Should you buy a cheap drone to practice on first?

[Anthonyk]

I learned to fly with a syma x5c-1 and it's a blast. After flying it the mavic seems to be in auto pilot. lol I love my mavic but I still get a kick out of flying the syma.

 

[Strafe1]

Flying smaller, cheaper drones won't help you fly the Mavic. But you gain confidence. Confidence and calmness is huge IMO. I recommend a cheap toy quad to play with first.

 

[maxfaxdude]

You guys saying no, are completely missing the point.

Sure, as long as the Mavic stays in GPS and everything performs fine, it's a breeze...

... Until that day you loose FPV, or it goes into ATTI with a little wind and it is a long way out. Then you are going to appreciate that stick time, and actually learning to FLY, on the cheap multirotor.

That cheap Syma might just have saved you a Mavic.

EXACTLY!...when GPS/GLONASS goes out the Mavic starts behaving a little like an old fashioned RC heli! It gets carried away by the wind! Don't panic! Learn how to fly in Atti mode! Many cheap drones are hard to fly because they lack the Mavic's sophisticated avionics.

 

[finalfantasyfans]

When we fly our Mavic, we look at the screen instead of looking at the drone most of the time. If you want to practice with cheap drone, you should at least get the one with FPV camera. I love flying my Tiny whoop with my goggle because it is much faster and agile compare to Mavic and I can fly it indoor when weather is not good. But I don't think it is related to flying a Mavic(or any DJI drone). Even in ATTI mode, the height is controlled by internal barometer. I think it is better to learn Mavic is using the Simulator with your RC in DJI Go.

 

[willhay555]

Some great contributions here, thanks

 

[Johnmcl7]

I've spent a while reading up on Mavic crashes to understand the cause and how to avoid it, what's noticeable about the odd switch to ATTI mode when the drone should be in good GPS reception is many people complain the drone doesn't seem to respond properly and these are people that are comfortable with ATTI mode on other Phantoms as well as cheaper drones. If experienced pilots can't control the Mavic when it does this switch to ATTI mode (the fact DJI have intentionally not allowed people to switch to ATTI mode on the Mavic is suspicious), then getting more experience is unlikely to be much benefit for me and some regards I think lacking experience is good as I've been sticking with big open flight environments where the Mavic is more likely to get a soft landing if something goes wrong.

 

[aesculus]

If experienced pilots can't control the Mavic when it does this switch to ATTI mode, then getting more experience is unlikely to be much benefit for me and some regards I think lacking experience is good as I've been sticking with big open flight environments where the Mavic is more likely to get a soft landing if something goes wrong.

Don't kid yourself. Experience can only benefit you.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Don't kid yourself. Experience can only benefit you.

I'm not kidding anyone, I browse the Mavic forums daily and many of the crashes are with experienced pilots confident in their abilities choosing flight environments I wouldn't be taking my Mavic anywhere near - experience clearly didn't benefit those people particularly when their Mavics have lasted considerably less than mine.

 

[willhay555]

I learned to fly with a syma x5c-1 and it's a blast. After flying it the mavic seems to be in auto pilot. lol I love my mavic but I still get a kick out of flying the syma.

We have the same two drones!

 

[Anthonyk]

We have the same two drones!

I also have the x12c Syma. lol it's a blast to fly indoors. Helps me get my flying fix anytime. Lmbo

 

[Dspace]

Quick question, anyone know which trainer drones offer Mode 1 stick control (Pitch/Yaw on left and Throttle/Roll on right)? That's what I'm using on the Mavic so that's what I'd want on a trainer (I'm a lefty). Bought a Syma X5C-1 that claimed a Mode 1 option but it wasn't Mode 1 at all. Nothing I found seems to even mention stick mode in their specs. Guess it's all assumed to be Mode 2 these days.....

 

[Rick]

Totally advocate honing your skills with a cheap relatively indestructable drone. Orientation without the aid of the 20 plus processors of the Mavic will teach you so much as long as you stick with it. One of the key moments you should guage your progression of skill level by is when you can fly a cheap drone "nose in" and hold it in the hover position facing you for at least 30 seconds. The automation built into the Mavic is to provide a stable platform for you to concentrate on the other skill set you should practice which is photography and videography. Maintaining safe and level flight when the automated systems on an advanced drone fail are essential. . With saying that, it would be impossible to fly any drone if you had to control power to each rotor manually in order to maintain height and heading.