Very Confusing

I'm new to the forum and also a new phantom 2 vision + owner. And at the age of 62, I never flew RC. I come from a family of RC flyers - my father (90) and brother have flown all sorts of RC their entire lives. But not me. I got interested in the phantom at a recent Photoshop World conference and I took a drone flying 3 hr course which convinced me I could do this without any previous flying experience. The Vision 2+ flew great right out of the box - but I spent a lot of time reading the manual and I would recommend prop guards initially. Now, I'm not sure I'd recommend this, but I started practicing in my backyard - there are trees circling the yard and some risk of hitting them. The things a beginner (like me) has the most trouble with is a)getting the functions of the sticks to be 2nd nature - at first you'll undoubtedly turn wrong, use the yaw (rotate) control to try to fly sideways, use the back stick to try to go down, etc. b)orientation - if the bird gets too far away, it's tough to know how it's facing (and takes awhile before you realize there's a directional indicator on your FPV device to help). c) with the drone flying away from you, everything is logical - left is a left direction of the stick, right is right etc. Flying toward you however, it is opposite and flying at 90 degrees to you is, well, you get my point. I believe this WILL become second nature, but it takes time and I'm about 50% there with about 10 flight sessions. d) when landing, if you don't come down even or do something stupid with the sticks the drone can tilt and hit the props - try prop guards and have extra props. However, if you are in an open area, the GPS mode works great and you can hover in one place and think about your next move. In my back yard with the house and trees, gps lock is not great so, it's tougher. 2 weeks ago, I was trying something creative - flying through an entry way then backing out. While under the overhang I moved the wrong stick and it went up instead of back, hit the overhang, broke a prop and came down about 8 feet hitting the ground. But, no damage other than the prop. BUT - it was stupid for me to do as I wasn't ready for that. I'm lucky I got away with minimal damage. But of course I got right back on the horse and did it again the next weekend with a great effect.

So the key is have an open space, remember to be gentle with the sticks, calibrate the compass, and try try try to be in an open space so the GPS lock is good and I think you'll be surprised. Go slow, fly initially with the drone relatively low so you can see it clearly, making out the lights and decals. Final suggestion - don't pay too much attention to the FPV until you're really comfortable with the basics of flight. Some of my near misses have been because you get into the screen and not watching the drone. BUT, The Phantom will fly!! (and it's really fun).
 
The P2V+ is pretty much "ready to fly" out of the box but like others have said it is recommended to learn up (and enjoy) the hobby so you can prevent any mishaps.
I finally allowed my (almost 10 yr old) son fly the other day and with coaching and supervision, he was a natural. His first landing was smoother and way better than my first landing. I'm not encouraging kids to fly but with supervision, and properly guiding them, even a kid can fly one of these. You can see his vid on my site. He's a gamer like his dad so the controls became second nature very fast.
I can't imagine what type of remote controlled devices he will have to play with when he is my age :)
 

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