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Take your time. Be aware of where you are and acknowledge your skill level.
What You Should Have Been Told
- Thread starter trevornewkirk
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Oh and realise that there is not one Drone that does it all. It's horses for courses. But the Phantom series is a good start to bring you into this world of RPAS.
Read the manual more than once. Watch some Youtube videos to learn basics, and what the modes do, etc. Take some of the "facts" you see on here and other forums with a grain of salt, not all are correct.
captainmilehigh
Premium Pilot
I'll admit it, even after many many flights, I still get butterflies before I take off. Sometimes butterflies as big as 747's in the 'ol gut.
Even after a thorough preflight check, with ALL the boxes checked on my preflight checklist, there is always an uncertainty what may or may not happen. It's just the nature of this hobby I suppose.
My advice? Be ready for anything. Know what you need to do if a situation arises that you didn't plan on. Even go as far as installing a tracker of your choice to your bird. There are many to choose from, and numerous threads on the subject on the forum.
Overall, Fly Safe. Know the manual backwards and forwards as suggested above. When in doubt, search the forums for the answer to your questions before you fly. If still not sure of what you are doing, ask away on the Forum. There are a lot of experienced pilots here that will guide you in the right direction. Be Ready to fly before you take off, and the fun and enjoyment of your flight will soon calm the butterflies.
Fly Safe [emoji106]
Even after a thorough preflight check, with ALL the boxes checked on my preflight checklist, there is always an uncertainty what may or may not happen. It's just the nature of this hobby I suppose.
My advice? Be ready for anything. Know what you need to do if a situation arises that you didn't plan on. Even go as far as installing a tracker of your choice to your bird. There are many to choose from, and numerous threads on the subject on the forum.
Overall, Fly Safe. Know the manual backwards and forwards as suggested above. When in doubt, search the forums for the answer to your questions before you fly. If still not sure of what you are doing, ask away on the Forum. There are a lot of experienced pilots here that will guide you in the right direction. Be Ready to fly before you take off, and the fun and enjoyment of your flight will soon calm the butterflies.
Fly Safe [emoji106]
I wish I had known five things before I started flying my P4.
First, it is slow compared to other drones. What does the P4 top out? Somewhere around 40mph? I have seen drones that can fly first person view at over 100!
Second, the P4 can only carry a payload of around 4 pounds. I like to have fun and come up with new ways to enjoy my $1400 toy. Flying a ghost at Halloween and using it to go fishing are cool. But I cannot deliver a 6-pack with it. Too heavy.
Third, it takes some $$ to get a really good display for the remote. I tried several, but finally bit the bullet and purchased a iPad pro 9" with cell, wifi, and 128gig hdd. In retrospect, I should have gone with the iPad pro first.
Forth, i kinda knew that i was going to hook it up to a VR headset. But in order to do it i had to modify it. Not a huge deal, but I would have liked to know about it before I purchased my Fat Shark.
Fifth and probably the most important, know where the cellular towers and high power lines are before you select a place to fly. I have been able to turn my drone around several times after almost completely loosing the signal due to cell towers and power lines. The interference they cause greatly reduces the distance you can safely fly. I have over 120 hours of flight time on my P4 drone, and have never crashed or had a hard landing that can cause stress cracks. I learned to look out for RF interference before I fly. Some public parks in my area have signs up prohibiting RC aircraft. Checking the air around these parks, I now know why. The signs are up to protect the public, and save you from an expensive crash.
First, it is slow compared to other drones. What does the P4 top out? Somewhere around 40mph? I have seen drones that can fly first person view at over 100!
Second, the P4 can only carry a payload of around 4 pounds. I like to have fun and come up with new ways to enjoy my $1400 toy. Flying a ghost at Halloween and using it to go fishing are cool. But I cannot deliver a 6-pack with it. Too heavy.
Third, it takes some $$ to get a really good display for the remote. I tried several, but finally bit the bullet and purchased a iPad pro 9" with cell, wifi, and 128gig hdd. In retrospect, I should have gone with the iPad pro first.
Forth, i kinda knew that i was going to hook it up to a VR headset. But in order to do it i had to modify it. Not a huge deal, but I would have liked to know about it before I purchased my Fat Shark.
Fifth and probably the most important, know where the cellular towers and high power lines are before you select a place to fly. I have been able to turn my drone around several times after almost completely loosing the signal due to cell towers and power lines. The interference they cause greatly reduces the distance you can safely fly. I have over 120 hours of flight time on my P4 drone, and have never crashed or had a hard landing that can cause stress cracks. I learned to look out for RF interference before I fly. Some public parks in my area have signs up prohibiting RC aircraft. Checking the air around these parks, I now know why. The signs are up to protect the public, and save you from an expensive crash.
N017RW
Premium Pilot
#1&2:
It's s purpose built flying camera platform, not a general purpose MR.
#5: I fly within 500ft of a cell tower and have flown near power lines often. Never had any problems.
Not saying it can't happen but not one to immediately assume they're a problem.
It's s purpose built flying camera platform, not a general purpose MR.
#5: I fly within 500ft of a cell tower and have flown near power lines often. Never had any problems.
Not saying it can't happen but not one to immediately assume they're a problem.
Let alone Sweden, where we are fighting against a total ban from the authorities... Not that anyone seems to care, but still it's there...
A- There will probably be software engineers that will help us reflash our drones so we can use them without restrictions if it comes to that.
B- Ain't no way in heck I'm giving up this hobby. Why haven't we heard anything about RC planes, ever? They crash all the time. Cause quads are new and exciting so the media and FAA goes after us
The concern with drones is that they can be flown out of site which,
Means they can and will by some be flown a lot higher and have the possibility to be used to invade people's privacy where Rc planes and helicopters have to be flown line of site and the learning curve for other Rc vehicles is a lot steeper where the phantoms can basically be flown by anyone.i fly both and enjoy them but in different aspects.i agree that some rules need to be set in place and possibly software to prevent people from doing stupid things or the laws will be set in place making it impossible for anyone to fly anything.
Manually calibrate the compass, launch, Take it up to 150' then hit the right stick full throttle till it returns on its own. Do this a few times and your balls will turn solid steel.
antennasearch.com can help you find antenna towers in any vicinity. It gives a list, or you can see on a map.
I totally agree with this response. When I purchased my P4 a year ago I placed it on the ground in my own driveway and discovered that it would not power up because I lived in flight restricted area. To say the least I was really disapointed.
Long story short; I have to get in my car and drive between 30 and 45 minutes in any direction in order to even power the aircraft up. To make matters worst I have since also purchased a mavic pro. To add: it now appears that just about everywhere you want to fly your aircraft you cannot really relax because of the county and city laws. If it was not for the advantage of some business travel from time to time my drones would be sitting in their bags 80 percent of the time. I have considered taking the plunge to abandon the hobby by selling both drones and kissing it goodbye. It is becoming a pain in the behind!
Know which way the wind is blowing and how hard it is blowing. Always fly away against the wind so that you have enough battery to make it back. Many have lost their drones because of this and I almost joined them. Also remember Rth only goes 22 mph so it may not be able to fight the wind
Practice, Practice, Practice ... in an open field. Use specific training drills and design a logical progression to develop skills.
1. Practice manual take off / landing. Hoover at 10' to assure yourself the drone guidance systems are working properly.
2. Practice flying out 100 yards and returning at 50' altitude (no change of YAW) to understand limitations of line of sight beyond 100 yards
3. Practice flying a 50 yard square pattern at 50' altitude (no change of YAW)
4. Practice flying out 100 yards, rotating YAW 180 degrees and return at 50' altitude(learn how controls are reversed when drone heads toward you)
5. Practice flying out 200 yards (at 200' altitude); switch to Home Lock mode and practice a return when you have no idea what your craft heading is
6. Practice flying out 100 yards and pressing RTH
7. You get the idea ...
I also strongly recommend you review ALL FAA 107 material and review on YOUTUBE all the ways others have crashed. Also keep in mind the old saying "haste makes waste". For example, wait to hear the verbal announcement from your controller that your Home Point has been set.
1. Practice manual take off / landing. Hoover at 10' to assure yourself the drone guidance systems are working properly.
2. Practice flying out 100 yards and returning at 50' altitude (no change of YAW) to understand limitations of line of sight beyond 100 yards
3. Practice flying a 50 yard square pattern at 50' altitude (no change of YAW)
4. Practice flying out 100 yards, rotating YAW 180 degrees and return at 50' altitude(learn how controls are reversed when drone heads toward you)
5. Practice flying out 200 yards (at 200' altitude); switch to Home Lock mode and practice a return when you have no idea what your craft heading is
6. Practice flying out 100 yards and pressing RTH
7. You get the idea ...
I also strongly recommend you review ALL FAA 107 material and review on YOUTUBE all the ways others have crashed. Also keep in mind the old saying "haste makes waste". For example, wait to hear the verbal announcement from your controller that your Home Point has been set.
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Yup. Like the thread implies, these are things I wish I had been told about before purchasing or flying a drone. The P4 is my first drone, and never having flown one before I felt the built-in safety features were very important to me. I was not wrong there. I would rather spend $1000 once for a good drone that I will not crash than $50 ten times because of crashes encountered while learning how to fly it.
But you can crash a $50 toy quad 1000 times ... you can only crash a Phantom once lol.
Advice? Take a course, learn how to fly your $2000 investment, learn the basic laws.
Another problem where I'm from (NY, CT) it's the snooty rich parents who buy their 15 year olds drones for xmas because they watched some YouTube Vlog of Casey Neistat flying over the Emire State building and they want to try it to be cool.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that If I were to crash any RC more than 10 times, I would probably just start looking for another hobby. The idea is to have fun. Not be frustrated. But I guess if it was something for my job or I was looking to make money doing it, I would not be so ready to give up.
I'd suggest this (assuming here that you are new to drones or RC flying in general):
Before flying the P4 or any pro-level or expensive camera drone, purchase a very low cost quadcopter and learn to fly it manually until you are confident in your abilities.
[This is coming from an older "geezer" who learned driving a car using a stick shift; you wouldn't believe how EASY and non-stressful it was to drive an automatic after that.]
Before flying the P4 or any pro-level or expensive camera drone, purchase a very low cost quadcopter and learn to fly it manually until you are confident in your abilities.
[This is coming from an older "geezer" who learned driving a car using a stick shift; you wouldn't believe how EASY and non-stressful it was to drive an automatic after that.]
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If you get a good compass calibration, you should only have to do it once with normal use. When I first started, I was advised to recalibrate if I traveled 100-miles or more. Shortly after, I traveled from my home office and calibration point in Maryland, to Red Bank, NJ for a flight. My pre-flight check showed everything was normal and I flew with no incident. One year and many flights later, I have never had to re-calibrate
That part of my pre-flight check referenced above, includes checking sensor readings in DJI GO. I recommend you read up about this to know what is normal and perform the check before each flight to insure that your guidance systems (compass, IMU, etc.) are functioning properly.
Additionally...
- calibrate in a grassy area that does not contain ferrous metal such as re-bar)
- Do not try to launch from the roof of your car, or any other metal surface.
- practice flying in 'ATTI' mode and be prepared to use if your compass goes south in flight.
That part of my pre-flight check referenced above, includes checking sensor readings in DJI GO. I recommend you read up about this to know what is normal and perform the check before each flight to insure that your guidance systems (compass, IMU, etc.) are functioning properly.
Additionally...
- calibrate in a grassy area that does not contain ferrous metal such as re-bar)
- Do not try to launch from the roof of your car, or any other metal surface.
- practice flying in 'ATTI' mode and be prepared to use if your compass goes south in flight.
