I am a new pilot to the drone world and find this forum very interesting and informative and it has helped me greatly in getting started with my P3s. I have seen loads of great technical advice in terms of pre-flight checks but thought it might be helpful if I shared some of the non-technical points I have learned in the last few weeks.
1. Choose a big enough home point for take off. GPS is not precise and when your drone comes back it will not land exactly where it set off from. Make sure the space you are using is big enough to accommodate this variance or you can have some scary moments.
2. Check the surface you are going to land on. It is amazing that ground that seems level to walk on is in fact far from level. Even small ruts, stones and dips are enough to tip your drone over and with the camera only a few inches from the ground it does not take much for it to come into contact with the ground.
3. Long grass is bad news for spinning props, avoid it.
4. Before take off know your environment and where you are going to fly. If I am flying round a building I walk round it and make a note of any wires, trees or obstructions. It's not till I owned a drone that I was suddenly aware of how many wires there are running between buildings and what you thought of as wide open spaces have all sorts of hazards that only become apparent when you have a flying robot.
5. Write your name, address, phone number and email on the drone. If it gets lost you have some chance of getting it back if someone knows who to contact. A simple point but one that could save you £100's.
6. Avoid rain and high winds. Patience is a virtue and you can always fly tomorrow so why take the risk.
7. Read the forums, learn about potential problems and their symptoms so that you are prepared in the event of something going wrong. It could be the difference between a destroyed drone and a safe landing.
I hope this helps, especially new pilots as it is very easy to make some simple assumptions and end up with a very expensive mistake that could have been avoided.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
1. Choose a big enough home point for take off. GPS is not precise and when your drone comes back it will not land exactly where it set off from. Make sure the space you are using is big enough to accommodate this variance or you can have some scary moments.
2. Check the surface you are going to land on. It is amazing that ground that seems level to walk on is in fact far from level. Even small ruts, stones and dips are enough to tip your drone over and with the camera only a few inches from the ground it does not take much for it to come into contact with the ground.
3. Long grass is bad news for spinning props, avoid it.
4. Before take off know your environment and where you are going to fly. If I am flying round a building I walk round it and make a note of any wires, trees or obstructions. It's not till I owned a drone that I was suddenly aware of how many wires there are running between buildings and what you thought of as wide open spaces have all sorts of hazards that only become apparent when you have a flying robot.
5. Write your name, address, phone number and email on the drone. If it gets lost you have some chance of getting it back if someone knows who to contact. A simple point but one that could save you £100's.
6. Avoid rain and high winds. Patience is a virtue and you can always fly tomorrow so why take the risk.
7. Read the forums, learn about potential problems and their symptoms so that you are prepared in the event of something going wrong. It could be the difference between a destroyed drone and a safe landing.
I hope this helps, especially new pilots as it is very easy to make some simple assumptions and end up with a very expensive mistake that could have been avoided.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
