newbie tips on takeoff/landing, CSC, litchi & paranoia pls!

[rarara]

hi all

self confessed newbie here w/ 1 wk old mavic & 4 flights to my name - all beginner mode, above land, open paddock, not too high or far - familiarising myself with the drone & controls. i've read the manual, watched multitudes of videos (from DJI's official tutorials to Joe Bloggs vlog on youtube) and now have a couple questions for you OG's:

1) i've exclusively been using the auto take off/landing via app. is there any advantage to taking off/landing manually? should i start making manual takeoff/landing a habit?

2) i read about CSC mode - L & R sticks down to center cuts off motors mid-flight. whats chances this will happen unintentionally in flight? just say im trying to decrease altitude whilst flying backwards ...will it kick in? are there any other (deadly) stick combos i need to be aware of?

3) I've seen & read various warnings about flying over water or close to metal bridges or between buildings/hills/trees etc as the drone may start doing weird things like flying itself then crashing. but then i've seen many videos shot above water, near metal bridges, between buildings etc that all look great!!?. what gives? what am i missing? living on the coast I want to do alot of shooting off the beach but getting so paranoid!

4) are there any other things i (or any other new, inexperienced mavic owners) should be aware of and should NOT do?

5) are there any things I should ALWAYS do?

6) lastly, I've been seeing this Litchi App mentioned alot. Apart from mapping a flight, are there alot more advantages? Is it 100% stable? Is drone still covered by DJI if something happens whilst using Litchi?


if you got to the end, thanks for reading and hopefully you can give me some advice. look fwd to taking it out this weekend for a 'proper' flight

 

[Pushpak]

hi all

self confessed newbie here w/ 1 wk old mavic & 4 flights to my name - all beginner mode, above land, open paddock, not too high or far - familiarising myself with the drone & controls. i've read the manual, watched multitudes of videos (from DJI's official tutorials to Joe Bloggs vlog on youtube) and now have a couple questions for you OG's:

Congrats on your new drone.

1) i've exclusively been using the auto take off/landing via app. is there any advantage to taking off/landing manually?

Not really, but there may be times when the drone determines that the ground is not suitable for landing, after which it will hover and wait for your confirmation.

2) i read about CSC mode - L & R sticks down to center cuts off motors mid-flight. whats chances this will happen unintentionally in flight? just say im trying to decrease altitude whilst flying backwards ...will it kick in? are there any other (deadly) stick combos i need to be aware of?

In DJI GO 4 App under Advanced Settings, select Stop Motor Method 'For use in emergencies only'.

3)... living on the coast I want to do alot of shooting off the beach but getting so paranoid!

You will gain confidence as you fly more and more. Trust yourself and the bird.

4) are there any other things i (or any other new, inexperienced mavic owners) should be aware of and should NOT do?

Read the user's Manual which covers a lot of things that would be helpful, and stick to the local rules/law.

 

[msinger]

1) i've exclusively been using the auto take off/landing via app. is there any advantage to taking off/landing manually?

The advantage is that you'll be in full control of what your Mavic is doing.

2) i read about CSC mode - L & R sticks down to center cuts off motors mid-flight. whats chances this will happen unintentionally in flight?

It's an odd stick movement to perform while flying. You can decrease the chances of it happening by changing this setting:

are there any other (deadly) stick combos i need to be aware of?

No.

3) I've seen & read various warnings about flying over water or close to metal bridges or between buildings/hills/trees etc as the drone may start doing weird things like flying itself then crashing. but then i've seen many videos shot above water, near metal bridges, between buildings etc that all look great!!?. what gives? what am i missing? living on the coast I want to do alot of shooting off the beach but getting so paranoid!

Your Mavic should never be near magnetic metal objects. It can confuse the compass. The larger the object, the further away you'll need to be to prevent interference.

When flying over water, pay attention to the VPS altitude at the bottom of DJI GO. If it's displaying a bogus altitude, it would be a good idea to turn off the downward sensors in DJI GO. With the sensors enabled, your Mavic will start to land if you move the left stick (throttle) to the full down position when the VPS altitude is showing 0.5 meters or less (regardless of the Mavic's actual altitude).

4) are there any other things i (or any other new, inexperienced mavic owners) should be aware of and should NOT do?

Be aware of these common Mavic pilot errors.

5) are there any things I should ALWAYS do?

Read, understand, and follow the Mavic manual. If needed, you can download it from the Mavic downloads page.

6) lastly, I've been seeing this Litchi App mentioned alot. Apart from mapping a flight, are there alot more advantages?

Check out these search results for some threads on this topic.

Is drone still covered by DJI if something happens whilst using Litchi?

It depends. If the crash was caused by pilot error or due to some malfunction in Litchi, it would not be covered under warranty.

 

[rarara]

hey there @Pushpak (I'm from Perth also!) & @msinger

thanks so much for the reply & tips guys, really do appreciate it!

r

 

[TLT]

hi all

self confessed newbie here w/ 1 wk old mavic & 4 flights to my name - all beginner mode, above land, open paddock, not too high or far - familiarising myself with the drone & controls. i've read the manual, watched multitudes of videos (from DJI's official tutorials to Joe Bloggs vlog on youtube) and now have a couple questions for you OG's:

1) i've exclusively been using the auto take off/landing via app. is there any advantage to taking off/landing manually? should i start making manual takeoff/landing a habit?

2) i read about CSC mode - L & R sticks down to center cuts off motors mid-flight. whats chances this will happen unintentionally in flight? just say im trying to decrease altitude whilst flying backwards ...will it kick in? are there any other (deadly) stick combos i need to be aware of?

3) I've seen & read various warnings about flying over water or close to metal bridges or between buildings/hills/trees etc as the drone may start doing weird things like flying itself then crashing. but then i've seen many videos shot above water, near metal bridges, between buildings etc that all look great!!?. what gives? what am i missing? living on the coast I want to do alot of shooting off the beach but getting so paranoid!

4) are there any other things i (or any other new, inexperienced mavic owners) should be aware of and should NOT do?

5) are there any things I should ALWAYS do?

6) lastly, I've been seeing this Litchi App mentioned alot. Apart from mapping a flight, are there alot more advantages? Is it 100% stable? Is drone still covered by DJI if something happens whilst using Litchi?


if you got to the end, thanks for reading and hopefully you can give me some advice. look fwd to taking it out this weekend for a 'proper' flight

Heads up. Don't use litchi with latest firmware. Mine almost crashed!! Check litchi blog.