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MM nose pitch-up when slowing or stopping

Nonprophet

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Total newbie here, less than 6 hours flight time total. As I build more confidence I'm trying new things like flying circles, figure 8's, etc. I noticed from the beginning that when stopping or slowing down the mini, it tends to point the nose up briefly and jerk a bit before sttling in and hovering steady. I have been assuming this is normal behavior and probably due to my (lack of) piloting skills. This evening I flew mostly in C mode for more control and slower speeds, and worked on slowing it down without the nose-up pitch. While I was getting better, there's still a jerk upwards. So, it this normal, will it get better as I get better at flying, and/or do people not worry about this brief pitch-up and just edit it out in post?

Thanks!
 
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Totally normal behavior. The gimbal is obviously not affected by the pitching and your pictures will remain smooth. In C mode the slower speeds lessen the pitch. Pretty much similar to slamming on brakes at a high speed. That's all. Enjoy , experiment and fly safe.
 
That’s the way for the drone to quickly reduce its speed
 
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The drone pitches up/down/left/right to start and stop moving. When in a hover the props push air straight down. To get moving forward the nose of the drone has to dip down, so that the props can push air down and a bit backwards too. Once moving the drone keeps moving for a while (like sliding on ice) so to stop quicker it pitches its nose up briefly so the props push air down and forward. Exactly the same thing helicopters do.
 
Not all drones have such a strong braking effect (and on some you can set how strong it is), but the Mini is meant to be easy to fly - new pilots usually expect it to stop quickly when you let go of the sticks, so it has to tilt in the opposite direction to the one it was going in order to stop. The cheap non-gps type drones tend to have very light braking, so will carry on moving a bit once you let go of the sticks.

Practice slowing gently and you'll find you can reduce the tendency to kick sharply as it doesn't need to apply so much pitch to come to a stop.
 
As others have said, don't worry about the kick the drone does to stop showing up in your videos as the gimbal kicks in the opposite direction to eliminate this - you'll not see it at all in any video.

Note, if you're pointing the camera straight down and videoing, try to avoid S mode, and probably P mode too. There IS a quirk with the Mini in that the gimbal can't quite kick far enough in the opposite direction to eliminate the drone movement, and hence ends up looking down at about 70-80deg instead of straight down at 90 deg. You'll see this happen if you do the following:
  • point the camera straight down
  • fly full speed forwards in S mode (or backward)
  • stop
  • camera will jump back to about 70-80deg downward instead of 90 deg
It doesn't jump like this in C mode, and with careful flying in P mode the jump is minimal or non existent.

The same issue can occur if you point the camera straight ahead or up and fly in S mode (you may need to enable upward gimbal rotation in the app menu to look upwards).

See this thread, partuicularly post #11 for more detail
 
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when you reduce power the drone has to increase pitch or guess what it would do...absolutely correct! it would descend.
 
? bit confused by your response @hiflyer201 What does "reduce power" mean? Stop asking it to go forward? Why would it descend? Unless that's what you mean by reducing power?

The drone decides what pitch and power it needs based on what the wind is doing to it, and your requests to it via the remote control. The person "controlling" the drone is essentially issuing commands to the drone to move forward/upward/rotate left/stop etc etc. The drone decides itself how to implement the requested moves, whether that be by increasing or decreasing power, changing pitch or powering some props more than others. If you've ever flown an acrobatic RC helicopter you'd know just how little you're doing, and how much the drone is doing to stay stable in the air and fly around smoothly.
 
Normally ask the drone to increase or decrease altitude via the left stick. Or, alternatively tap the launch/land button on the app screen.

Remember this post is about the drone pitching its nose up to brake at the end of forward flight.
 
you know..after giving it a lot of thought..and being just a dumb fixed wing pilot..I don't know why the heck it does that..braking I guess..
I have my braking dialed way down for smoothness...could be "PFM"....pure magic...i forgot what the F stands for
 
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Ahh yes, now I get where you're coming from. Drones are much more akin to helicopters than fixed wing aircraft in how they fly and are controlled. Pitching the nose up slows down the forward speed rather than gain altitude. I guess you have a better specced drone than a mini? The amount of braking is fixed on the mavic mini.
 
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Today's drones, with multiple GPS satellites are normally programmed to hover - stay in place until commanded via control sticks to move up/down left/right forward/backward. When you release the control sticks, the aircraft counters its forward/backward momentum by tilting/braking to stay right there until told otherwise. This is normal. If not programmed this way, the drone would continue to "coast" forward or backward, or sideways or whatever, instead of maintaining position.
 
you know..after giving it a lot of thought..and being just a dumb fixed wing pilot..I don't know why the heck it does that..braking I guess..
I have my braking dialed way down for smoothness...could be "PFM"....pure magic...i forgot what the F stands for
The difference between cyclic & collective.
 
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