Newly retired middle aged female living on a sailing catamaran in Turkey learning how to fly my drone

russpury · Dec 29, 2022

welcome to the forum, we look forward to hear more of your adventures and especially seeing the videos

LoudThunder · Dec 29, 2022

Sailing Okaliptüs said:
I reached up and grabbed it and it fought me tooth and nail,

This first posting will be just aobut a cople of issues you brought up; but as has already been mentioned, what are you flying? We do not even know if it is a DJI Drone, let alone if it's a Mini, a Mini 3, a Mavic, a Cessna 150 Commuter, or a Boeing 747 Dreamliner… Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

Next, your Drone would not land but you could reach it. You wrote, "it fought me tooth and nail" and that's a "Good Thing," it means the GPS positioning was working… Actually, this is one of the features that I like to show new newbies with my drone. I hover it at about 5-feet, lay the controller down and walk over to my drone and grab one of the front landing legs and "drag it" out of place and then release it only to have it fly back to where it was, or as I say, "It's like dragging a disobedient child out of a toy store…"

What I want you to do is while you and your drone are on dry land is take off and raise the drone up to about 5-Feet and hover it and put the controller down or hand it off to hubby.

Now this is where you need to be careful. It's called hand catching and it has already been mentioned. But this is a bit different… and you might even want to go on YouTube and watch several videos on the subject.

This is different as you are not actually hand catching, but hand grabbing your drone. It will take a bit of practice as your drone can "see" you sneaking up from the bottom and will rise up. That is why I say hand grabbing; you can take ahold of one of the landing leg or any area not too close to a prop. And you need to get ahold of it. Now, it isn't going anywhere, that is unless you are actually flying a Cessna or the 747…

The Drone has a component on board called an Inertial Measurement Unit or IMU… This equipment essentially provides control and stabilization, but one of it's fail-safes (in most cases…) is it shuts the motors down when the drone flips over.

So, now that you have your drone in hand and it's fighting you tooth and nail, turn the drone over, the motors should shut down…

A test would be for you to hold the drone in your hand (motors off), have your husband start the motors, just energize them, so they are idling, do not have him raise the throttle speed to take off, remember this because you are holding the drone with your hand.

Now turn the drone over, do it swiftly, but not violently, you are not trying to kill it… just shut it down…

Good Luck, be sure to tell us about your drone and stay tuned for my Biggo Welcome Posting…

LoudThunder · Dec 29, 2022

Sailing Okaliptüs said:
bought a sailing catamaran in Turkey to live on and sail the world.

Welcome from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, USA. We have a Member's Map in the Upper Right of the Title Bar. Click on "Members" and then Click on "Member's Map…" Check it out and you might find some new flying friends.

Member Map

mavicpilots.com

Since you live in Turkey, there are specific laws and rules for you to follow, please check to ensure these are current.

Drone Laws in Turkey - Drone Laws

According to DGSAA, drones are allowed in Turkey, subject to DGSAA regulations. Read on for more details.

drone-laws.com

Even if you may have flown Drones before, here is some Good Old Fashion Advice…

You paid a lot of money for that Drone, put your phone number on it. If your drone gets lost or stuck in a tree and it finally comes down when you are not around, give the finders an opportunity to contact you so it can be returned.

Now, for the Fun Part, But do not let the excitement of the moment get the best of you. When you are going out to fly, do it slowly and deliberately. Get used to a set procedure and even practice it.

There are so many things I could write but these are the highlights that I feel need mentioning.

Plug in your phone/tablet into your controller; turn on the Controller and DJI Fly App (if it does not start on its own…). On the Drone, open the front legs, then open the back legs, then remove the Gimbal Cover.

The Gimbal is the most delicate item on the Drone and banging or bumping can damage it. I also fastened a short "Remove Before Flight" ribbon to the cover so it's more noticeable and I do not forget to remove it…

Turn on the drone and watch it come to "life." Watching the Gimbal go through its self-check is almost like watching a kitten or puppy opening its eyes for the first time…

Place the drone down (preferably on a Landing Pad) while it finishes its self-test (collecting satellites, etc…).

Check your battery status (Phone, Drone, and Controller), check the Signal Strength, by now the Controller should have reported it updated the Home Point.

Lift off, 4-5 feet (1-1/2 meters) or so, hover a bit, check the controls (move the drone a bit forward, back, left, right, yaw left and right). By now, your Controller will probably report again, Home point Updated.

If you go out in a rush and race thru your start up and take off before the drone has finished it prep, it may update its Home Point over that pond or that old tree you are flying over and in your excitement, you'll fly the drone long past it Low Battery point and when it engages Return to Home and lands in the pond or in a tree; it will be all on you…

Now go have fun, learn to fly the drone by sight before you try to fly it out a distance depending on the video feed, FPV.

I would also advise you to use YouTube and watch a lot of the Videos on flying and setting up the Drone. When it is too dark, too cold, or too wet, you can "fly it vicariously" through YouTube. Also watch some of the Blooper Drone Videos and learn how not to fly your "New Baby."

Again, what drone are you flying and we might be able to hook ypu up some great links…

Happy Droning…

koco2202 · Dec 31, 2022

Welcome to the forum, its by far the best place for anything regarding droning.

slozukimc · Jan 1, 2023

My forst suggestion is to get in touch with Coal at Phantomrain and get yourself a rescue jacket and wet suit for your drone. Welcome and good luck! Sounds like an amazing retirement! Congrats!

Aerial-Pixel · Jan 2, 2023

Sailing Okaliptüs said:
Hi! If you didn't get it from the title of my thread, I am learning how to use my drone. I have had a pretty scary issue with it recently, so in hunting the internet for an answer, I ran into this website and decided to join and see if I can get some help from the community for all past, present and future questions. Firstly I should let you all know, I do have a Personal Articles Policy on it through my home insurer back in the US and I would suggest you all insure yours if you haven't done so already.
Anyway, my husband and I recently retired early (at 50/51 yrs old) from careers in Catastrophe property claim adjusting in the US and bought a sailing catamaran in Turkey to live on and sail the world.
We (really me) are trying to learn how to fly our drone and had a scary situation a few weeks ago and even scarier yesterday. I think I figured out some answers through this website, so at least I feel a little better about it.
A few weeks ago we visited an old archeological site in southern Turkey and I flew the drone (outside the site perimeter where I was allowed to) and the drone flew up to a certain height and stopped. I tried to move it forward and around and it would barely move. I couldn't see the screen very easily due to the glare of the sun, so I moaned and groaned about the fact it was acting strangely more so than trying to actually read the screen for messages to try and figure out what was going on. When it came time to bring it home and land it, it would not. It hovered above my head and would not come down. I reached up and grabbed it and it fought me tooth and nail, while trying to go back up. I was afraid I'd lose it and panicked, so I didn't let go of it until friends/husband got to me and took battery out to shut it off. It was like the Chucky doll of drones. I am leaving out a big part of this story involving several stray dogs circling around me trying to eat the drone whilst I tried to cope with my dilemma for the sake of your valuable time having to read all of this.
Yesterday, we sailed the catamaran and I flew it up to circle around and although my understanding was that it will sit and hover in place pretty well in light winds, it did not. I tried to do a cinematic circle round the cat to show off her sails and failed miserably. The drone turned into Chucky and blew away from view. on my screen all I could see was far horizon of mountains and the Mediterranean water. The screen said something about me not being logged in, so I tried to log in, but being in the middle of the ocean away from Wifi, it just loaded and loaded and loaded.... My friend gave me his Mifi password and I quickly logged on and tried to sign in, but of course..... because why not.... I FORGOT MY PASSWORD.
I clicked on forgotten password, checked email, created a new password and finally logged back in. By this time, my husband had started the engines on the boat and began to motor towards the vicinity of the drone location based on the little tiny screen on my control. Read the last 2 sentences again. Two short sentences, which in real time, took a solid, very long and stressful 10 minutes. I thought for sure the drone was going to plummet down into the water, never to be seen again.
I don't know how we found it, but we did. I quickly used the control buttons, with my still shaking hands, and landed him on the deck of the boat. Read that last sentence again. In real time, that took what seemed like 137 minutes and although the boat was at a full stop, it was still swishing around in the waves, so my landing pad was a moving target. I have no idea how I got the drone back on the boat unscathed, but I did.
Now... I'm trying to figure out why it signed me out in the first place and how to avoid all of this from happening again in the future.
So, if you have any guidance to share with this 51 year old idiot, please share, but don't recommend I read the stupid owners manual because that's an obvious given.
Cheers !
Claudine ~ Sailing Okaliptüs on IG, FaceBook, Twitter and youTube.

Welcome to Mavic Pilots from Dayton Ohio USA! Fly safe and have fun!

Felix le Chat · Jan 24, 2023

Sailing Okaliptüs said:
Hi! If you didn't get it from the title of my thread, I am learning how to use my drone. I have had a pretty scary issue with it recently, so in hunting the internet for an answer, I ran into this website and decided to join and see if I can get some help from the community for all past, present and future questions. Firstly I should let you all know, I do have a Personal Articles Policy on it through my home insurer back in the US and I would suggest you all insure yours if you haven't done so already.
Anyway, my husband and I recently retired early (at 50/51 yrs old) from careers in Catastrophe property claim adjusting in the US and bought a sailing catamaran in Turkey to live on and sail the world.
We (really me) are trying to learn how to fly our drone and had a scary situation a few weeks ago and even scarier yesterday. I think I figured out some answers through this website, so at least I feel a little better about it.
A few weeks ago we visited an old archeological site in southern Turkey and I flew the drone (outside the site perimeter where I was allowed to) and the drone flew up to a certain height and stopped. I tried to move it forward and around and it would barely move. I couldn't see the screen very easily due to the glare of the sun, so I moaned and groaned about the fact it was acting strangely more so than trying to actually read the screen for messages to try and figure out what was going on. When it came time to bring it home and land it, it would not. It hovered above my head and would not come down. I reached up and grabbed it and it fought me tooth and nail, while trying to go back up. I was afraid I'd lose it and panicked, so I didn't let go of it until friends/husband got to me and took battery out to shut it off. It was like the Chucky doll of drones. I am leaving out a big part of this story involving several stray dogs circling around me trying to eat the drone whilst I tried to cope with my dilemma for the sake of your valuable time having to read all of this.
Yesterday, we sailed the catamaran and I flew it up to circle around and although my understanding was that it will sit and hover in place pretty well in light winds, it did not. I tried to do a cinematic circle round the cat to show off her sails and failed miserably. The drone turned into Chucky and blew away from view. on my screen all I could see was far horizon of mountains and the Mediterranean water. The screen said something about me not being logged in, so I tried to log in, but being in the middle of the ocean away from Wifi, it just loaded and loaded and loaded.... My friend gave me his Mifi password and I quickly logged on and tried to sign in, but of course..... because why not.... I FORGOT MY PASSWORD.
I clicked on forgotten password, checked email, created a new password and finally logged back in. By this time, my husband had started the engines on the boat and began to motor towards the vicinity of the drone location based on the little tiny screen on my control. Read the last 2 sentences again. Two short sentences, which in real time, took a solid, very long and stressful 10 minutes. I thought for sure the drone was going to plummet down into the water, never to be seen again.
I don't know how we found it, but we did. I quickly used the control buttons, with my still shaking hands, and landed him on the deck of the boat. Read that last sentence again. In real time, that took what seemed like 137 minutes and although the boat was at a full stop, it was still swishing around in the waves, so my landing pad was a moving target. I have no idea how I got the drone back on the boat unscathed, but I did.
Now... I'm trying to figure out why it signed me out in the first place and how to avoid all of this from happening again in the future.
So, if you have any guidance to share with this 51 year old idiot, please share, but don't recommend I read the stupid owners manual because that's an obvious given.
Cheers !
Claudine ~ Sailing Okaliptüs on IG, FaceBook, Twitter and youTube.

Unless their regulations have changed for the better (which I doubt) flying a drone in Turkey is a legal nightmare. Last time I looked, you have to get the drone registered with Turkish authorities and you can't get a registration unless the application is made by a Turkish national. Catch 22 for any foreign national. The drone that went bananas: which model?

Daytona500 · Jan 26, 2023

I'm just so jealous , do you need a 72 year old deck hand?

Yorkshire_Pud · Mar 31, 2023

I wonder if we failed to live up to Sailing Okaliptus's expectations?

Pieter Einthoven · May 6, 2023

I would suggest sorting out the Chucky issues of the drone from Terra Firma. The boat adds so much complexity and takes away so many options. I use a catching handle unless the boat is on a mooring or in a slip. If the boat is even just drifting slowly, it will make landing on the boat impossible, even a large boat. The handle makes grabbing it out of the air very easy and much safer. Also make sure the home point is updating and that the max distance from the starting point is disabled.
Best luck. Drone videos from a moving bot are awesome and well worth the effort.

Yorkshire_Pud · May 6, 2023

Pieter Einthoven said:
I would suggest sorting out the Chucky issues of the drone from Terra Firma. The boat adds so much complexity and takes away so many options. I use a catching handle unless the boat is on a mooring or in a slip. If the boat is even just drifting slowly, it will make landing on the boat impossible, even a large boat. The handle makes grabbing it out of the air very easy and much safer. Also make sure the home point is updating and that the max distance from the starting point is disabled.
Best luck. Drone videos from a moving bot are awesome and well worth the effort.

She hasn't logged in since December 29th.

Sailing Okaliptüs · May 7, 2023

Wow. I just realized how many people responded to my post and I am so grateful! I received an email notification today with a message and signed back in here to look. I don't know how I missed all the previous notifications. Anyway, I updated the firmware on the drone and updated the iPhone app as well. I also calibrated like 3 different things and signed back into the drone and it's been working fine ever since. I am still a terrible pilot and have a lot to learn, but love making my little drone videos and photos. I will be returning to this website point forward to ask my questions. I appreciate the fact you all actually sat and read through my entire long post (I am long-winded) and took the time to respond and be kind about it.