What did you learn after your first day flying?
- Thread starter Grae
- Start date
Just let it get back to room temperature. In my experience, 30-45 minutes for me. I typically give it an hour. It sucks when all you really want to do is charge it back up and get back out there!! Fortunately, my wife just picked me up a second battery for valentine's day, so now the first battery will be cooling down while I fly the second so I shouldn't have to wait too long to charge the first one again
Just let it get back to room temperature. In my experience, 30-45 minutes for me. I typically give it an hour. It sucks when all you really want to do is charge it back up and get back out there!! Fortunately, my wife just picked me up a second battery for valentine's day, so now the first battery will be cooling down while I fly the second so I shouldn't have to wait too long to charge the first one again
What an amazing woman!
UK
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I have a puppy that tried to attack the drone when I launched it. So keep dogs away!
Yes, the playful pup! They shoot out of nowhere! I considered a hand catch but when I got close I figured there was no way that was happening without me visiting Accident and Emergency. I'm landing like a pro now!
UK
UK
Totally get that. Just when you get to grips with flight there's a whole new world of tech waiting to be mastered!
UK
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I learned Not to forget to take of the gimbal locking clip
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
The first time up, I learned about bad SD cards and flew anyway with no camera. Then I learned to diagnose and fix the problems with the original 1.4.01 update before dji fixed it. Then I learned how to downgrade and I've stayed at 1.3.20 ever since. Last week I picked up a K1 and it's at 2.6.0 but everything works great. Basically I learned not to update with the old Note 3 and now with the K1 and 1.3.20 on the bird, it still flies nice and fast 
Another lesson: if in doubt, leave the drone in the case! A hailstorm nearly wiped me out today.
And it's official: dogs are attracted to drones. I got onto the beach - people were about 100 meters away for the entire duration of setup. The moment I am about to launch, a massive retriever leaps towards me. I could have screamed, but it wouldn't have heard me as the winded picked up, so I swore at the weather, packed up and went home. One of the many joys of living in the UK.
UK
And it's official: dogs are attracted to drones. I got onto the beach - people were about 100 meters away for the entire duration of setup. The moment I am about to launch, a massive retriever leaps towards me. I could have screamed, but it wouldn't have heard me as the winded picked up, so I swore at the weather, packed up and went home. One of the many joys of living in the UK.
UK
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Read up on the regulations before you rush out to get it in the air lol.
I went to a local park (no one around) in the centre of town. Sent her up... Got some lovely ariel footage... Then decided to hover at around 30m beside a church, nice view. What I didn't take into consideration was the police station I was hovering right above. As I brought her back into land I filmed the three police cars circling the park looking for the pilot.... Managed to pack up make a nonchalant wander out of the park with the rucksack over my shoulder as the police moved in... I laugh now at my naivety at the time and have gotten much more up on regulations since.
I doubt I'm alone.
I went to a local park (no one around) in the centre of town. Sent her up... Got some lovely ariel footage... Then decided to hover at around 30m beside a church, nice view. What I didn't take into consideration was the police station I was hovering right above. As I brought her back into land I filmed the three police cars circling the park looking for the pilot.... Managed to pack up make a nonchalant wander out of the park with the rucksack over my shoulder as the police moved in... I laugh now at my naivety at the time and have gotten much more up on regulations since.
I doubt I'm alone.
This was about the same for me. Was in beginner mode, lasted a minute or two into flight. I didn't venture far, but at times let it just hover while I talked to a random stranger interested.
I had two close call during my first days of flying:
Incident 1: I took off from a picnic-table (deep snow elsewhere), and after just a minute a got a compass-error and the bird went into into Atti-mode. Immediately it started to drift a lot, there was windy and nowhere else to land it then the picnic-table I had taken off from. Because of the lack of experience, forces atti-mode and wind I really had to struggle to land it. I was also very close to smash it into different obstacles.
Lessons learned:
- Don't take off/land on objects that may have some metal in it that can interfere with the compass.
- Beware of the wind!
- Practice Atti-mode as soon as possible, fortunately I had some practice with smaller quads, and that saved.
- Have a large landing-area, with as little obstacles as possible. Hand-catch in atti-mode and wind can be risky/not possible.
Incident 2: I was flying just outside my house, and was about to finish the flight. Again it was a bit windy, and the bird was about 150 feet / 50 m up inn the air. I descended at full throttle, and just releases the stick when the bird was about 2 m/ 6 feet in the air, and about the same distance from the walls of my house. As i release the "descending-stick" it immediately started to drift against my house (in other word, did not lock possession/hover as expected) with the left side against the wall. I kind of freaked out, but was able to turn the back against the wall, and fly it away just before it smashed in the wall. I was flying in P-GPS mode.
I'm not sure what happened here, but I believe that maybe the GPS-lock on possession get's released for a brief moment when to let go of the stick? My other theory is that the drone trying to compensate for the wind(to hold pos) on decending, and when it get in "shelter" for my house, it kind of over-compensate, and drifts a bit.
Lessons learned:
- Beware of the wind and possible drifting when releasing the sticks, even in GPS-mode.
Incident 1: I took off from a picnic-table (deep snow elsewhere), and after just a minute a got a compass-error and the bird went into into Atti-mode. Immediately it started to drift a lot, there was windy and nowhere else to land it then the picnic-table I had taken off from. Because of the lack of experience, forces atti-mode and wind I really had to struggle to land it. I was also very close to smash it into different obstacles.
Lessons learned:
- Don't take off/land on objects that may have some metal in it that can interfere with the compass.
- Beware of the wind!
- Practice Atti-mode as soon as possible, fortunately I had some practice with smaller quads, and that saved.
- Have a large landing-area, with as little obstacles as possible. Hand-catch in atti-mode and wind can be risky/not possible.
Incident 2: I was flying just outside my house, and was about to finish the flight. Again it was a bit windy, and the bird was about 150 feet / 50 m up inn the air. I descended at full throttle, and just releases the stick when the bird was about 2 m/ 6 feet in the air, and about the same distance from the walls of my house. As i release the "descending-stick" it immediately started to drift against my house (in other word, did not lock possession/hover as expected) with the left side against the wall. I kind of freaked out, but was able to turn the back against the wall, and fly it away just before it smashed in the wall. I was flying in P-GPS mode.
I'm not sure what happened here, but I believe that maybe the GPS-lock on possession get's released for a brief moment when to let go of the stick? My other theory is that the drone trying to compensate for the wind(to hold pos) on decending, and when it get in "shelter" for my house, it kind of over-compensate, and drifts a bit.
Lessons learned:
- Beware of the wind and possible drifting when releasing the sticks, even in GPS-mode.
Learn what the flashing light sequence means.
(It was almost three years ago with a P1 and resulted in an instant fly away as the home point was not recorded. P3 users have it easy!)
(It was almost three years ago with a P1 and resulted in an instant fly away as the home point was not recorded. P3 users have it easy!)
Good skills! So easy to freak and less fingers go wild with the controller!
I took mine out to the beach at the weekend. Bear in mind I live in the UK, so it was bleak and windy - no Snoop Dogg or Katy Perry in sight.
Anyway, when I took off (hovered six feet) the bird was swaying a bit, so I landed her and packed up. I don't think it's worth fighting the wind!
UK
Always be aware of other aircraft in the vicinity! My first day out the other week, I took my Phantom to a local park with a big open field. After my flight, I was walking back to my car when a single engine plane flew LOW directly over the park. Not nearly as low as I was flying that day, but certainly within the Phantom's technical altitude range. Major reminder that, while these are toys to an extent, they're big boy and girl toys and demand respect and responsibility.
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