First Flight

Rchawks · Feb 4, 2020

Sunday I finally got to fly outside for the first time in a month. I can't believe how paranoid I've become worrying about it flying off. Sixty deg weather and zero wind and I spent I don't know how much time driving around trying to find, I don't know a 40 acrea empty field with no trees or power lines.. Until I gave up came back home and fired it up in not 100 ft where I live. How embarrassing is that? In all fairness I was worried about the RTH feature which I didn't use. I kept it VLOS the whole time and was surprised how much looking down and then back up tends to throw you off, quite a skill and one I'm not used to.
It's easy to see how flying very high and far away depending only on instruments and viewing the screen really is a learned skill and one that easily rivals Radio Control with nerve. My hat off to you Drone Flyers. I now understand how much patience and practice this will take.

pelagic_one · Feb 4, 2020

Good on you, for just getting out there and flying! As a lifelong RC fixed wing flyer, and a sworn-off RC helicopter hobbyist, the Mini is a dream to fly. Just don’t do what I’ve done by pulling back on the left stick to climb.

Enjoy the innocent fun that comes packaged with the Mini. Your skills will improve with every flight.

Did you enjoy the Super Bowl at all, given your location?

Rchawks · Feb 5, 2020

That's all everyone is talking about since we have the training camp here. Quite a game near the end!

Wild Wayne · Feb 5, 2020

Nice! Two victories in one day... Just fly the Mini!

markp99 · Feb 6, 2020

Cold and windy here since forever. My last trip out I found a decent open area, minimal obstacles, winds were reasonable, with a bit of a gust. Same as you, I find looking up, then down and back up can be disorienting, stopping me in my tracks.

I decided my objective for the day was low and slow using JUST the display, and to get more comfortable with the controls in general.

The session was largely a success. I managed to steer around the various obstacles (trees, fences, etc.) doing laps around the frozen pond using just the display. I was gaining good confidence until I decided to back-up just a bit to get a better view of the pond to do a sideways flyby and ran into some small tree branches - MM fell like a rock, but was only 20ft off the ground, no harm done.

Only problem, I had no real clue where the drone had crashed as I was looking ONLY at the screen. I had a rough idea as I was flying around the perimeter of the pond. "Find my Drone" pointed me in the right direction, but needed the beeping to find the drone in the soft pile of leaves where it had landed. Was about 200-300 yards away from my position. Fingers were frozen, packed up the MM and returned home.

So, good practice, and a soft lesson. Don't back up if you don't first know what's behind you!

Hoping for more warm, calm days (as it snows/sleets/rains outside at the moment).

Vapor069 · Feb 6, 2020

Rchawks said:
Sunday I finally got to fly outside for the first time in a month. I can't believe how paranoid I've become worrying about it flying off. Sixty deg weather and zero wind and I spent I don't know how much time driving around trying to find, I don't know a 40 acrea empty field with no trees or power lines.. Until I gave up came back home and fired it up in not 100 ft where I live. How embarrassing is that? In all fairness I was worried about the RTH feature which I didn't use. I kept it VLOS the whole time and was surprised how much looking down and then back up tends to throw you off, quite a skill and one I'm not used to.
It's easy to see how flying very high and far away depending only on instruments and viewing the screen really is a learned skill and one that easily rivals Radio Control with nerve. My hat off to you Drone Flyers. I now understand how much patience and practice this will take.

It'll one day suddenly click in your brain, and you'll fly effortlessly. My suggestion would be to start off in "Cinematic" mode and maybe the prop guards until you get the feel for it. It really is an incredibly easy drone to fly, download the UAV Forecast app, and keep an eye on wind conditions.