6th - 8th Structured Training Flights

[Chaosrider]

Flight 6 was to finally sort out in my head how RTH works. Mission accomplished! I ran a number of test missions, and I now understand how what the RTH flight profile is. My understanding was being hampered by not being used to judging the angle of something when looking straight up! Now, after I punch RTH, I always point the camera at my house, which gives the complete RTH experience from the drone's point of view.

Flight 7 involved a major checklist failure...I forgot to turn the camera on for the flight! I tried to climb over the ridge and look beyond it again, and I almost got there, but I just can't reliably see the drone beyond 800 ft, so I punched RTH and brought it back. 450 ft above launch point, WAY less than 400 ft AGL for the drone There's a rock formation visible from my back deck that I've used for a number of these training flights, and I went to get closer to it. I was making good progress, but the low battery alarm went off, and I treat that as gospel at this point. It's just not worth stretching it.

Flight 8 was from the front driveway, rather than the back deck. To be able to sit in the shade, which greatly enhances screen visibility, I fly from the back deck in the morning, and the front driveway in the afternoon. I tried to use my VLOS enhancement mechanism that works well in back, but not as well in front, because the color of the mountains in the background is very much lighter than in back. No trees in that direction.

I stumbled on a way to upload videos to SkyPixel, but when I went to upload another one, I just couldn't find the sequence again. I'm also not yet sure how to point people to those videos. My user name is Chaosrider.

Advice appreciated, and more to follow!

I could do this all the time...




TCS

 

[monteolsen1]

Flight 6 was to finally sort out in my head how RTH works. Mission accomplished! I ran a number of test missions, and I now understand how what the RTH flight profile is. My understanding was being hampered by not being used to judging the angle of something when looking straight up! Now, after I punch RTH, I always point the camera at my house, which gives the complete RTH experience from the drone's point of view.

Flight 7 involved a major checklist failure...I forgot to turn the camera on for the flight! I tried to climb over the ridge and look beyond it again, and I almost got there, but I just can't reliably see the drone beyond 800 ft, so I punched RTH and brought it back. 450 ft above launch point, WAY less than 400 ft AGL for the drone There's a rock formation visible from my back deck that I've used for a number of these training flights, and I went to get closer to it. I was making good progress, but the low battery alarm went off, and I treat that as gospel at this point. It's just not worth stretching it.

Flight 8 was from the front driveway, rather than the back deck. To be able to sit in the shade, which greatly enhances screen visibility, I fly from the back deck in the morning, and the front driveway in the afternoon. I tried to use my VLOS enhancement mechanism that works well in back, but not as well in front, because the color of the mountains in the background is very much lighter than in back. No trees in that direction.

I stumbled on a way to upload videos to SkyPixel, but when I went to upload another one, I just couldn't find the sequence again. I'm also not yet sure how to point people to those videos. My user name is Chaosrider.

Advice appreciated, and more to follow!

I could do this all the time...




TCS

It sounds like you are having a lot of fun sorting out your flyer. I’m having fun reading about your flights. ??

 

[SethB]

Welcome, I’ve been reading your previous posts as well as this one. There’s nothing as good as getting out there and doing it to quickly learn to fly. Well done!

* Not everyone uses RTH regularly. I use it very rarely. Flying back is just more flying... well, almost.

Developing your skills with nose-in flying (drone pointed toward you) takes some practice, but is very valuable. What you learn is how to use the sticks relative to the heading of the drone.

With nose-out flying your own left and right correspond to the drone’s left and right. Or maybe port and starboard would be more helpful for some. It’s easy to get confused about left and right with a drone. Rather than avoiding it, I advise much practice!

With nose-in flying your own left and right are opposite the drone’s left and right.

Learning this is a little different than fly out, punch return to home. You don’t need a large area, but it may be easier/safer in an open area rather than off the deck or driveway.

This training clip is fairly recent, I thought the creator did a good job with it:

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He’s in a park surrounded by trees. I’d look for an open space for initial practice.

These exercises are really good, not only because they help you develop muscle memory for flying home, but also because these skills help in so many flights where you want the camera pointed one way, but the flight path is in a different direction. Or when you need to react quickly.

 

[RGallant]

These are interesting to follow along with, I find there is always something to consider myself as a new pilot when I read through.

 

[maggior]

You are brave to try climbing above rock formations. All of my flying has been to keep it at least 100 ft in the air, though usually 200 ft, to give myself a very large buffer to avoid hitting anything. I have only flown in flat areas or areas where I am on a slight rise.

Any tips from your experience?

 

[maggior]

Welcome, I’ve been reading your previous posts as well as this one. There’s nothing as good as getting out there and doing it to quickly learn to fly. Well done!

* Not everyone uses RTH regularly. I use it very rarely. Flying back is just more flying... well, almost.

Developing your skills with nose-in flying (drone pointed toward you) takes some practice, but is very valuable. What you learn is how to use the sticks relative to the heading of the drone.

With nose-out flying your own left and right correspond to the drone’s left and right. Or maybe port and starboard would be more helpful for some. It’s easy to get confused about left and right with a drone. Rather than avoiding it, I advise much practice!

With nose-in flying your own left and right are opposite the drone’s left and right.

Learning this is a little different than fly out, punch return to home. You don’t need a large area, but it may be easier/safer in an open area rather than off the deck or driveway.

This training clip is fairly recent, I thought the creator did a good job with it:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

He’s in a park surrounded by trees. I’d look for an open space for initial practice.

These exercises are really good, not only because they help you develop muscle memory for flying home, but also because these skills help in so many flights where you want the camera pointed one way, but the flight path is in a different direction. Or when you need to react quickly.

That is a good video and I wish I knew of it when I started. I'm not sure I would have been comfortable sending it to full height so soon .

A trick I learned to bring a drone back that is so far out that you can't determine the orientation is to push the right stick forward and note which direction the drone appears to be flying in the sky...right or left. Then push the left stick in the direction that the drone appears to be flying until the dot stops moving from side to side. The drone is now coming back to you. This works if the drone was originally facing either toward you or away from you.

I also like flying a "toy" drone (no gps) around my hard and navigate around trees with the nose of the drone facing where I'm heading and using sideways pitch in combination with yaw in the turns...basically banking turns. This keeps you active on both sticks and it becomes natural to feel how to react to make the drone go where you want no matter which direction it is facing.

 

[Chaosrider]

It sounds like you are having a lot of fun sorting out your flyer. I’m having fun reading about your flights. ??

I am indeed having a blast! I completed Structured Training flights #9 and #10 today, which I'll report on separately.

That was the last of the structured training flights that I have planned. I have now completed the 5 hr minimum that I set for myself. I'll still have objectives sometimes, but now I'll also just go fly.

And with the 5 hrs in, I now feel ready to try "Sport" mode, which I haven't yet.



TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

Welcome, I’ve been reading your previous posts as well as this one. There’s nothing as good as getting out there and doing it to quickly learn to fly. Well done!

* Not everyone uses RTH regularly. I use it very rarely. Flying back is just more flying... well, almost.

Developing your skills with nose-in flying (drone pointed toward you) takes some practice, but is very valuable. What you learn is how to use the sticks relative to the heading of the drone.

With nose-out flying your own left and right correspond to the drone’s left and right. Or maybe port and starboard would be more helpful for some. It’s easy to get confused about left and right with a drone. Rather than avoiding it, I advise much practice!

With nose-in flying your own left and right are opposite the drone’s left and right.

Learning this is a little different than fly out, punch return to home. You don’t need a large area, but it may be easier/safer in an open area rather than off the deck or driveway.

This training clip is fairly recent, I thought the creator did a good job with it:

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

He’s in a park surrounded by trees. I’d look for an open space for initial practice.

These exercises are really good, not only because they help you develop muscle memory for flying home, but also because these skills help in so many flights where you want the camera pointed one way, but the flight path is in a different direction. Or when you need to react quickly.

That "Top 15" video is really good.

I actually caught on to the "reverse control" flying (nose pointed at you) pretty quickly. I had been a bit spoiled because my previous drone, a Snaptain S5C, had a "headless" mode, where "forward" was just the line from you to the drone. The S5C was a great intro trainer, but it has ZERO wind resistance, and the wind grabbed it and carried it down the canyon. That's when I got my first Mini-2, DiJimm. Which I bunged up by a combination of not being good enough at reverse control handling, plus not paying enough attention to the low battery warning. Neither of those two things will happen again. I broke Dijimm's lens cover, and he's in the DJI Hospital under repair. Since the repair was only $98, I paid that, rather than using one of my re-fresh options. Because I want Dijimm, specifically, back.

My world consists of trees, which will be obvious once I figure out how to upload and link videos. I live on one wall of a canyon. The only flat surfaces around are my long driveway, and my back deck. Tress all around.

Just the way I like it!



TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

These are interesting to follow along with, I find there is always something to consider myself as a new pilot when I read through.

High praise, thank you sir!

More and more, after I'm done flying for the day, I find myself drifting to these forums, to see what other people have written about...

;-)

TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

You are brave to try climbing above rock formations. All of my flying has been to keep it at least 100 ft in the air, though usually 200 ft, to give myself a very large buffer to avoid hitting anything. I have only flown in flat areas or areas where I am on a slight rise.

Any tips from your experience?

Some tips, yes!

The first, and most important to newbies like me, is to do it incrementally. In a lot of ways I'm designing my training around the way that I learned to fly human-sized aircraft.

I've named the dominant peak in this formation "Guardian Rock". It took me a number of incremental approaches over the course of about 10 days before finally getting there, this morning.

In earlier flights, I made no huge leaps; each time, I want a little farther, and a little higher, and to terrain that was just a bit more challenging. There were a couple of times where the assault on Guardian Rock was going well, but I declared it done for the day, because I had exceeded my highest and/or farthest limit for that day.

Depth perception at a distance is extremely challenging. I'm getting better at it, but it's very hard. So I solve this by going forward a little bit, then up a little bit, and then I do a 360 to see what's what around me. Lather, rinse, repeat.

As a trained human-sized-aircraft pilot, I'm blessed with already being good at seeing tiny specs moving against either a blue sky or ground clutter. My VLOS distance is 800 ft reliably, and 900 ft with extreme concentration (which I won't be doing much).

Guardian Rock is right about 900 ft away. It's about 550 ft above my house, but the drone was always less than 400 ft AGL. Frequently, WAY less! I'll get the GR video up eventually.

Canyon flying tip for staying 400 ft legal: Know the elevation of the bottom of the canyon! Where I am, the bottom is a tad less than 150 ft below me. So, as long as I stay below 250 ft above me going across to the other side, I'm in good legal shape.

You guys will get a break from me tomorrow...I have a real job that I have to go back to!

But not today...





TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

That is a good video and I wish I knew of it when I started. I'm not sure I would have been comfortable sending it to full height so soon .

A trick I learned to bring a drone back that is so far out that you can't determine the orientation is to push the right stick forward and note which direction the drone appears to be flying in the sky...right or left. Then push the left stick in the direction that the drone appears to be flying until the dot stops moving from side to side. The drone is now coming back to you. This works if the drone was originally facing either toward you or away from you.

I also like flying a "toy" drone (no gps) around my hard and navigate around trees with the nose of the drone facing where I'm heading and using sideways pitch in combination with yaw in the turns...basically banking turns. This keeps you active on both sticks and it becomes natural to feel how to react to make the drone go where you want no matter which direction it is facing.

Quick drone orientation tip: Open the "Map" view, and keep it in the lower left corner. Set the scale to your liking. The little drone icon in the map view points the way the real drone is pointing.

Easy demo:

1) Auto take-off. Just let it hover.
2) Call up the Map view.
3) While hovering in place, rotate the drone 360º
4) Note that the little drone icon in the map view rotates in response to the drone itself rotating.

Works good!



TCS

 

[maggior]

Quick drone orientation tip: Open the "Map" view, and keep it in the lower left corner. Set the scale to your liking. The little drone icon in the map view points the way the real drone is pointing.

Easy demo:

1) Auto take-off. Just let it hover.
2) Call up the Map view.
3) While hovering in place, rotate the drone 360º
4) Note that the little drone icon in the map view rotates in response to the drone itself rotating.

Works good!



TCS

Yeah I use the map all of the time. Even with it small it is useful because all you have to do is aim the drone at the red line, push forward, and it comes straight back. Almost too easy

What I was referring to is what you can do if you lose connection and somehow RTH won't work (GPS may have dropped).

Being able to fly strictly by VLOS is good skill to have. It is also fun to fly sometimes without relying on all of the tech.

Reading your prior post I see this is stuff you are already familiar with...so never mind me lol.

 

[maggior]

Some tips, yes!

The first, and most important to newbies like me, is to do it incrementally. In a lot of ways I'm designing my training around the way that I learned to fly human-sized aircraft.

I've named the dominant peak in this formation "Guardian Rock". It took me a number of incremental approaches over the course of about 10 days before finally getting there, this morning.

In earlier flights, I made no huge leaps; each time, I want a little farther, and a little higher, and to terrain that was just a bit more challenging. There were a couple of times where the assault on Guardian Rock was going well, but I declared it done for the day, because I had exceeded my highest and/or farthest limit for that day.

Depth perception at a distance is extremely challenging. I'm getting better at it, but it's very hard. So I solve this by going forward a little bit, then up a little bit, and then I do a 360 to see what's what around me. Lather, rinse, repeat.

As a trained human-sized-aircraft pilot, I'm blessed with already being good at seeing tiny specs moving against either a blue sky or ground clutter. My VLOS distance is 800 ft reliably, and 900 ft with extreme concentration (which I won't be doing much).

Guardian Rock is right about 900 ft away. It's about 550 ft above my house, but the drone was always less than 400 ft AGL. Frequently, WAY less! I'll get the GR video up eventually.

Canyon flying tip for staying 400 ft legal: Know the elevation of the bottom of the canyon! Where I am, the bottom is a tad less than 150 ft below me. So, as long as I stay below 250 ft above me going across to the other side, I'm in good legal shape.

You guys will get a break from me tomorrow...I have a real job that I have to go back to!

But not today...





TCS

Incremental approach is a great idea. Last summer when I first started flying drones I would keep a record of my max height and distance at a particular place. Once I got comfortable I would add maybe 10 meters of height and 50 of distance. Part of it was feeling out the limitations of the drone I was flying. Now I show up, test that the controls all work as I expect, and send it right on up to 120 meters and do a 360 panning shot of the area and decide where to fly and explore. I bring it down to 60 or 40m to do that. If I am brave and comfortable with the area, i may take it down to 30m and fly around. Sometimes lower altitude footage is more dramatic.

With my Mavic Air 2, which I got in April, I was at a location where I had a really far horizon and i flew it out to where i could just still see it. I was shocked that it was 500 meters!! That is my absolute limit. I can comfortably manage flying VLOS at 400 meters max.

Thanks for the tips on attacking a mountain with a drone.

 

[Chaosrider2]

That "Top 15" video is really good.

I actually caught on to the "reverse control" flying (nose pointed at you) pretty quickly. I had been a bit spoiled because my previous drone, a Snaptain S5C, had a "headless" mode, where "forward" was just the line from you to the drone. The S5C was a great intro trainer, but it has ZERO wind resistance, and the wind grabbed it and carried it down the canyon. That's when I got my first Mini-2, DiJimm. Which I bunged up by a combination of not being good enough at reverse control handling, plus not paying enough attention to the low battery warning. Neither of those two things will happen again. I broke Dijimm's lens cover, and he's in the DJI Hospital under repair. Since the repair was only $98, I paid that, rather than using one of my re-fresh options. Because I want Dijimm, specifically, back.

My world consists of trees, which will be obvious once I figure out how to upload and link videos. I live on one wall of a canyon. The only flat surfaces around are my long driveway, and my back deck. Tress all around.

Just the way I like it!



TCS

I'm schedule to get Dijimm back Friday, so I'll be in a good position to provide some observations on the current state of DJI Care after that.

 

[Chaosrider2]

Yeah I use the map all of the time. Even with it small it is useful because all you have to do is aim the drone at the red line, push forward, and it comes straight back. Almost too easy

What I was referring to is what you can do if you lose connection and somehow RTH won't work (GPS may have dropped).

Being able to fly strictly by VLOS is good skill to have. It is also fun to fly sometimes without relying on all of the tech.

Reading your prior post I see this is stuff you are already familiar with...so never mind me lol.

 

[MS Coast]

Flight 6 was to finally sort out in my head how RTH works. Mission accomplished! I ran a number of test missions, and I now understand how what the RTH flight profile is. My understanding was being hampered by not being used to judging the angle of something when looking straight up! Now, after I punch RTH, I always point the camera at my house, which gives the complete RTH experience from the drone's point of view.

Flight 7 involved a major checklist failure...I forgot to turn the camera on for the flight! I tried to climb over the ridge and look beyond it again, and I almost got there, but I just can't reliably see the drone beyond 800 ft, so I punched RTH and brought it back. 450 ft above launch point, WAY less than 400 ft AGL for the drone There's a rock formation visible from my back deck that I've used for a number of these training flights, and I went to get closer to it. I was making good progress, but the low battery alarm went off, and I treat that as gospel at this point. It's just not worth stretching it.

Flight 8 was from the front driveway, rather than the back deck. To be able to sit in the shade, which greatly enhances screen visibility, I fly from the back deck in the morning, and the front driveway in the afternoon. I tried to use my VLOS enhancement mechanism that works well in back, but not as well in front, because the color of the mountains in the background is very much lighter than in back. No trees in that direction.

I stumbled on a way to upload videos to SkyPixel, but when I went to upload another one, I just couldn't find the sequence again. I'm also not yet sure how to point people to those videos. My user name is Chaosrider.

Advice appreciated, and more to follow!

I could do this all the time...




TCS

Consider a Youtube account for posting videos. It's also free and it's particularly advantageous when sharing with other folks, since almost everyone is familiar with it. You have the choice of making your videos completely public or limiting access is a couple of ways.

Here's a hyperlapse I did a few days ago. (Remember there's a full-screen button and a choice of resolution.)

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[Chaosrider]

Yeah I use the map all of the time. Even with it small it is useful because all you have to do is aim the drone at the red line, push forward, and it comes straight back. Almost too easy

What I was referring to is what you can do if you lose connection and somehow RTH won't work (GPS may have dropped).

Being able to fly strictly by VLOS is good skill to have. It is also fun to fly sometimes without relying on all of the tech.

Reading your prior post I see this is stuff you are already familiar with...so never mind me lol.

Not at all; good points!

Something I haven't seen discussed yet is sound. How far away can you hear your drone?

If I occasionally lose VLOS briefly, I bump the altitude up a bit, and I can almost always hear the power change. That tells me where to look, and with the strobe, I can almost always re-acquire it quickly.

TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

Consider a Youtube account for posting videos. It's also free and it's particularly advantageous when sharing with other folks, since almost everyone is familiar with it. You have the choice of making your videos completely public or limiting access is a couple of ways.

Here's a hyperlapse I did a few days ago. (Remember there's a full-screen button and a choice of resolution.)

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I'll have to look into that.

YouTube accounts are free? I dimly remember they had a cost when I last looked at that, but that was a long time ago.

Thx!

TCS

 

[maggior]

I'll have to look into that.

YouTube accounts are free? I dimly remember they had a cost when I last looked at that, but that was a long time ago.

Thx!

TCS

They are free. If you have a Google account or use gmail, then you already have a YouTube account.

 

[Chaosrider]

They are free. If you have a Google account or use gmail, then you already have a YouTube account.

Really??

I have gmail for my secondary email address, and I have a google account that goes with that.

So, please forgive my ignorance, if I open up the YouTube home page, how do I get to the point where I can upload videos?

Thanks!