Do you tune up your drone?

[Paul Harvey]

Hello all. I'm wondering if anyone "tunes up" their drones. You know, like lubrication & oil change every 6,000 miles, battery checks, spark plugs, fans, etc?

 

[PINEBARON]

Hello all. I'm wondering if anyone "tunes up" their drones. You know, like lubrication & oil change every 6,000 miles, battery checks, spark plugs, fans, etc?

Prior to every flight for sure. A vehicle stopping on a road is quite different to a drone or any airborne vehicle dropping from the sky. As an active RC plane flyer and modeler for over fifty years, I still check all functions, engine/s, propellers, batteries, moving surfaces etc prior to each flight. Luckily a model plane running out of fuel or facing engine failure midair can usually be saved depending on altitude and proximity to a landing area. Drones, the ones we fly, would fall out of the sky and may or may not survive a fall.

 

[MA2 317]

No oil needed and it attracts dirt.

Maintain the batteries monthly. Don't let them brick themselves by losing the charge.

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Check the props before each flight.

 

[hank970]

Hello all. I'm wondering if anyone "tunes up" their drones. You know, like lubrication & oil change every 6,000 miles, battery checks, spark plugs, fans, etc?

I've never changed the spark plugs on my drone. I haven't changed them on my car either, at least not since cars came from the factory equipped with iridium plugs. Neither have I checked or changed the oil on my drone. Where are the dipstick and filler cap?

I fly often enough that I don't have to worry about charging the batteries for purely maintenance reasons. I just charge them, as needed, before each outing. I can hear the fan running sometimes but wouldn't know how to check it otherwise. It's buried somewhere inside the body, no-man's-land for me.

I do check the props before every flight, if only to align them rather than letting centrifugal force do the job. And I'm a stickler for keeping the glass covering over the camera lenses free of dust. That's why I fly, after all. To take photos and video.

So far, so good.