1) FIRST QUESTION: How do you start the motors in Manual mode? Sticks down and in just like usual? If yes, how does the tightening of the left stick impact this action?
There is a different motor start procedure in Manual. HOWEVER DON'T TAKE OFF IN MANUAL UNTIL YOU ARE PROFICIENT
FLYING MANUAL. You will flip over, lose control, crash, all sorts of bad things. It is really really REALLY hard to take off in Manual.
Take off in Normal, ascend to a good altitude, then switch to Manual to start your learning/practice. It's a little weird with the unsprung throttle, but not too difficult.
2) Apply enough power to lift up to 4 ft. Is this a single action that moves the throttle to a specific place, and it then stays there, or do you end up needing to increase power, and then back off, to hover at a specific altitude?
No, don't do that. 99% chance you will get out of control, revert to reflex, and use Angle mode muscle memory which will send you flying directly into something. Don't spend much focus on yaw -- it's the one thing that works the same. You need to develop your feel for the interaction between throttle, and pitch/roll changes. Do that at altitude.
Big open fields are good places to learn too 'cause you can get a better feel for elevation response to the throttle, being closer to the ground without collision risk.
3) 360º rotation. This seems like it will just be a left stick motion to the right or left, as usual. Yes? Is any throttle change involved to do this?
No
4) Go down the driveway. Per your above, this will be done using a slight forward pitch by moving the right stick up, and a slight increase in power to maintain altitude, to compensate for the thrust that gets diverted to moving forward. Is that right? This part gives me the sense of being like a regular airplane in some ways, and if that's the case, it should be natural for me.
No, none of this will feel natural at all. It will feel wrong. First, the gimbal no longer vertically stabilizes. You set it at an angle, and it stays there. That angle is base on how fast you plan to be flying -- i.e. your forward pitch angle. A good place to start is 10-15deg. Set this before you take off.
The idea is you will be pitched forward that amount continuously. I.e. flying manual you are always moving. You rarely stop and hover, which is near impossible anyway with
goggles on.
So there will be no gradual trip down to the end of the driveway, stop and turn around, and fly back at 5mph. It's gonna be hours and hours and hours of M practice before you're safe down in the trees.
5) Stop at the end of the driveway. Pitch returned to neutral, which it will do on it's own by letting go of the right stick, and decrease power slightly. Yes?
NO!!!! Can I yell this louder?
THAT is the big difference between rate mode, and angle mode. In angle mode -- the way you've been flying so far -- the pitch matches your stick. If the stick is centered, the pitch is level. Push this stick forward a little, it pitches forward a little, and stays there until you move the stick more or bring it back -- and the pitch angle follows the stick position.
Now, think about how the yaw stick works. Quite differently. The rotational position of the drone doesn't follow the yaw stick -- that would be really hard to fly. Rather, the yaw stick controls the rate at which the aircraft rotates -- push the stick farther, it rotates faster. Let go of the stick and the drone stays pointed where it is -- it doesn't rotate BACK to the orientation it was in when the stick was centered.
The yaw stick controls the RATE of yaw, not the compass angle of the aircraft.
This is how the pitch and roll operate in M mode. The control the RATE of change. So, when pushing the pitch stick forward, it will start to pitch over, faster if you push the stick farther. When you release the stick, it will stop pitching, and stay at that pitch angle. To get it back level, you have to pull the pitch stick back, and release when it's level.
This difference in control behavior is what's going to send you into a brick wall if you don't develop this "muscle memory" way up in the sky where there's nothing to hit.
6) At that point, turning around and coming back, then stopping, will just be a repeat of motions that I've already done, but they'll be in "reverse command" with the drone facing me.
For this entire process, I don't expect to exceed 2 -3 mph.
Did I get anything wrong in this sequence?
Thx!
Nope... You need an entirely new start-up plan... Take off and land in N, fly up 150' above the trees, switch to M. Get to know that BRAKE.
