Afraid of flying the drone?...

[BillyDrone]

How many of you have anxiety about flying your expensive drone in fear of losing it?
I get anxiety and hearing all the warnings and beeps when flying...
How do you get over this anxiety?
I have had my Mavic pro for a while now and mostly go up and down so I know where my drone is..LOL

 

[Lasidora]

I tend to get anxiety if the drone is on a waypoint mission (Litchi) & only finally relax when the smart controller buzzes back into life on re-connection on return, general flying is fine for me now.

 

[old man mavic]

that anxiety is quite normal when you first start flying ,and in itself is not a bad thing ,its when you become complacent and start cutting corners and thinking you are invincible ,that problems arise ,as you flight time increases ,and your stick control improves you will find that you can start relaxing ,and enjoy flying ,most of the warnings that pop up on the screen are just informative ,and although you should take notice of them ,just dont panic .

 

[slup]

How many of you have anxiety about flying your expensive drone in fear of losing it?...

Yep, felt the same fresh into this with flying ... my recipe to cure that was to learn all about how & why they can fly as stable as they do. And then started to learn how to read/interpret the flight logs. After a while I knew the weaker spots in the total system & could avoid making mistakes just there. Log reading was also really good in order to find reasons for all surprising oddities. So start up & hang around the forum section "Mavic Crash & Flyaway Assistance"... that calmed me down

 

[BillyDrone]

Some good Info...Thanks for the replies..

 

[maggior]

I have been flying drones since last summer and I still get a bit anxious about flying. If there was no anxiety or excitement it would be boring.

The first way I lessened the anxiety was to fly in big wide open areas where I could make mistakes and not end up flying into a tree or the side of my house. Each time I'd go out to fly I'd have a goal in mind. For instance, it took me about a month to get the courage up to take my drone up to maximum legal height. I kept a record of what my max height was and once I got comfortable with that I would add 10 meters.

I also incrementally pushed the distance out for fear of losing video feed. What helped me a lot there was learning how to bring a drone back via line of sight even if the drone was just a dot in the sky. Being able to confidently do that eased my anxiety quite a bit. There's a simple technique to it and I can find the youtube link if you are interested.

I think "stick time" helps. As you fly more and get into a variety of situations you get more comfortable. Flying a cheap toy drone around the yard is a great way of learning basic control. Fly figure 8s around trees for instance.

Each drone has it's quirks and limitations so I'd make sure I'd get some flight time with each to get comfortable and feel out the limitations.

I will say the Mavic Air 2 is such a great drone to fly that it has lowered my anxiety. The solid connection with the controller and the precision of how it flies lets me focus more on flying than worrying. Just yesterday I was flying line of sight and got a notification that I had hit the 400m distance limit I had configured. Without even realizing I had gone way past my previous record of 320m. Just to prove to myself I could do it, I flew it back via line of sight. Another time while 300m out I lost sight of it after glancing away briefly. I pulled up the map and saw how I could easily point the drone back toward me and easily bring it back.

Like @old man mavic said, don't panic. In many situations, you can just let go of the sticks and it will hover while you decide on a course of action.

 

[Barbara]

A lot of good advice here already. For me, understanding all of the on screen information and indicators, what they mean and how and when to use them, was crucial. This includes all the menu items that change the performance and reactions of the drone in specific situations (think "return to home"). Practice maneuvers and setting adjustments in a safe place.

I had a lot of anxiety flying the Spark, my first drone, because I always felt rushed due to the short battery life. Having to change anything in the menus caused panic as precious flight time melted away. Going any sort of distance from the home point had a similar affect on me. With my M2Z I can take my time. So much more relaxing.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Everyone goes thru this to some degree when they first get there drone.
I remember my very first flight in my girlfriends back yard , I went straight up with the phantom about 50 ft and just hovered , when along came a hawk carrying a Snake and smashed right into it and the drone flew away.

Three things happened : My girl said " Oh No "
We got in the car searching for the drone and asking people permission to go in there back yard. Never found it.

DJI Replaced my entire drone for free with %100 coupon

Moral of the story if something is going to happen, its simply going to happen all you can do is act like a real pilot >
Check your drone : walk around it : Check with the Air Data and trust in the Technology and have a few emergency skills down pat. RTH being one of them.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain and Land on the Water.

 

[maggior]

Everyone goes thru this to some degree when they first get there drone.
I remember my very first flight in my girlfriends back yard , I went straight up with the phantom about 50 ft and just hovered , when along came a hawk carrying a Snake and smashed right into it and the drone flew away.

Three things happened : My girl said " Oh No "
We got in the car searching for the drone and asking people permission to go in there back yard. Never found it.

DJI Replaced my entire drone for free with %100 coupon

Moral of the story if something is going to happen, its simply going to happen all you can do is act like a real pilot >
Check your drone : walk around it : Check with the Air Data and trust in the Technology and have a few emergency skills down pat. RTH being one of them.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain and Land on the Water.

Wow, what a story!!

Good point about emergency skills. You can imagine some scenarios and think "what would I do if...". I like to demonstrate for myself how RTH works. What happens if you are flying low and far out? High and further out? What if my remote, phone, or both die? How does Low Battery RTH work? You can simulate these scenarios in a safe wide open area by hitting RTH and seeing what happens, or just power off the controller.

You don't want to discover a quirk about the RTH functionality for the first time when you hit the button and need it...like my son did. A different drone...he flew it down to the very last "low battery" warning and it flew straight back at the altitude it was at and almost hit a tree. Unlike the other warnings, this one he wasn't able to override. Better to learn that in a more controlled scenario .

 

[BillyDrone]

I was flying my drone once and the DJI Go 4 app got disconnected on my Galaxy S10....I could not see my drone anywhere and it was out of eye site.... I thought I lost my drone forever....
I had to completely rely on the remote controller itself it guide my Mavic Pro back to me.....

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Knowing where the pause button is good at any stage in a pilots learning curve.
Try it a few times each flight until you can push it almost automatically if you find the need.

 

[Tim40]

How many of you have anxiety about flying your expensive drone in fear of losing it?
I get anxiety and hearing all the warnings and beeps when flying...
How do you get over this anxiety?
I have had my Mavic pro for a while now and mostly go up and down so I know where my drone is..LOL

They still make me nervous - I fly anyway.

 

[Duckhunter50]

On Easter weekend I let 3 nieces and a nephew (ages 6-11) fly my mavic 2 pro. I put it in tripod mode so that helped them fly it at their speed. It did make me a little nervous but they did okay.

 

[DoomMeister]

What helped me a lot there was learning how to bring a drone back via line of sight even if the drone was just a dot in the sky. Being able to confidently do that eased my anxiety quite a bit. There's a simple technique to it and I can find the youtube link if you are interested.

I believe this is the one you were referring to and works for any RC controlled aircraft. Thanks again for this informative video @Ty Pilot !

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[DBT_Drone]

I'm new to flying a drone and I get pretty nervous when I take it up. But its getting better each time I take her up.

 

[maggior]

I believe this is the one you were referring to and works for any RC controlled aircraft. Thanks again for this informative video @Ty Pilot !

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That is a great video and explains it nicely.

The explanation I saw was a little more simplistic and for me easier to remember. The idea was to apply forward stick and to push the yaw stick in the direction that you see the dot moving. Do this until you perceive no side to side motion and let off the yaw and keep pushing forward. The drone is now coming toward you.

If you see no side to side when pushing forward then seeing which way the dot moves when you apply right or left yaw tells you which way it is going. In that case if you yaw left and the dot goes left, it is going away from you. If it's opposite, the it is coming toward you. You can then use the above idea to bring it around if necessary to bring it back.

Eventually you perceive this without even thinking about it...unless to explain it.

Experiment with the drone close where you can see the orientation to prove to yourself that this works.

 

[AVLJMA]

The one thing that causes a bit of panic for me is when I am flying at 300 FT and a gust of wind hits. I wait it and the panic subsides. These drones are pretty well engineered and can handle some harsh winds and some tumbles at low speed. I agree with everyone, over time you will become more relaxed. Happy flying.

 

[Martysticks]

I used to watch all those crazy 'let's see how far away I can fly this thing' videos; those made me nervous

 

[JoelP]

Wow, what a story!!

Good point about emergency skills. You can imagine some scenarios and think "what would I do if...". I like to demonstrate for myself how RTH works. What happens if you are flying low and far out? High and further out? What if my remote, phone, or both die? How does Low Battery RTH work? You can simulate these scenarios in a safe wide open area by hitting RTH and seeing what happens, or just power off the controller.

You don't want to discover a quirk about the RTH functionality for the first time when you hit the button and need it...like my son did. A different drone...he flew it down to the very last "low battery" warning and it flew straight back at the altitude it was at and almost hit a tree. Unlike the other warnings, this one he wasn't able to override. Better to learn that in a more controlled scenario .

I would like to amplify Maggior’s comment about turning off the controller in a safe area where you can watch how it automatically initiates RTH. Once you become confident that it will self initiate RTH you will be far more comfortable with more distant missions where a disconnect is more likely.

For Litchi, it is important to use Virtual Litchi in Google Earth to review and modify your mission as needed. It is very possible that a Litchi mission can try to fly you into a hill if you don’t pick your waypoints correctly. While it might not actually fly into a hill it might go to hover far from your launch point. Being comfortable with these tools will make you comfortable with a longer Litchi mission.

The thing that makes me the most nervous is a battery failure since this has happened to me twice. I have been more diligent about battery maintenance and no longer fly below 35% as an extra safety margin if I am fly over terrain where retrieval would be challenging.

 

[Wild Drone Pilot]

How many of you have anxiety about flying your expensive drone in fear of losing it?
I get anxiety and hearing all the warnings and beeps when flying...
How do you get over this anxiety?
I have had my Mavic pro for a while now and mostly go up and down so I know where my drone is..LOL

I get worried when I use the smart controller with the flawed firmware and my Air 2
When you lose connect with clear sky and only 100-200ft away

Will the Air 2s have the same issues if you want to use the smart controller?
We shall see