- Joined
- Jul 10, 2017
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- 563
- Reaction score
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- Age
- 58
I read a lot about simple avoidable mistakes mostly from new Pilots and even some from veterans so I thought I'd make a post here to attempt to help minimize the mishaps. First let me say I'm no authority on RC flight, but I have been in the hobby for 35 years flying Planes, Helicopters and Quads as well as driving land vehicles.
One of the best things you can do is Pre flight planning there are so many useful tools for mapping out your flight route. I'm a fan of Google earth for many reasons, but the main reason is the ability to measure distance on the program, this allows me to measure to things such as towers and power lines so I know when I'm getting close to those things. using google earth lets me see the land I'm flying over and find sites for emergency landings as well as areas to avoid and even points of interest. the more I view it area the more I become familiar with it so if some unforeseen event takes place I at least know what to expect in my search for my Drone. You can print out the area and take it with you with pre measured landing sites, points of interest to look at while your in the air and any thing that may hamper your connection to the AC such as houses where Wifi signals cold be a problem. once you find a possible site make sure you check that its safe to fly in I personally like using an app called Airmap for that a great App with phone numbers to contact airports to ask for flight permission you would be surprised at the number of airports that will permit you to fly so long as you abide by the rules they set forth. Its an invaluable tool and should be in every pilots arsenal.
Preflight check I wont go into a lot of detail here as there are a lot of preflight checklists posted that are very good, but for the purpose of driving home the information I'm going to list a few things of great importance In my honest opinion there is never a good reason to fly with less then 100% battery charge and that includes your RC, always charge up hours before your going to fly. charging up and letting your battery sit for a week is a recipe for disaster because your batteries are discharging the whole time they are at rest. Make sure your RC is calibrated and your AC is also calibrated. check over your AC and RC make sure props are undamaged and secure make sure your gimbal is secured with its drop pins and all the rubber shocks are in place and undamaged. Make sure your RC has a full charge, antennas are in good working order and undamaged. Make sure your RC and AC are clean. make sure your sticks move freely in all directions and your gimbal control wheel is free moving. Make all settings Prior to going to fly if your doing that in the air your wasting precious flight time and its distracting your attention off your drone. make sure you set your battery reminders and stick to them like that are law. lastly If you wish make sure all software is up to date.
Pre take off once your ready to take flight make sure your app is up and your connected to your drone look over your RTH height and when its to activate check your max height and go over all settings make sure nothing has changed. If your flying a new spot its not a bad idea to compass calibrate your AC. If you have a warm up phase let it run through that and when your clear to fly start your AC observe the props spinning and lift off only a few feet check your controls forward, backward, side to side,Yaw climb and lower,roll your gimbal wheel to check your camera is responding as it should. get up to altitude and look over your whole area check that your emergency landing sites are clear of obstructions. go fly. Keep in mind if it takes you 50% of your battery to reach your location its going to take Min. 50% to get back unless your flying a tailwind. If your flying close and your battery minder goes off come back don't wait its not worth having your drone auto land in a tree 200feet up or worse in water. if your not going to make it back look for the closes emergency landing zone and get to it start heading that direction as quickly as possible to recover your drone as fast as possible. Most importantly Focus keep you mind on the task your performing or keep your drone on the ground. Sticking to your flight plan is always the best option. If your drone triggers RTH and is in view don't just take over the controls if your going to fly longer or plan on landing yourself. Make sure before you do that to cancel RTH or when your drone lands there is a good chance it will launch back into the sky because its still trying to RTH
Don't take chances this includes everything said so far as well as how and where you fly no Picture is worth crashing your drone for. no picture is worth having your drone confiscated getting a fine.. flying to close to objects is a recipe for disaster, you have prop wash effect happening that can easily suck you into things. Obey the laws, check local laws before you even leave home. Never fly in NFZ (no Fly Zones) without permission same applies to private land you don't have the right to launch your drone from private property or even enter that land to recover your drone without permission. every incident is possibly fuel for having this hobby come under some strict rules. Be responsible, be respectful and be willing to vacate a fly site if its getting folks upset. arguing over who is right only makes the complainant more irate its easier to just pack up and move on. Keep your head, If you have trouble in flight try and remain calm. Keeping calm lets you think of the right course of action for the issue your dealing with, Panic causes lots of crashes.
These are the more common things I read. I hope this will help out in some way to minimize some of the problems I read. I used to fly reckless hence my name Epicdoom when I crashed it was Big. I've lost countless dollars in RC equipment because I didn't use my head. I've been crash free for 20 years Nock on wood. I plan my flights I check over everything and I fly like I have some intelligence. Happy Flying!!
One of the best things you can do is Pre flight planning there are so many useful tools for mapping out your flight route. I'm a fan of Google earth for many reasons, but the main reason is the ability to measure distance on the program, this allows me to measure to things such as towers and power lines so I know when I'm getting close to those things. using google earth lets me see the land I'm flying over and find sites for emergency landings as well as areas to avoid and even points of interest. the more I view it area the more I become familiar with it so if some unforeseen event takes place I at least know what to expect in my search for my Drone. You can print out the area and take it with you with pre measured landing sites, points of interest to look at while your in the air and any thing that may hamper your connection to the AC such as houses where Wifi signals cold be a problem. once you find a possible site make sure you check that its safe to fly in I personally like using an app called Airmap for that a great App with phone numbers to contact airports to ask for flight permission you would be surprised at the number of airports that will permit you to fly so long as you abide by the rules they set forth. Its an invaluable tool and should be in every pilots arsenal.
Preflight check I wont go into a lot of detail here as there are a lot of preflight checklists posted that are very good, but for the purpose of driving home the information I'm going to list a few things of great importance In my honest opinion there is never a good reason to fly with less then 100% battery charge and that includes your RC, always charge up hours before your going to fly. charging up and letting your battery sit for a week is a recipe for disaster because your batteries are discharging the whole time they are at rest. Make sure your RC is calibrated and your AC is also calibrated. check over your AC and RC make sure props are undamaged and secure make sure your gimbal is secured with its drop pins and all the rubber shocks are in place and undamaged. Make sure your RC has a full charge, antennas are in good working order and undamaged. Make sure your RC and AC are clean. make sure your sticks move freely in all directions and your gimbal control wheel is free moving. Make all settings Prior to going to fly if your doing that in the air your wasting precious flight time and its distracting your attention off your drone. make sure you set your battery reminders and stick to them like that are law. lastly If you wish make sure all software is up to date.
Pre take off once your ready to take flight make sure your app is up and your connected to your drone look over your RTH height and when its to activate check your max height and go over all settings make sure nothing has changed. If your flying a new spot its not a bad idea to compass calibrate your AC. If you have a warm up phase let it run through that and when your clear to fly start your AC observe the props spinning and lift off only a few feet check your controls forward, backward, side to side,Yaw climb and lower,roll your gimbal wheel to check your camera is responding as it should. get up to altitude and look over your whole area check that your emergency landing sites are clear of obstructions. go fly. Keep in mind if it takes you 50% of your battery to reach your location its going to take Min. 50% to get back unless your flying a tailwind. If your flying close and your battery minder goes off come back don't wait its not worth having your drone auto land in a tree 200feet up or worse in water. if your not going to make it back look for the closes emergency landing zone and get to it start heading that direction as quickly as possible to recover your drone as fast as possible. Most importantly Focus keep you mind on the task your performing or keep your drone on the ground. Sticking to your flight plan is always the best option. If your drone triggers RTH and is in view don't just take over the controls if your going to fly longer or plan on landing yourself. Make sure before you do that to cancel RTH or when your drone lands there is a good chance it will launch back into the sky because its still trying to RTH
Don't take chances this includes everything said so far as well as how and where you fly no Picture is worth crashing your drone for. no picture is worth having your drone confiscated getting a fine.. flying to close to objects is a recipe for disaster, you have prop wash effect happening that can easily suck you into things. Obey the laws, check local laws before you even leave home. Never fly in NFZ (no Fly Zones) without permission same applies to private land you don't have the right to launch your drone from private property or even enter that land to recover your drone without permission. every incident is possibly fuel for having this hobby come under some strict rules. Be responsible, be respectful and be willing to vacate a fly site if its getting folks upset. arguing over who is right only makes the complainant more irate its easier to just pack up and move on. Keep your head, If you have trouble in flight try and remain calm. Keeping calm lets you think of the right course of action for the issue your dealing with, Panic causes lots of crashes.
These are the more common things I read. I hope this will help out in some way to minimize some of the problems I read. I used to fly reckless hence my name Epicdoom when I crashed it was Big. I've lost countless dollars in RC equipment because I didn't use my head. I've been crash free for 20 years Nock on wood. I plan my flights I check over everything and I fly like I have some intelligence. Happy Flying!!
