New pilot - My thoughts after a few flights!

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Hi all,

Have used the forum for a few months before getting my first drone (P3S) at Christmas, have found it very helpful and informative, thank you!

I just wanted to drop all the newcomers a few notes about some things that I've experienced during the first few flights as I've come very close to losing the drone on two occasions already! When I say losing, once was losing, once was it nearly flying into a wall :)

As I knew the drone present was a done thing, I went ahead and ordered the prop guards straight away. I'd already watched a load of 'drone crash' YouTube videos and thought that this would protect me in case I started hitting trees and walls (and the ground!).

When the drone was unboxed, needless to say, I was as excited as a 6 year old getting Lego and then had to endure the Xmas lunch with the family, knowing that my drone was sat in the box in the corner and by the time lunch was over, it would be night time (I'm in my 40's by the way!).

Next day I was extremely careful, charged everything up, updated firmware, updated the App, registered on DJI site, installed the prop guards, had a new 64GB memory card to use (rather than the standard 8GB supplied) and was ready to go!

Did all the calibration stuff, enabled beginners mode and I was off! All went fine, drone responded beautifully to all my commands, no problem at all, this was in the back garden.

Next, off to a nice wide open park with noone to bother.

Now, don't ask me why, but I decided that I was no longer a beginner and disabled beginner mode and thought I was an experienced pilot.

In my excitement, I forgot :

- To calibrate
- To set home
- To check the props were secure
- To insert the SD card
- To allow the drone to warm up (it was 0C)

And, if that weren't enough, I didn't take note of a GPS warning on the App.

What happened? As soon as it took off it flew towards a tree, then a wall, then a bench and then the floor... Quite how I managed to miss all of those was utter luck.

I then decided I'd fly it as high as it would go (120m) and due to the GPS issue, it just flew off (set your home point!).

I then managed to regain control and flew it back down, tried to hand it manually and it fell over (read the manual for the landing commands!), thankfully I had the prop guards.

Why am I saying this? I'm sharing my experience. After flying it once/twice, YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT! I should have known better, but I didn't. Fortunately, no harm done to the drone, myself or others.

Please do all your checks, respect the drone until you are used to flying it, practise and use the automatic landing feature!

I've now flown it 5-6 times and absolutely love it, it really is a great piece of kit, but I now have a little checklist and have some respect for it (and others).

Just my comments, others may have other experiences.

Thank you all again for your support and contributions, will sure stay around here for quite a while.

Happy flying!

Edit : Here is the video I mention :

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Omega1, I have a P3S on order and it gets delivered on Tuesday. Duly noted all of the above - thanks for the great advice.

I've been messing around with a little Hubsan drone since Christmas so my skills are on the up but by no means a pro. I'll be sticking purely to beginner for a long while.

I narrowly escaped being murdered by the wife when I told her I'd bought the thing. I dread to think how she'd react if I announced I'd lost it [emoji6][emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
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Your not on your own this is my 7th flight. Never used beginners mode and got the hang of the quad quite quick. I had taken some good waterfall and low level video the previous day and got a little too confident. Video of near disaster below

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Hi Joe,

You'll love it! I did myself toy with the idea of buying a smaller one to get the hang of the controls, something I still haven't done, but as long as I'm sensible, I'll get the hang of it soon.

It really is an awesome bit of kit.

Have fun out there!
 
Hi all,

Have used the forum for a few months before getting my first drone (P3S) at Christmas, have found it very helpful and informative, thank you!

I just wanted to drop all the newcomers a few notes about some things that I've experienced during the first few flights as I've come very close to losing the drone on two occasions already! When I say losing, once was losing, once was it nearly flying into a wall :)

As I knew the drone present was a done thing, I went ahead and ordered the prop guards straight away. I'd already watched a load of 'drone crash' YouTube videos and thought that this would protect me in case I started hitting trees and walls (and the ground!).

When the drone was unboxed, needless to say, I was as excited as a 6 year old getting Lego and then had to endure the Xmas lunch with the family, knowing that my drone was sat in the box in the corner and by the time lunch was over, it would be night time (I'm in my 40's by the way!).

Next day I was extremely careful, charged everything up, updated firmware, updated the App, registered on DJI site, installed the prop guards, had a new 64GB memory card to use (rather than the standard 8GB supplied) and was ready to go!

Did all the calibration stuff, enabled beginners mode and I was off! All went fine, drone responded beautifully to all my commands, no problem at all, this was in the back garden.

Next, off to a nice wide open park with noone to bother.

Now, don't ask me why, but I decided that I was no longer a beginner and disabled beginner mode and thought I was an experienced pilot.

In my excitement, I forgot :

- To calibrate
- To set home
- To check the props were secure
- To insert the SD card
- To allow the drone to warm up (it was 0C)

And, if that weren't enough, I didn't take note of a GPS warning on the App.

What happened? As soon as it took off it flew towards a tree, then a wall, then a bench and then the floor... Quite how I managed to miss all of those was utter luck.

I then decided I'd fly it as high as it would go (120m) and due to the GPS issue, it just flew off (set your home point!).

I then managed to regain control and flew it back down, tried to hand it manually and it fell over (read the manual for the landing commands!), thankfully I had the prop guards.

Why am I saying this? I'm sharing my experience. After flying it once/twice, YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT! I should have known better, but I didn't. Fortunately, no harm done to the drone, myself or others.

Please do all your checks, respect the drone until you are used to flying it, practise and use the automatic landing feature!

I've now flown it 5-6 times and absolutely love it, it really is a great piece of kit, but I now have a little checklist and have some respect for it (and others).

Just my comments, others may have other experiences.

Thank you all again for your support and contributions, will sure stay around here for quite a while.

Happy flying!
This is a awesome post. Well written, amusing and informative. Good job, and good wishes for your Phantom future.
 
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Here is the video I mentioned in my original post, straight after take off, there was a GPS warning and I should have landed straight away... At 56 seconds, it goes off towards a tree, bench and wall behind, the fact that it navigated under the tree, missed the bench and wall behind was pure luck. Later on at altitude, it drifted off out of range, but I got it back (thankfully).

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Here is the video I mentioned in my original post, straight after take off, there was a GPS warning and I should have landed straight away... At 56 seconds, it goes off towards a tree, bench and wall behind, the fact that it navigated under the tree, missed the bench and wall behind was pure luck. Later on at altitude, it drifted off out of range, but I got it back (thankfully).

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Laughs.... You're supposed to say " I meant to do that"
 
Well... yes... but not hitting the tree, the bench, the wall or the ground was purely luck. I would have been devastated to have damaged the drone so soon, so I just wanted to warn others!

But yeah, I meant to do that ;-)
 
Having a check list is a good idea, particularly when first starting out. My wife joined me for my first flight and damed near choked me when I spent so much time checking and re-checking everything before actually flying. I only used beginner mode for the first flight, I've never used auto takeoff or land, but am an extremely cautious guy when doing something new... Particularly when the wife says "you only get one".

I've come close to crashing a few times, the really close calls was when demoing the P4 to friends. Rule - when showing them something on the screen, park the drone in open air and hands off the sticks!

Stuff I've learned:

Always respect the drone
You are never, ever as good as you think
Be thankful you have obstacle avoidance (OA) but don't trust it, it's not bulletproof
OA doesn't work with prop guards installed, in the dark or flying towards sunset
Plan your photos or videos ahead, start record, then fly watching the drone, not your screen. If you need to to work the camera, pre-fly the course, mark the positions, then re fly the course using waypoints while working the camera.
Practice manual landings and takeoff, trying to land in a specific spot helps improve your fine motor skills on the sticks.
Keep to that 100m minimum distance from people, animals and objects, it's there for a reason... particularly when new to flying. Loosing your drone is one thing, loosing your drone into someone's face is another.

Ok, now I'm just on a rant, so I'll stop. If you are new, like 'got it for Christmas new' to drones, find someone in your area who has experience and go out and fly with them, learn from their mistakes. Ask them questions... every flier I've met, loves to share what they have learned.



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In case you did not know, there is a simulator built into dji go app. You will want to remove your props as the drone must be on to use the simulator. You will use the remote control to control the simulator. There is not too much to it, but you can get some practice with take off and landing and basic controls.

I could not find the simulator on my android phone in dji go but it was present in the ipad app.

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