Mini 2 Crash - New Pilot - Unsure of Cause

[MS Coast]

As BigAl07 has already pointed out in post #22 and was acknowledged in post #32.

Sorry to be redundant. I was away from the discussion for a day and was responding to an alert about your response in #12. I didn't go through each of the subsequent posts.

 

[Chaosrider]

You are right, if course. For some reason, I was just having issues seeing that drone yesterday and VLOS is very important to me.

Put an Arc strobe on it's butt! (back of the battery cover).

With that, you can see it a long way away, even mixed in with ground clutter.

And with a strobe on the butt, you can easily determine the orientation. Just let it idle where it is, and rotate it 360º. When the strobe is brightest, it's pointing directly away from you.

Strobes are particularly useful for reacquiring VLOS, if you do happen to lose sight of it.

Try it...you'll like it!



MM

 

[Chaosrider]

If the drone is pointing at you and you have not yet obtained that "mystical" mindset where you're always thinking FROM the drone's perspective, forward and backward are indeed reversed just as much as left & right are.

At this point I always feel like I'm riding the drone! Or if I'm in an SF mood, I feel like I am the drone.

It did indeed make reverse controlling vastly easier.

Thx,

MM

 

[Chaosrider]

@BigAl0 A you are spot on - that was my issue! I would love some training exercises - anything that helps would be perfect. I think part of the issue may also be that I was hit by a car while walking a year ago and had a brain bleed, causing a TBI. I'm getting better, but still have lingering issues, so any help would be most welcome - thank you!

Check at Pilot Institute. They have a lot of excellent training material, and a lot of it is free.

MM

 

[Chaosrider]

Thank you for the suggestions! I definitely need to fly more! I've watched those videos abd will watch them again...I'll take a look at that cheapie drone abd fly it inside - good idea!

I've had crummy weather for a while now, and it's likely to continue the better part of the next week.

So over the last couple of days, I've been flying the little Snaptain H823H, inside. The first flight was all conventional, with the nose pointing away from me. Then I flew around with the nose facing left of me, and the next flight with the nose facing toward me.

It's easy to get rusty on the "being the drone" perspective when you don't fly for a while. The little H823H is great for scrubby off some of that rust in a relatively risk-free manner. And you can fly it inside when the weather is awful. Or you can fly it when your Mini-2 is in the Drone Hospital...

And at 23 bucks on Amazon for the H823H...how far wrong can you go?



MM

 

[Chaosrider]

For VLOS, you need to have the drone in range where it can be seen by the pilot in command with the unaided eye (no binoculars). If you look away (like at your display), that's OK as long as you can easily locate the drone VLOS again when you look up.

Exactly so.

If the drone is more than 100 ft away from you, and you're flying anywhere other than a featureless flatland, I'd argue that safety is seriously degraded if you don't look at the screen.

Here's a vid of me flying my Mini-2 through a tunnel in the trees, from my rear flight deck:

21-07-XX2Northwest Passage -- Success!.mp4

drive.google.com

My first attempt, prior to this success, did not end well for the drone, but I learned...

This is a case where if you're not both looking at the drone with your eyes, and looking at what the drone sees through the camera, your chances of success will be small.

Note that I move a little bit, and then stop to re-assess. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Incrementalism is your friend!



MM

 

[Chaosrider]

Thank you! I think I need to fly more and get used to looking at the drone and then at the screen. I do let it hover when I'm making changes to the camera or video settings, but sometimes I lose track of the drone and can't see it - that happened several times yesterday and the day before...

Strobes are your friend...

MM

 

[tekgirl02]

I've had crummy weather for a while now, and it's likely to continue the better part of the next week.

So over the last couple of days, I've been flying the little Snaptain H823H, inside. The first flight was all conventional, with the nose pointing away from me. Then I flew around with the nose facing left of me, and the next flight with the nose facing toward me.

It's easy to get rusty on the "being the drone" perspective when you don't fly for a while. The little H823H is great for scrubby off some of that rust in a relatively risk-free manner. And you can fly it inside when the weather is awful. Or you can fly it when your Mini-2 is in the Drone Hospital...

And at 23 bucks on Amazon for the H823H...how far wrong can you go?



MM

Thank you! It was delivered yesterday

 

[tekgirl02]

Strobes are your friend...

MM

Yep - plan on getting them

 

[Chaosrider]

Thank you! It was delivered yesterday

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!



MM

 

[jackfd53]

Hi...newbie here also...thanks for sharing this.

I'm also curious where did that graph come from that was posted on page 1?

Thanks!

 

[slup]

...curious where did that graph come from that was posted on page 1?

It's the mobile device stored .TXT flight log, uploaded to Phantomhelp.com ... where their .CSV conversion is downloaded. Then the .CSV is opened in the free computer program CsvView which you can download here --> CsvView Downloads

In that program the most interesting data is compiled freely among what's available in the .CSV file.

 

[jackfd53]

It's the mobile device stored .TXT flight log, uploaded to Phantomhelp.com ... where their .CSV conversion is downloaded. Then the .CSV is opened in the free computer program CsvView which you can download here --> CsvView Downloads

In that program the most interesting data is compiled freely among what's available in the .CSV file.

Thank you very much!

 

[Hermey]

Yes but the mini 2 is so small, that even though I maintain a VLOS, sometimes I can't tell what direction it is facing. And yes, I am learning to fly in both directions, but it is only my 4th flight, so mistakes will be made. I just need to choose a better location with no trees close by.

Your experience in this situation brings up a related issue, which is, the strategies we use in deciding where to fly....eg assess the area, decide if it's suitable for flying, and decide on a flight plan.

Thoughts: .
There different styles of videography that one can use, which may correlate to different flight plans. A popular style is to put the drone high up, above all objects in the landscape, and in some ways this is safest as it minimizes the potential for striking objects in flight. On the down side, the higher you go, the more wind speed can increase, so what seems like a light breeze at ground level, could develop into stronger winds that pose concern at over 100 ft or 200 ft.

Also, being high up all the time provides just one video style. I've noticed that my preference in videography is to be a bit lower, because I like the feeling of motion that is given when I'm passing over or next to the landscape or objects, as well as the greater feeling of intimacy when not too far from the land or trees, etc.

That said, when flying lower, piloting the drone can become more challenging, particularly in topography that isn't entirely flat. It is challenging enough to think 3-dimensionally, but then when you're on hilly landscape or where there are trees or other obstacles, piloting around these takes a lot of thought.

When planning my flight, I consider how I'm going to stay safe and stay at an appropriate elevation and away from obstacles, throughout the whole flight. I try to stay well away from trees unless I am quite close to the drone and able to observe it in 3D space relative to the tree. In particular, unless I'm flying high enough to be over all possible obstacles, I look for "open channels" of space in which to fly, which may have "barriers" on 2 to 4 sides, eg, hills, trees or structures. My preference is for a "valley" or channel type of situation where there are barriers on no more than 3 sides. I fly the drone in the direction that has no "wall" at the end of the channel, because as the drone gets further from me, I can't visually see how far it would be from a "wall" that it is approaching, whether that be a hill or a group of trees.

Keeping a small drone in VLOS can be challenging, even if the drone isn't far away. I've had the drone be just 200 feet away or even less, and lost sight of it because there were trees in the background. Overall, I prefer to do a sequence of shorter distance flights, rather than one long flight which puts the drone further away from me.

I also look for areas to fly which have enough that is visually distinct about the different directions or sides of the channel in which the drone is flying, that I can tell from looking at the drone's eye view, which way it is facing, eg which way the nose points. IF 2 sides both have a forest that looks pretty much the same, this can get confusing, though the confusion can be remedied by looking at the map, as others have said.
Pilot Institute and Jeven Dovey are 2 YouTubers who have several practice exercises for beginner pilots. I recommend doing those exercises, also learning to fly the drone home via the map view.

 

[tekgirl02]

Your experience in this situation brings up a related issue, which is, the strategies we use in deciding where to fly....eg assess the area, decide if it's suitable for flying, and decide on a flight plan.

Thoughts: .
There different styles of videography that one can use, which may correlate to different flight plans. A popular style is to put the drone high up, above all objects in the landscape, and in some ways this is safest as it minimizes the potential for striking objects in flight. On the down side, the higher you go, the more wind speed can increase, so what seems like a light breeze at ground level, could develop into stronger winds that pose concern at over 100 ft or 200 ft.

Also, being high up all the time provides just one video style. I've noticed that my preference in videography is to be a bit lower, because I like the feeling of motion that is given when I'm passing over or next to the landscape or objects, as well as the greater feeling of intimacy when not too far from the land or trees, etc.

That said, when flying lower, piloting the drone can become more challenging, particularly in topography that isn't entirely flat. It is challenging enough to think 3-dimensionally, but then when you're on hilly landscape or where there are trees or other obstacles, piloting around these takes a lot of thought.

When planning my flight, I consider how I'm going to stay safe and stay at an appropriate elevation and away from obstacles, throughout the whole flight. I try to stay well away from trees unless I am quite close to the drone and able to observe it in 3D space relative to the tree. In particular, unless I'm flying high enough to be over all possible obstacles, I look for "open channels" of space in which to fly, which may have "barriers" on 2 to 4 sides, eg, hills, trees or structures. My preference is for a "valley" or channel type of situation where there are barriers on no more than 3 sides. I fly the drone in the direction that has no "wall" at the end of the channel, because as the drone gets further from me, I can't visually see how far it would be from a "wall" that it is approaching, whether that be a hill or a group of trees.

Keeping a small drone in VLOS can be challenging, even if the drone isn't far away. I've had the drone be just 200 feet away and lost sight of it because there were trees in the background. Overall, I prefer to do a sequence of shorter distance flights, rather than one long flight which puts the drone further away from me.

I also look for areas to fly which have enough that is visually distinct about the different directions or sides of the channel in which the drone is flying, that I can tell from looking at the drone's eye view, which way it is facing, eg which way the nose points. IF 2 sides both have a forest that looks pretty much the same, this can get confusing, though the confusion can be remedied by looking at the map, as others have said.
Pilot Institute and Jeven Dovey are 2 YouTubers who have several practice exercises for beginner pilots. I recommend doing those exercises, also learning to fly the drone home via the map view.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply - I really appreciate it! You raise very good points and I'll keep them in mind! I do watch both of the YouTubers you mention and @BigAl07 has really helped me with some exercises.

I am beginning to see what my issues are and need to just practice until some things are second nature...a little over a year ago, I was hit by a car while walking ( crossing the street in a crosswalk no less) and suffered a broken back and brain bleed, resulting in permanent brain injury. I'm hoping with practice and repetitive exercises, I will be able to fly with more confidence....

 

[Jess--]

I found that messing around with RC cars (stick controls not wheel & trigger) years ago cured me of the problems with nose in / out control simply because around half of the time the car is coming towards you so you either reach the point where you switch without even thinking about it or you crash (a lot).

That stood me in good stead when I switched to RC planes where I struggled early on with inverted nose in flight, I was eventually able to stand on top of a canal bridge and pull of a full throttle (35-40mph) inverted flight under the bridge do a half loop and fly back under the right way up.

After planes Drones felt fairly straight forward only adding in forward / backwards compared with always forward with planes.