Orientation Question

[JAW]

Most of my flying experience is with a Blade 350QX with a GoPro slung underneath. When flying it, I stayed pretty much in "safe mode" which would move the drone in the direction of stick input regardless of where the nose was pointed---if you moved the right stick to the rear, for instance, the drone would move back without regard to where the nose was facing.

How do stick inputs on the Mavic 2 move the drone as it relates to its orientation?

Thanks!

 

[sar104]

The right stick (in default mode 2) controls pitch and roll, and so the direction of travel is relative to the aircraft.

 

[DanMan32]

You are referring to "course lock" which is an intelligent flight mode on all Mavics except M2. Not sure about Spark.

 

[JAW]

Thanks to those who replied.

Let me phrase the question differently:
If the M2 is at a hover and facing me, and I move the right stick forward towards 12 o'clock, which way will the M2 move...towards me or away from me?

 

[Congoblue]

Towards. The controls always operate as if you're riding in the drone.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Thanks to those who replied.

Let me phrase the question differently:
If the M2 is at a hover and facing me, and I move the right stick forward towards 12 o'clock, which way will the M2 move...towards me or away from me?

The sticks control the aircraft from its perspective, not yours. If it's facing you and you move the right stick up the aircraft will move toward you, not away. It takes a little getting used to when it's facing toward you, but I just try to visualize myself inside the aircraft and that helps me to keep forward and back, left and right straight in my head.

 

[JAW]

Got it.
Unlike the 350QX which, when in safe mode, always follows the stick input regardless of the craft's orientation. It was problematical for me (and my 70+ year old eyes) to know which way the front of the drone faced when it was a distance away. Safe Mode solved the issue for me on that drone.

 

[Former Member]

If the M2 is at a hover and facing me, and I move the right stick forward towards 12 o'clock, which way will the M2 move...towards me or away from me?

That is what is called in RC "nose-in hovering" and is the most difficult orientation for a persons brain to try to figure out. Right stick forward will bring it toward you.

 

[ff22]

Got it.
Unlike the 350QX which, when in safe mode, always follows the stick input regardless of the craft's orientation. It was problematical for me (and my 70+ year old eyes) to know which way the front of the drone faced when it was a distance away. Safe Mode solved the issue for me on that drone.

The front/back I've kind of mastered. It is the turning left and right controlled by the left stick that still gets me. When facing away the left stick's left and right turn the drone in those directions relative to me. But when the drone is facing me, I have to remember that the turning is reversed. Actually, the same can be said for the right stick's left and right motion when facing away versus facing toward me. Still trying to mentally place myself IN THE DRONE for the flying it.

 

[sar104]

The front/back I've kind of mastered. It is the turning left and right controlled by the left stick that still gets me. When facing away the left stick's left and right turn the drone in those directions relative to me. But when the drone is facing me, I have to remember that the turning is reversed. Actually, the same can be said for the right stick's left and right motion when facing away versus facing toward me. Still trying to mentally place myself IN THE DRONE for the flying it.

An easy way to visualize the aircraft turning if you are looking at it is simply that the part of the aircraft furthest from you will turn in the direction that you move the rudder. That always works. Lateral (aileron) motion is not so simple.

 

[ff22]

An easy way to visualize the aircraft turning if you are looking at it is simply that the part of the aircraft furthest from you will turn in the direction that you move the rudder. That always works. Lateral (aileron) motion is not so simple.

You know that might just WORK!!! I like it.

I can see where there is not quite a similar analogy for the lateral - directly left/right.

I may unjustly blame my left handedness for this but I've always had a problem with instantaneously having to decide LEFT or RIGHT. On a ski slope if I was calling the direction, I had time to correctly warn. But if someone behind me yelled Left or Right, I would kind of freeze and allow them to pass on the "correct" side that they called. I was good enough to generally pull it off (g)

 

[Mr. Salty]

But when the drone is facing me, I have to remember that the turning is reversed. Actually, the same can be said for the right stick's left and right motion when facing away versus facing toward me. Still trying to mentally place myself IN THE DRONE for the flying it.

The easiest thing for me is to just look at the screen on my controller. Then it's just like driving a car.

 

[DanMan32]

I fly mostly by rudder/yaw. I saw a video once showing how to orient with a racing/toy drone by flying straight and yawing. That was a good lesson.

But in DJI terms, having AC movement relative to you is called course lock. Unfortunately DJI did not include this mode on the M2Z/P. Nor did they keep home lock which is like home lock but with polar coordinates rather than Cartesian coordinates.

 

[JAW]

<snip>.........having AC movement relative to you is called course lock. Unfortunately DJI did not include this mode on the M2Z/P.

Too bad....as a new pilot "course lock" or "safe mode" as Blade called it is what kept me flying without destroying my drone.

Does the original Mavic have course lock?

 

[sar104]

Too bad....as a new pilot "course lock" or "safe mode" as Blade called it is what kept me flying without destroying my drone.

Does the original Mavic have course lock?

The Mavic Pro has both course lock and home lock.

 

[Jalatta]

Many drones such as a Hubsan X4 has a "headless" function which will move the aircraft in the direction of the stick regardless of where the front of the aircraft is pointed.

 

[JAW]

I already cancelled my M2Z purchase so I could wait for the Smart Controller package. Now I'm not so sure I want the M2 as I found Blade's equivalent of course lock to be so very handy when shooting videos. That would mean "downgrading" to the Mavic Pro Platinum. In addition to having course lock, I'd save a few hundred bucks at the expense of dealing with phones/tablets or saving less by buying the Crystalsky monitor.

Decisions decisions........

 

[FormerMember07122019_2]

Hi JAW,

I am a complete newbie to drones (in fact to any RC control of any kind) except for flying a toy (QX nano I think) which frustrated me pretty quickly until I tossed it in the trash a year ago. I just got a Mavic 2 Pro last month and have flown it about 10 times (two batteries worth each time). Trying to fly the toy nano while getting used to RC controls was almost impossible, for me. I have described it as trying to fly a feather while blind. It drifted all over and was too small to determine its orientation, and had no camera. This brings me to my absolute favorite feature of my new drone. Whenever I am flying it and I get confused for a moment on whether to push the stick to the left or the right, if I let go - IT JUST STOPS AND JUST SITS THERE! I can take my sweet time reminding myself to put yourself in the cockpit (looking at the screen helps a lot) and visualize what to to with the controls. My first flight, which was very nerve racking, I had to let go virtually every time before I was going to make a maneuver to stop and think. Now, after 10 flights, I need to hesitate about half the time before each maneuver and it is slowly getting better with each flight. To all of you newbies out there, if I can do it, you can surely do it because I am almost 67 years old and it takes me a lot, lot longer to learn new things compared to when I was a teenager.

The Mavic 2 Pro is an incredible flying camera that literally anyone can learn to pilot.

Ken

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

I already cancelled my M2Z purchase so I could wait for the Smart Controller package. Now I'm not so sure I want the M2 as I found Blade's equivalent of course lock to be so very handy when shooting videos. That would mean "downgrading" to the Mavic Pro Platinum. In addition to having course lock, I'd save a few hundred bucks at the expense of dealing with phones/tablets or saving less by buying the Crystalsky monitor.

Decisions decisions........

I've seen some incredible MP1 packages for sale on this forum, for less than half of what an MP2 costs. The "Platinum" label is mostly fluff and you're not getting much more for the additional money.

 

[JAW]

Camino Ken---Thanks for the positive input. I really am leaning towards the M2Z now that I've discovered an old Army buddy is flying one and I'll get some stick time at our reunion later this month

53-63-6f-74-74---There are some good deals if you know enough to know what you're looking at. Unfortunately, I bon't know enough. But thanks for the tip.