Well, I finally got up enough nerve to take my new P4 out for a spin. I gotta say that I was shaking. Not from the cold - that came later - but from fear. I'm thinking that if I were to post my first experience on YouTube, it wouldn't go viral.
There was one mishap within two minutes into the flight and it was TOTALLY pilot error. I was in beginner mode. Auto Takeoff was perfect. I let it hover for about a minute and then sent it away from me to the default maximum distance of 98 feet. I kept it at around 4 or 5 feet off the ground. The next thing I wanted to do was to try out the RTH just to make sure it worked. By default. the lowest height for this maneuver is 30 feet. To a newbie out for the firs time like myself, 30 feet looks freaking high. It also seemed to be going very fast. I panicked and had a vision of it crossing the road and smashing into someone's house. My instincts told me to get on the sticks and manually keep it from doing so. Yes, me, who's total experience in flying a drone is to push auto takeoff and then send it 100 feet away from me.
There's one small, spindly tree at that park. The bird found it. Pieces of propellers went flying in all directions and the battery flew out. It fell from a distance of about 5 feet. I was afraid to go see the damage. Turns out, it was only 3 props. Good thing it fell on grass. I put on new props, put the battery back in and away she went, good as new. More good news is that I went through two batteries without any more mishaps. I also bumped it up from beginner mode to normal mode because I wanted it to go further than 98 feet. I also put it up 30 or 40 feet a couple of times. I did rectangles and circles and had a real ball!!! I'm hooked!!!
There was one mishap within two minutes into the flight and it was TOTALLY pilot error. I was in beginner mode. Auto Takeoff was perfect. I let it hover for about a minute and then sent it away from me to the default maximum distance of 98 feet. I kept it at around 4 or 5 feet off the ground. The next thing I wanted to do was to try out the RTH just to make sure it worked. By default. the lowest height for this maneuver is 30 feet. To a newbie out for the firs time like myself, 30 feet looks freaking high. It also seemed to be going very fast. I panicked and had a vision of it crossing the road and smashing into someone's house. My instincts told me to get on the sticks and manually keep it from doing so. Yes, me, who's total experience in flying a drone is to push auto takeoff and then send it 100 feet away from me.
There's one small, spindly tree at that park. The bird found it. Pieces of propellers went flying in all directions and the battery flew out. It fell from a distance of about 5 feet. I was afraid to go see the damage. Turns out, it was only 3 props. Good thing it fell on grass. I put on new props, put the battery back in and away she went, good as new. More good news is that I went through two batteries without any more mishaps. I also bumped it up from beginner mode to normal mode because I wanted it to go further than 98 feet. I also put it up 30 or 40 feet a couple of times. I did rectangles and circles and had a real ball!!! I'm hooked!!!