My 1st Flight - Lessons Learned

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Purchased my Phantom 4 over the winter and last weekend I was finally able to take it out and get it in the air. The weekend was busy so I really just had enough time to fly it around for about 10 min which was fine because for my first flight I really just wanted to get it airborne, get a sense of the controls and bring it down safely. I've also had a paranoia about flying it over water so I broke that fear right away as well. Distance and height were not my goals - literally just a safe trip and return were all i wanted and I happy to say I accomplished all of those things!!

So what did I learn from my 1st flight? Well, I learned thats its not as hard to fly as I feared and once you're airborne its fairly intuitive to use. I also learned that the sticks are quite sensitive - my moves were too quick and that comes across in the video. Like many things in life, patience is key!

I will say that there were 2 minor issues - first when I started I made sure that the switch was in P mode but when i fired up the drone and DJI Go app, it said "Atti Mode". This also happened yesterday so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The other issue (totally a brain fart by me) was that once I was ready to fly, I couldn't for the life of me remember how to arm the motors and get them spinning. Thank God for Google and cell phones - lol

I also tried my hand at putting the video on YouTube with music and titles, again this was my first time so its all a learning experience. This is the link
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When I got home, I found my iMac can't handle 4K so I ended up exporting the video to 1080 which still took forever to load onto YouTube. I also need to learn to edit videos - 9 min is too long but the next one will be better!

1st flight in the history books and looking forward to a summer of flying!!
 
Purchased my Phantom 4 over the winter and last weekend I was finally able to take it out and get it in the air. The weekend was busy so I really just had enough time to fly it around for about 10 min which was fine because for my first flight I really just wanted to get it airborne, get a sense of the controls and bring it down safely. I've also had a paranoia about flying it over water so I broke that fear right away as well. Distance and height were not my goals - literally just a safe trip and return were all i wanted and I happy to say I accomplished all of those things!!

So what did I learn from my 1st flight? Well, I learned thats its not as hard to fly as I feared and once you're airborne its fairly intuitive to use. I also learned that the sticks are quite sensitive - my moves were too quick and that comes across in the video. Like many things in life, patience is key!

I will say that there were 2 minor issues - first when I started I made sure that the switch was in P mode but when i fired up the drone and DJI Go app, it said "Atti Mode". This also happened yesterday so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The other issue (totally a brain fart by me) was that once I was ready to fly, I couldn't for the life of me remember how to arm the motors and get them spinning. Thank God for Google and cell phones - lol

I also tried my hand at putting the video on YouTube with music and titles, again this was my first time so its all a learning experience. This is the link
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

When I got home, I found my iMac can't handle 4K so I ended up exporting the video to 1080 which still took forever to load onto YouTube. I also need to learn to edit videos - 9 min is too long but the next one will be better!

1st flight in the history books and looking forward to a summer of flying!!
Good post good flight aswell..one thing I notice..on take off the cameras don't like long grass ,give a silly Gimble overload warning,,keep flat board in car for take off landing..you can do a stick calibration makes controls nice.....but good maiden voyage...:):)got simulator mode so you can lie in bed and fly :Dmine comes up atti to but goes green
 
Good post good flight aswell..one thing I notice..on take off the cameras don't like long grass ,give a silly Gimble overload warning,,keep flat board in car for take off landing..you can do a stick calibration makes controls nice.....but good maiden voyage...:):)got simulator mode so you can lie in bed and fly :Dmine comes up atti to but goes green

Thanks! I thought the same thing about the grass/woodchips - going to get something to use as a launch/landing pad - thinking about a couple rubber door mats i can just keep in the trunk.
 
enjoyed your video. Really envy you for the location. Perfect for your initial flight.
 
You realize the top icon on the left side of the screen, the one with the circle with the up arrow is auto-takeoff, where it will start your motors record your home point and take off and hover at about 4 feet.

There is a you tube video that someone created that goes over every setting in the previous version of the go app that will help you, here is the link.

DJI Go App: A Step-by-Step Guide Through Every Menu & Button (Video & Written Tutorial)
 
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You realize the top icon on the left side of the screen, the one with the circle with the up arrow is auto-takeoff, where it will start your motors record your home point and take off and hover at about 4 feet.

There is a you tube video that someone created that goes over every setting in the previous version of the go app that will help you, here is the link.

DJI Go App: A Step-by-Step Guide Through Every Menu & Button (Video & Written Tutorial)

Thank you very much for the link!! I was aware of the autotake off but wanted to learn to use it as manually as possible before I use the automation features.
 
Very nice indeed. Very good location for your first flight too. Even if you had used the "auto-takeoff" feature (which I did use for first takeoff) and only flew a few feet, then landed safely with a prideful sigh of relief, you've done well; and learned things too. I'm sure the ducks would have given you a round of applause too, but would have considered rolling over and clapping their feet together a bit undignified...

P.S. You might consider one of the "instant helipads" the round nylon fabric ones, not terribly expensive and work well.
 
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