJI's. It was compiled by a forum member with much help from other forum members:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mv8d1hohc3mce ... e.pdf?dl=0

 

[GeneralKitFisto]

Well, the nano is starting to have some techincal difficulties. I think it just hit the ground too hard one too many times (I would like to point out that my flying abilities were not the cause of this. The battery died while it was flying 15 feet in the air above pavement).

There's a large possibility my dad will take me to a large open space tomorrow afternoon to take the Phantom for its first flight. I will check out that manual beforehand.

 

[lake_flyer]

Welcome young padawan!

You will find that the Phantom flies MUCH easier then the micro. I too started with a relatively low cost quad with no GPS and no stabilisation. Crashed it numerous times and it flew away when I lost transmitter control at 300feet, went into the lake and lost for good. When I took the Phantom in the sky for the first time I couldn't believe how easy it was in GPS mode. Atti is a different story, it will only hold altitude and drifts with the wind (that's when your micro experience kicks in!).

But very important, perhaps more important then flying itself (because in GPS mode it flies itself, you only give it directions), is the proper knowledge about what makes your Phantom do what it is supposed to do, like GPS lock, compass error and calibration, the IOC modes in Naza software, the software itself, updating and advanced calibration, how to prevent 'fly aways', how to check the return to home function, homelock use, etc, ect.

That knowledge separates the boys from the men (no pun intended ). Too many first time Phantom users loose their bird on the first couple of flights because they thought flying was so easy. But they just didn't know what made their quad actually do what it did and why it did what it did.