G'day from sunny Coffs Harbour NSW. New flyer seeking local information please.

[nbrettoner]

Hi

Perhaps being overcautious since purchasing my Mavic Air 2, I waited some weeks before actually flying it.
Well last Thursday the first time. I'd run out of excuses, as the home target finally arrived, and I'd spent the past few weeks purchasing some goodies for it.
I live under the 5.5 km airport 'umbrella' here, so needed to find a nice quiet country place to start to learn how to drive this awesome beasty.
Fortunately found a grounds/playing field around 30 minutes away that is perfect for innitial learning phase.
Have registered with CASA and the Air 2 flies beautifully. Never had a playstation so the dual jostick setup is 'all new' to me. But have spent years with flight sims. Hopefully that will help with flight familiarisation etc.

What I have not as yet been able to discover, is a drone club nor local shop?. There is an online register of NSW clubs but the link for Coffs Harbour for me didn't seem to point to any website. But did bring up an email address?.

What experience can people share about National Parks requests for permission to fly for recreation?. Do I need to go to a license to have any chance of obtaining permission?. I have read through the Nat Pks and CASA online stuff, as well as the local council. Also have made sure I understand and know the3 basics; having watched & followed many experienced drone operator videos and regulations etc videos and literature.
But practically, what/where/when/how can I fly within the law, and the various regional body regulations?? ?

 

[Fishman Dan]

Welcome Noel .... sounds like you're in for some fun.

Good first step and it's what I recommend - find a park and some wide open spaces and have a fly around. Don't be tempted to do too much early. Learn take off procedures, and especially learn to use Return to Home (RTH) and build trust in it - it can be daunting to press a button and leave it up to the technology to come back and land, all by itself.

As for clubs, you might need to make your own fun. These day it's hard to find like minds with spare time at the same time! Being in Coffs you have some awesome opportunities to get to the coast and headlands. I'm in Casino 2 hrs up the road, but it was when I flew at Hastings Pt (near Kingscliffe) that I stood beside another drone flyer and chatted as we flew. Funny thing is you can always tell a person with a drone in the air on a headland by the way they stand!

I haven't done it yet, but there is a Remote Pilots License you can do (RePL) run by TAFE NSW. My nearest is Wollongbar, but I would suggest there would be one close to you. I'm not sure that unlocks too much, until then we are all bound by leisure use rules.

Enjoy and look forward to seeing some videos!

 

[nbrettoner]

Welcome Noel .... sounds like you're in for some fun.

Good first step and it's what I recommend - find a park and some wide open spaces and have a fly around. Don't be tempted to do too much early. Learn take off procedures, and especially learn to use Return to Home (RTH) and build trust in it - it can be daunting to press a button and leave it up to the technology to come back and land, all by itself.

As for clubs, you might need to make your own fun. These day it's hard to find like minds with spare time at the same time! Being in Coffs you have some awesome opportunities to get to the coast and headlands. I'm in Casino 2 hrs up the road, but it was when I flew at Hastings Pt (near Kingscliffe) that I stood beside another drone flyer and chatted as we flew. Funny thing is you can always tell a person with a drone in the air on a headland by the way they stand!

I haven't done it yet, but there is a Remote Pilots License you can do (RePL) run by TAFE NSW. My nearest is Wollongbar, but I would suggest there would be one close to you. I'm not sure that unlocks too much, until then we are all bound by leisure use rules.

Enjoy and look forward to seeing some videos!

Hi Fishman Dan,

Thankyou for the great warm welcome
My 'local' headland (overlooking the Boambee Creek) is my nearest. However it too like me is under the 5.5km local airport range.
I need also to check with local SLSC up & down the coast (outside the 5.5km range) if they have a problem with me flying along 'their beaches'.
So far, I've learnt that I needed a screen sunshade for my Samsung Tab A.
Am having problems with glitchy video when viewing the drone camera. Do I need good wifi in the area??. I thought that that was not necessary.
Could it be that the dji flymore app (android) is using VLC video viewer?. At home I don't have this problem. But I'm not allowed to fly it here!.
The actual video recorded on the chip is fine.
However, I'm discovering that the videos I try to look at on the Tab A are of a format that's unviewable??.
I thought I had it set up to save the recorded videos to the Tab A, but apparently they are some kind of 'virtual' quick-look file???.

Again, thanks for the warm welcome

 

[Fishman Dan]

You will need to travel up or down the coast a bit to get outside the airport zone. I'm lucky in Casino that it's not a radio controlled airport as such, which gives us a little more freedom (same with Evans Head/Airforce Beach). I'm not sure about having to check in with Life Guards, but they probably just want to know you're not going to terrorise the locals.

As far as video feedback goes I've only ever lost live video when I went up and over a hill on our farm. The signal is pretty resilient, the drone was only about 600m but it was over a ridge. What can be good from this is what happens next - you can set the drone to RTH when things aren't right. In this mission I had waypoints - it completed them and RTH'ed as expected a few minutes later - thankfully!

What that taught me was to concentrate on the controller display, where you can see the video signal is low, but the controller connection to the aircraft was still pretty high.

Bottom line is - it is what it is. RF comms is far more efficient and far reaching than WiFi. As long as the footage is being directly recorded onto the memory card in the device, then you should be able to copy and play-back in virtually any media player.

Next step is to get into some basic video editing

 

[nbrettoner]

You will need to travel up or down the coast a bit to get outside the airport zone. I'm lucky in Casino that it's not a radio controlled airport as such, which gives us a little more freedom (same with Evans Head/Airforce Beach). I'm not sure about having to check in with Life Guards, but they probably just want to know you're not going to terrorise the locals.

As far as video feedback goes I've only ever lost live video when I went up and over a hill on our farm. The signal is pretty resilient, the drone was only about 600m but it was over a ridge. What can be good from this is what happens next - you can set the drone to RTH when things aren't right. In this mission I had waypoints - it completed them and RTH'ed as expected a few minutes later - thankfully!

What that taught me was to concentrate on the controller display, where you can see the video signal is low, but the controller connection to the aircraft was still pretty high.

Bottom line is - it is what it is. RF comms is far more efficient and far reaching than WiFi. As long as the footage is being directly recorded onto the memory card in the device, then you should be able to copy and play-back in virtually any media player.

Next step is to get into some basic video editing

Thanks Fisherman Dan,

I appreciate your good advice, and it's encouraging. My immediate concern with the video link for the drone to the controller is that it has glitches and sometimes a bit of a catch-up delay problem. But as you say the actual video recorded on the card is fine. Perhaps it's trying to teach me to look at the lights on the drone's arms; to work out it's orientation!. I guess in time I'll be able to work out the drone's directional orientation by which direction and how it moves. ie left or right, and which stick I've moved and how. Also is it moving closer or further away.

 

[Fishman Dan]

Perhaps it's trying to teach me to look at the lights on the drone's arms; to work out it's orientation!. I guess in time I'll be able to work out the drone's directional orientation by which direction and how it moves. ie left or right, and which stick I've moved and how. Also is it moving closer or further away.

That's something that takes time - I still muck that up

It's as much about muscle memory, and I still move the wrong stick quite often! I also accidentally fumble with one of the triggers/rollers underneath that changes the Exposure Brightness (EV) from time to time. The more you fly, the less this happens, but at the end of the day the final product is what you record, and you can edit out all the wrong manoeuvres in the final cut!

 

[kenno47]

Hello I’m also Coffs Harbour. Now a week old with Mavic Air 2 saying hello

 

[nbrettoner]

Hi kenno47,
Welcome
Make sure to go to the CASA website/s and check out anything there on drone stuff. They have basic skills/requirements for flying drones safely. Also, check out National Parks & local councils for their policies on drone use. They can be quite strict/limiting, but if you do things right, there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Glad you found this forum
Also, I have earmarked several experienced drone operators on youtube. 51 Drones is good. But heaps more as well.
Take care and fly safe.

 

[Thomas B]

Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.

 

[jentb0y]

Hello I’m also Coffs Harbour. Now a week old with Mavic Air 2 saying hello

G'day kenno47 & nbrettoner

I will be visting the MIL in Urunga over Christmas and will be playing with the new Mini2 during the break, just wondering if you had any experience with Bellingen Shire Council and their drone rules? I couldnt see anything on their local council pages RE: Drone usage and sent them an email.
I will be abiding by all CASA regulations but just wondering if you have any recent experiences or gotchya's might be worth considering.
Planning on some nice sunrise footage off Hungry Head....

 

[SkyeHigh]

G'day kenno47 & nbrettoner

I will be visting the MIL in Urunga over Christmas and will be playing with the new Mini2 during the break, just wondering if you had any experience with Bellingen Shire Council and their drone rules? I couldnt see anything on their local council pages RE: Drone usage and sent them an email.
I will be abiding by all CASA regulations but just wondering if you have any recent experiences or gotchya's might be worth considering.
Planning on some nice sunrise footage off Hungry Head....

Many of the NSW councils have signs saying no model aircraft. I pointed out to someone who raised this with me at our local park that the drone is an ‘aircraft’ not a model and it is regulated by CASA. The response was ‘oh, I wasn’t aware of that, I thought they were more like toys. Do you mind if I have a closer look?’

Just waiting for the council to change their signage.