My mavic arrived today please help

[laura schlenker]

I'm so excited, but so scared.. please tell me anything and everything you've learned that I should do nor do not do.. this is my first drone and some of the issues I've been reading about have made me nervous. So I'm all ears!! Thanks

 

[msinger]

Start by reading the Mavic manual (it does not come in the box). You can download it from the Mavic downloads page. I have a bunch of useful information to help you get started at MavicHelp.com too.

 

[No1much]

If you're really nervous, you can get a $30 or $40 "practice" toy quad that'll help keep your skills sharp if you're nervous before flying, but whichever way you go, reading helps.

Most important things, in no particular order:
Have a pre-flight checklist and post-flight checklist to help you get good habits established in caring for the quad.
Take it slow, barely move the sticks and practice in the most open place you can comfortably find at first- don't try anything fancy at first.
Quadcopter Beginner Guide/Links - Drone Flyers was a decent place to go.

I'll share this article too- that really, really helped me learn to fly with a cheap toy quad, but which applies for all quads in my opinion. It walks through terminology and some practic exercises for beginners:
How to Fly a Quadcopter - The Ultimate Guide | UAV Coach

Hopefully some of this helps. I really like the UAV Coach guy's lessons.
Still practicing that figure-eight to this day, but everything else helped me gain comfort with flying.

 

[Christopher G. Hughes]

Start by reading the Mavic manual (it does not come in the box). You can download it from the Mavic downloads page. I have a bunch of useful information to help you get started at MavicHelp.com too.

Well, this is good to know. I downloaded the PDF manual a few days ago but was kind of ignoring it on the assumption that the Mavic would come with a printed version. Now that I know the PDF is the manual I'll dive into it now...

 

[Drone Master]

Here's a little something for you to get started as well.
Free Drone courses.
How To Fly A Quadcopter Drone - A Complete Course (With Video)

 

[Christopher G. Hughes]

Here's a little something for you to get started as well.
Free Drone courses.
How To Fly A Quadcopter Drone - A Complete Course (With Video)

These are good. I've checked them out before.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

In the beginning, always fly with the nose pointed away from you. That way, your Mavic will always react exactly like you move your stick inputs. As you get more confident, you can begin to turn it towards you, in an open area, of course. Never fly "nose in" in a confined area until you are very confident and competent.

You're in for a lot of fun. Don't fly over people. Be safe, relax and enjoy.

 

[FPVJunkie]

I would say choose your maiden flight area wisely. Find a large open area and as others have said, learn to fly via LOS first (probably several packs). Flying LOS means not looking down at the video, but more at the actual aircraft and seeing how it responds to your control inputs. Make smooth, small movements to the sticks. I would even say put it in tripod mode so the aircraft movement is limited. Once you get a solid feeling about LOS, the rest will come naturally.

Definitely read the manual and watch as many videos as you can find. Know exactly what each message on both screens mean, light indicators on the Mavic, and what to do if something happens.

HAVE FUN and post lots of pictures/videos so we can all be jealous of you.

 

[Christopher G. Hughes]

In the beginning, always fly with.the nose pointed away from.you. That way your Mavic will always react exactly like your stick inputs. As you get more.confident, you can begin to turn it towards you, in an open area, of course. Never fly "nose in" in a confined area until you are very confident and competent.
You're in for a lot of fun. Dont fly over people. Be safe, relax and enjoy.

This is where playing with a little toy quad is helpful. I have several. A Blade Nano QX 3D, a UDI U27 Free Loop and a Hubsan X4 H107l. They're all great fliers and can take a fair amount of crashing with minimal damage. When I first started playing with RC copters I spent a fair amount of time learning to 1) fly with the copter's back to me so that the controls map correctly 2) move to flying the bird down the room, turning and flying back 3) making as close to a square as possible, flying to each corner of the room and returning to base 4) doing a square around the room and then landing the copter on the spot where I took off.

This process got me up to speed on using the sticks no matter what direction the craft is facing. It's kind of a matter of muscle memory because fling the bird towards oneself is pretty counterintuitive.

 

[venom93corba]

Honestly, just take it out to a field with no structures around and have fun. These are literally the easiest Drones to fly. It's hard to get in trouble with these in an open field no one around. Just start out make small movements and don't let it get it more then 200-300 ft away from the first couple times. You'll have a blast. Good luck and be safe!

Sent from my SM-G935V using MavicPilots mobile app

 

[skypros]

I say just fly it in a open space..... These hobby grade drones are really stable, just use common sense and go SLOW!!
Practice on a "toy" drone to me is just a waste of $$, all they ever did was frustrate me.

 

[Fireblade]

When I flew my very first drone (phantom standard), I didn't really practice on any other drone besides this. What helped me is watching youtube vids to be honest lol. The DJI tutorials helped me greatly (if they don't have one for Mavic yet you should be able to use the ones for the Phantom since the controls are practically the same)

 

[Guest]

This post might help too.

 

[laura schlenker]

Tjanks everyone for your help, I really appreciate it! I'll take all of your advice. I've been wanting to fly it today but we are getting a new internet provider and won't have service until Thursday. So I'll wait till then so I can update firmware. And guest those vids are exactly what I was hoping for, thanks a bunch!