Is it normal to be afraid?

[LarryD]

I am brand new to this remote control stuff so I do have very little confidence in my abilities.
Is it normal for brand new Droners to be afraid of sending the drone high or far from the take off point.
For some reason I am afraid that something will go wrong and then good bye drone, plus it would kill me if I accidentally hurt someone with an out of control drone.
I do hope I will get over this fear.
Highest flight was 100 ft
Longest distance is about 150 yards...

 

[aokusman]

I am brand new to this remote control stuff so I do have very little confidence in my abilities.
Is it normal for brand new Droners to be afraid of sending the drone high or far from the take off point.
For some reason I am afraid that something will go wrong and then good bye drone, plus it would kill me if I accidentally hurt someone with an out of control drone.
I do hope I will get over this fear.
Highest flight was 100 ft
Longest distance is about 150 yards...

Yes it’s normal. I started with 100ft away max distance in an open space. As I got used to the controls and other features I started going higher and further. I learned about wind direction, temperature and other things that can affect a smooth flight.

 

[UAVNV]

start in beginner mode, study the manual so you will have an understanding of what can happen and what you can do to counter act
it

 

[Former Member]

Your fears can be allayed by having a good backup plan such as DJI Refresh or a drone damage insurance policy. Also, if you worry about hurting someone or something, get yourself a good liability insurance policy, or a rider on to your homeowners or renters insurance.

 

[useitorloseit]

Hey welcome to the hobby, just food for thought drones are more capable of stable flight than we can ever be so just know if anything goes wrong stop, let go of sticks allow it to stabilize and you always have return to home,. Don't let your fear over whelm you, just be safe always check the wind and conditions and have fun. Again welcome you will have a lot of fun

 

[Prospero]

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

(Sorry. Could not resist)

 

[PT_Mavic]

Yep, normal in my experience. Just push yourself a *little* bit out of your comfort zone every couple of flights or so. Don't do things that make you so nervous you're not paying attention and are relaxed enough to deal with situations, just push beyond what you're comfortable with by a little bit. Get used to that, rinse and repeat.

Maybe someday you'll be posting your video that outflies that 8,200 foot-high Mavic flight. Yes, there's a YouTube video.

 

[neggy]

Beginner mode is installed for a reason. Once you have mastered the controls and are comfortable, try Tripod mode. It will give you a longer leash, but the inputs do not react as fast.

I understand that you are risk adverse... you have a thousand dollar plus toy , that can get away from you, resulting in damage or loss of the aircraft.

I am a year into this thing, and I still am super cautious.

 

[Boob8282]

I was the exact same way. After a few flights it will get boring flying so close to take off point. At least for me that's how it was.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

Yes it is normal, I have a lot of hours under my belt and I still get butterflies when flying my Inspire Pro.

 

[PT_Mavic]

Suggestion: until you feel brave enough to let your Mavic take wing, toss it around the local track a bit.

Keep it very close-in, a dozen yards or so, and learn to manually fly it in circles, fly in circles with the camera aimed at the centerpoint (in other words, yaw it while flying in a circle) and doing figure-8s. Get used to flying it as it's pointing towards you as well as away, when the controls are reversed.

My biggest early scare came when mine was pretty close by (100 yards or so, 250 feet up) and for some unknown reason it lost GPS lock, yelled "ATTI mode!" at me and just took off like a bat out of Hades off-course all on its own. Darn near pooped myself, but now that I have a handle on ATTI mode I know it was holding altitude but couldn't keep position and so was being blown away by the wind. Once GPS returned in about 10 seconds it stopped dead still and I flew it home with a racing heartbeat.

No damage done, but I learned a bit and got motivated to learn better manual flying to recover from situations. I modded my Mavic so that the P/S switch no longer switches to Sport mode, it switches to ATTI mode, so I can enable that at anytime and fly it manually, compensating for position but having the backup of its holding altitude pretty well to assist me. That's very much like any other non-GPS drone with a pressure sensor for altitude hold.

Just push outside your comfort zone a little bit at a time and you'll relax more about it. Don't ever get too relaxed or even cocky about it, though; my flight instructor long ago trained that out of my skull.

 

[Canuk]

Flying out away from any people will help your nerves . You won’t be looking around for people that could come into harm . If your by yourself you can work on flying . Practice doing squares and figure 8’s . Then do circles around your self keeping you in the middle of your live viewing screen .

 

[Tone]

Buy yourself a cheap small drone to practice with - something without gps and you can fly/practice indoors. It will be harder to fly than the Mavic, give you good stick time and won't matter so much if you come unstuck
I've been flying since 2014 and still get nervous every flight. It's often a massive rush when you land safely after catching a great shot!

 

[Cuervo]

It was 3 months after opening the box before I even flew.
The fear factor was real, pulse rate, respiration all shooting up, my first low battery alarm set at 30% caused a near panic attack.
Gradually, flight by flight I began to trust the machine and train myself to stay calm and read all the flight data in a measured and habitual manner.
This week I flew it approximately 2 miles away from a mountain ridge, out over inaccessible canyons and mountainous terrain getting a look at last summers forest fire. The ritual and routine I've developed made it seem very matter of fact, I was more freaked out by the tick that dropped down out of the pine tree I was shaded under and latched onto my neck. Just finished up a 3 week stint of antibiotics after the last one that bit me, didn't feel like going through THAT again.

 

[j.r.r.]

Buy yourself a cheap small drone to practice with - something without gps and you can fly/practice indoors. It will be harder to fly than the Mavic, give you good stick time and won't matter so much if you come unstuck
I've been flying since 2014 and still get nervous every flight. It's often a massive rush when you land safely after catching a great shot!

I think this is a very good advice. I bought this little monster for the training purposes:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074FRYYDM/ref=pe_3034960_233709270_TE_item
The drone is smaller than MP but RC is very close size wise to one we use with MP RC. Sorry but cannot write more about this drone since I still waiting for the delivery

 

[macoman]

Like everyone said, first few flying for someone that never had a RC aircraft will be for sure a scary and learning experience. But once you confidence increased, been afraid will disappear. Them soon you will be taking the drone a mile, two miles and so on.

 

[Rick0504N]

I only have 10 flights under my belt, but cannot believe how much different I feel now vs those first couple of flights. It went from fear to fun. I love my MPP and cannot wait to fly it.

 

[SpitFire]

I am brand new to this remote control stuff so I do have very little confidence in my abilities.
Is it normal for brand new Droners to be afraid of sending the drone high or far from the take off point.
For some reason I am afraid that something will go wrong and then good bye drone, plus it would kill me if I accidentally hurt someone with an out of control drone.
I do hope I will get over this fear.
Highest flight was 100 ft
Longest distance is about 150 yards...

Welcome from Chicago, Apply all the suggestions made here on this Forum and you will
do fine. Having respect for your bird is healthy, this forum will help you build confidence
in your self. You can get a lot of info by clicking on Mavic Help, then Click on Mavic Tips
has a topics that cover most of anything that you may encounter. Blue Skies and Safe
Flying.

 

[WAXMAN]

I am brand new to this remote control stuff so I do have very little confidence in my abilities.
Is it normal for brand new Droners to be afraid of sending the drone high or far from the take off point.
For some reason I am afraid that something will go wrong and then good bye drone, plus it would kill me if I accidentally hurt someone with an out of control drone.
I do hope I will get over this fear.
Highest flight was 100 ft
Longest distance is about 150 yards...

I feel the same way. I think it comes with age. When I was younger I wouldn't think about it at all. At 74yrs I think about it all the time... Maybe it's better to be more cautious. Chuck.

 

[Fightfires]

I am brand new to this remote control stuff so I do have very little confidence in my abilities.
Is it normal for brand new Droners to be afraid of sending the drone high or far from the take off point.
For some reason I am afraid that something will go wrong and then good bye drone, plus it would kill me if I accidentally hurt someone with an out of control drone.
I do hope I will get over this fear.
Highest flight was 100 ft
Longest distance is about 150 yards...

Yes for sure! Spend some time in open areas like soccer fields etc and get to know your controller and drone. Practice what you would do if you lost sight of the drone or it loses communication with the RC. Press the return to home button and let it land on its own, cancel it and land yourself etc. Your confidence will only go up when your knowledge of the equipment increases, and that will come by putting in the time. Trust your drone, its not going to fall out of the sky and hurt anyone. Follow all the FAA and local rules and have FUN!