twoheadlines
Well-Known Member
Like many others, YouTube seemed to be the place to at least start. Before purchasing my first UAV (Inspire 1) I was "lucky enough" to have a full hands-on demo from a sales rep, which was certainly more than enough to get me hooked. Turned out though the demo' flying probably broke just about every rule in the book - at least the CAA's book anyway, but that is another story!
Where I live more than 60% of all the land is incorporated into one of several different national parks, which is great for the tourists who carry around their DSLR camera or cell phone to snap away at the things they can see, but almost impossible for the prosumer UAV owner who wants to do something a bit different in terms of photography, without meeting restrictive conditions, paying some pretty hefty fees and carrying insurance which seems to command eye watering rates.
My thinking is that often the best way to beat "City Hall" is to play the game their way, so I went through the process of watching hours of DJI related tutorials on YouTube before actually purchasing online packages related to both flying a UAV and aerial photography. Again, sort of working by the book, I planned a specific self-learning program covering about 30 hours total of incremental flying skills, which I do not want to claim has made me an expert UAV pilot, but which has certainly given me the confidence to better understand when it is okay to fly safely, and how to perform manoeuvres like a "tactical" type landing if the UAV develops a problem or some feathered UAV wants to get into a dog fight with my "bird" - the outcome of which would probably end badly for bird and machine. Oh! Occasionally I also hoped I could learn to take some fairly acceptable photos.
That's the way I have learnt to fly; it's what works for me. I do have some admiration though for those would be pilots who seem to possess enough confidence in the own abilities to "push the stick forward" and take off, literally out of the box.
I do wonder how many have crashed and burned adopting this method of "flying lessons" !!
Where I live more than 60% of all the land is incorporated into one of several different national parks, which is great for the tourists who carry around their DSLR camera or cell phone to snap away at the things they can see, but almost impossible for the prosumer UAV owner who wants to do something a bit different in terms of photography, without meeting restrictive conditions, paying some pretty hefty fees and carrying insurance which seems to command eye watering rates.
My thinking is that often the best way to beat "City Hall" is to play the game their way, so I went through the process of watching hours of DJI related tutorials on YouTube before actually purchasing online packages related to both flying a UAV and aerial photography. Again, sort of working by the book, I planned a specific self-learning program covering about 30 hours total of incremental flying skills, which I do not want to claim has made me an expert UAV pilot, but which has certainly given me the confidence to better understand when it is okay to fly safely, and how to perform manoeuvres like a "tactical" type landing if the UAV develops a problem or some feathered UAV wants to get into a dog fight with my "bird" - the outcome of which would probably end badly for bird and machine. Oh! Occasionally I also hoped I could learn to take some fairly acceptable photos.
That's the way I have learnt to fly; it's what works for me. I do have some admiration though for those would be pilots who seem to possess enough confidence in the own abilities to "push the stick forward" and take off, literally out of the box.
I do wonder how many have crashed and burned adopting this method of "flying lessons" !!
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