Confidence

[jcardea]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

 

[old man mavic]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

all you need to do is go up to 5ft feet go out about 12ft face the front of the drone away from you and take your hands off the sticks the drone will just hover in place ,and then you can practice looking at the screen ,and back to the drone do this several times until you feel more confident as to what the drone is going to do ,then gradually increase height and distance and you will overcome your fear

 

[FoxhallGH]

Your preference in keeping an 'eyeball' the Mavic is commendable. My suggestion is to do some flying at an altitude of 10 to 15 ft in a large open space (no people), and just do figure-eights and squares. Get used to the fact that when you lift your thumbs off the sticks and the sticks centre, the drone just stops and waits for you to do something else. Even in winds up to around 20 mph - you'll have the Mavic keep its position in the air. Once you get used to that, you'll know that you can just 'stop' at any time - work out what you want to do next, and then proceed. It's a freedom that you just didn't have with the RC Heli's ...

 

[FiLiNuX]

"i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. "

I think finding the perfect balance of doing both is one of the most important skills a drone pilot can have. Keeping a VLOS on your craft is of course important, and most often the law, but utilizing your display, and knowing it well enough to gain the data at a glance, is of great importance as well.

" I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. "
Always fly within your abilities but TRUST in that amazing piece of equipment you own. You have invested in a device & company that has a reputation (I know Im going to get fly away posts links) of making excellent products. I would guess a large part of selecting the MP2 was its great camera/video abilities and all of the support systems that go with it so it would be a shame not to use it by framing up shots/movies correctly with the display. I have 20GB of video of me standing in a harvested corn field trying out the autonomous flight modes with the drone never getting more then 100 feet from me. Start by trying everything small & safe and working up.

I know this or my experience does not include the previous RC heli factor but I do believe this is something that all new drone operators experience. I am sure many people with lost/smashed equipment wished afterwards they would have asked, read, or started a bit smaller.

Have fun!!

 

[Deleted member 93449]

I don't know if your RC aircraft have cameras in them that feed back video to the controller but the ones I've flown do not so there really is no reason to look at the controller when you're flying RC (assuming you're familiar with the functions of the controller). Drones are a different animal. You have GPS, compass, barometer, accelerometers and all sorts of stuff to keep the drone stable and flying while you're framing video and photographs using the display.

Confidence in the automated flight operations only comes with using them. My first experience with Return to Home was hoping this thing works. Now the attitude is "of course it works" after having activated it numerous types. The same with flight plans. You do a few that don't take the drone very far, watch it do what it's programmed to do with no input from you and you build confidence the application and drone will function as designed.

Of course stuff can go wrong, usually for me it's operator error. So if you're careful in making sure things are set up correctly most of the time the drone will function as designed.

 

[sjnovakovich]

This is no different than a manned aircraft pilot learning to trust the instruments when they are becoming instrument-certified.

 

[dronerdave]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

I'm just the opposite and am constantly monitoring my stats. I keep strobes on my quad so I can find it quicker after looking down. It also depends on the terrain and I'm much more watchful of the quad itself around structures but I've learned how to trust my stats and my video feed. It's the combination of that and direct vision that makes my flights safer IMO.
BTW I fly 3D RC fixed wing a couple times a week and it's very to crash your aircraft after looking away. If my planes flew like my Mavic, I wouldn't have crashed so many of em.

 

[jcardea]

thanks to all, yesterday was very nice day in my area of NC so i made and excited a flight mission in the 20 acre filed beside my home. I used advice for you guys and hit the GO button and off the M2P went and ran the flight plan perfectly. i repeated it several times ( i did save the mission) and it returned to home and landed each time without fail. today I am going to change some of the parameters in the mission and repeat again. the only issue is had was with a video it recording on on of the flights, it came out rather blurry for sure some i am at a loss at to why that was but it was very bright sun and made now camera adjustments while in flight. all of my other recording when i fly manually are great

 

[Camino Ken]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

I was in a very similar situation as you about a year ago. Just got my M2P and it was my very first drone. I was very apprehensive on how it would handle itself and whether I could control it. I started slowly but just taking off and letting it hover and then landing it. Then I went a little further each time and I fairly quickly gained confidence that it was going to do exactly what I told it to do and nothing else. In fact just the other day I had just launched it into a hover and realized I had forgot something in the house so I put the controller down went in the house. When I came back damm if it wasn’t exactly where I left it a few minutes ago. It is still my favorite feature.

 

[old man mavic]

I was in a very similar situation as you about a year ago. Just got my M2P and it was my very first drone. I was very apprehensive on how it would handle itself and whether I could control it. I started slowly but just taking off and letting it hover and then landing it. Then I went a little further each time and I fairly quickly gained confidence that it was going to do exactly what I told it to do and nothing else. In fact just the other day I had just launched it into a hover and realized I had forgot something in the house so I put the controller down went in the house. When I came back damm if it wasn’t exactly where I left it a few minutes ago. It is still my favorite feature.

not your best moment leaving your drone unattended ,always have the ability to control it

 

[Camino Ken]

not your best moment leaving your drone unattended ,always have the ability to control it

Probably not but the risk was very low. I live on 4 ac with just me and my wife and it was above head height just in front of the house, but thanks for your concern.

 

[old man mavic]

Probably not but the risk was very low. I live on 4 ac with just me and my wife and it was above head height just in front of the house, but thanks for your concern.

no problem just saying thats all

 

[Camino Ken]

no problem just saying thats all

Maybe I’m just regressing to my irresponsible youth days. I’ve heard that‘s common in folks our age. That’s my story and I sticking to it. Ha Ha

 

[old man mavic]

Maybe I’m just regressing to my irresponsible youth days.

you could be right there Ken,they say that age will do that, and it gets harder to remember what we did when we were young,but it sure was fun i think

 

[Music One]

Having flown radio control planes and gliders since a teenager I understand what your saying but I have no probs on a cold day hovering my MA and now M2P with the controller in one hand and taking a quick sip of coffee with the other. They just sit up there waiting for further instructions.

 

[OldGuy]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

I was exactly the same as you when I got my first drone. As an old R/C pilot I couldn’t keep my eyes off the aircraft. Eventually over time my confidence grew and I began to look at the screen more more and more.
Lots of good advice from fellow members plus the more you fly the more you will get used to it.

 

[kevinhooke]

I've flown fixed wing RC planes for a number of years, most recently 3d park fliers. I understand exactly where you're coming from, with these if you take your eyes off the plane for a split second when you look up you're either in a tree or you've hit the ground

As a new drone pilot, my mindset going in was 'ok, this is completely different, I don't need continual focus on the drone itself because if I take my fingers off the sticks it just sits where it is'. I knew this from watching videos but I still had to prove it to myself on my first couple of flights just to build my confidence. I took off and hovered in front of where I was standing and just watched it. I looked at the screen, looked at the drone and made small inputs just to see what it looked like on the screen to get to grips with it.

I admit it's a leap of faith to just trust that it does what it's supposed to do (hover in place by itself), but watching it on the screen hovering close kind of did it for me. My first flight was over an open field with nothing around to accidentally crash into, and then I just went for it - took it up to 200ft and repeatedly flew around in squares over the field.

Another thing that helped build confidence was actually testing the RTH feature so I could be sure that it actually would work if I lost track of it for some reason and needed to press the RTH button and feel confident that it did actually work. And it still amazes me that it does!

Not sure if that helps you or not, but wanted to share my similar experience.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Another thing that helped build confidence was actually testing the RTH feature so I could be sure that it actually would work if I lost track of it for some reason and needed to press the RTH button and feel confident that it did actually work. And it still amazes me that it does!

Just a note of caution on the RTH ... It's sometimes not the 'Get out of Jail Free card' it seems to be! Do your RTH practice on days without any wind - and when you do it, ask yourself questions like:
- how would this work if the drone was fighting a head-wind to get back to me?
- how much higher would the windspeed be at the RTH altitude than it is on the ground?
- have I taken the tallest tree/building into account in setting the RTH height ...

There is the occasional story posted about folks who have done down-wind flights and got into trouble, only to have their Mavic pop to RTH height and be blown away from them. So it's a good idea to know the limitations of the package and simply not think that the Mavic does it all for you ...

 

[old man mavic]

Just a note of caution on the RTH ... It's sometimes not the 'Get out of Jail Free card' it seems to be! Do your RTH practice on days without any wind - and when you do it, ask yourself questions like:
- how would this work if the drone was fighting a head-wind to get back to me?
- how much higher would the windspeed be at the RTH altitude than it is on the ground?
- have I taken the tallest tree/building into account in setting the RTH height ...

There is the occasional story posted about folks who have done down-wind flights and got into trouble, only to have their Mavic pop to RTH height and be blown away from them. So it's a good idea to know the limitations of the package and simply not think that the Mavic does it all for you ...

i agree, i still think it's important to learn to be able to fly your drone manually, then you have an understanding of how to deal with an unexpected situation,can count on one hand the times i have used RTH ,but please never leave your drone unattended, it only takes a second for things to go wrong ,and sods law dictates it will happen on the one time you take things for granted

 

[MacCool]

good day to all, i am new to drones since last spring. I am a RC pilot of hell's as well. here is my confidence dilemma. with RC flying i cannot and do not take my hands off controller, and alway keep aircraft in line of site obviously. however in flying my M2P, i have no problem at all flying it around, but even to this day i have difficulty looking down at my controller and talking my eye off the drone. I am very reluctant to use the automatic flight modes and turing over full control of drone to the controller. is there anyone out there that also flys RC aircraft and hav this same fear in operating drones? my fear is that it will just fly off on its own. I am NOT afraid of crashes so long is it is MY hands on control and i make mistake.
Signed
scared pilot

For me, just the opposite. I'm a long-time RC flyer as well but find the boring stability of the Mavics and Phantoms to be freeing. I rarely watch the drone any more, fly mostly from the screen and over the last couple of months fly almost entirely FPV on a pair of DJI RE goggles. I don't know how to tell you to put your fears aside, but likely the more experience you have with these things, the more confidence you'll have in their ability to fly themselves without second-by-second input.