Tight area flight testing

[RGallant]

As a new pilot I need both flight and camera practice, being in Pacific Northwest there are a lot of interesting but tight areas to fly in. So my very small driveway and front yard have become my testing ground.

I record video on every flight to see how I am doing, and to practice edits. It is surprising how close things look in the video

Lots of annoying but useful collision beeps, the flights are short 4-6 minutes but I am getting smoother (slowly). I have a short video attached nothing brilliant, but it gives you an idea of what I am aiming for. I am on the hunt for a good location to to run a good proper test on.

I have added my handheld GPS, to my gear bag as check to to confirm GPS Sat locks & numbers as good amount of this will under some tree canopy. With the hand held I can walk some of the area's 1st. to make sure I have a decent number of satellites.

Hope to have something interesting a maybe a bit different in a few weeks.

An idea of the kind of places I hope to fly, however more interesting than a road in the forest and not quite a exciting as the second although it is possible if some care is taken.

This creek would be great starting where I took the photo and flying down towards the log bridging over and then to the bridge just past. In late summer is much less active so you "might" be able to get a bit lower.

You will see I struggle with smooth, I am hoping that will come with more practice.

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[Meta4]

As a new pilot I need both flight and camera practice, being in Pacific Northwest there are a lot of interesting but tight areas to fly in. So my very small driveway and front yard have become my testing ground.

If you're a new flyer, stay away from trees, buildings and other obstacles.
Flying close to obstacles is very risky and the obstacle avoidance can easily be fooled by thin branches.

I record video on every flight to see how I am doing, and to practice edits. It is surprising how close things look in the video

Your camera has a very wideangle lens.
That means that objects are closer than they appear on the screen.

 

[RGallant]

@Meta4 thanks for the feedback, it will take a lot of flying for me to get in area much tighter than a tight road way. Your point about thin branches is well taken, a big bumble bee strike on a prop gave a good jiggle to the drone. Even the edge fern branch is going into be a bad day.

Currently I am flying in close visual so "less" risk but still something to keep in the forefront of my mind. Particularly as I get more comfortable with flying.

 

[manc54]

I am also new to drones and for what it's worth I have tried to stay away from tight areas while I am getting used to controlling both the drone and camera. I have headed to Nice wide open space to practice flying so any mistakes I make are not so difficult to recover from. Basically I'm making sure I can walk before I try to run. Still have managed to get some nice footage though.

 

[Gimbal2019]

Hi RGallant
Glad to hear I'm not the only one that has a very tight yard to fly in LOL
I believe it was a good thing for me while learning to maneuver the drone - although at the time I thought I would end up with a drone in many pieces (which did happen with a couple Walmart drones and my first Mavic Air)
Flying low and slow around sheds and trees forces one to get good with the controls. (slow is key - fast breaks stuff)
I do love to go to the wide open spaces and play with the camera and settings but its also really fun to just go out in the yard and fly thru my own natural obstacle course even when the wife complains about all the beeping LOL

 

[RGallant]

I plan on doing some flying in wide open area and using survey marker flags to set a course. The flags are small and have thin wire so no danger.

I think learning fine flight and camera control is important, and the flags come in different colors so setting a course and video target is pretty easy. It helps that I am avid offroader with a truck setup to let me go out for the day and be comfortable setting up and flying.

 

[Skybuyer]

When starting out in tight spaces, unless you have a direct and close visual contact with your drone try to keep your drone going forwards. The sides (and rear) are blind areas. It is easy to drift into something you cannot see. I recently had an experience where was flying low across a golf course, trying to maneuver around and through widely spaced trees, but with an S pattern, and I crashed my M2 into a tree branch as I thought I'd moved past it and pulled the right stick to the left prematurely. It wasn't pretty. I lost one of my Arc V strobes on that one and was lucky for my M2 to survive with damage only to two propellers.

And yeah... stay away from stuff if your drone is pointed back toward you. It is easy to forget that the controls work backwards so you need to leave enough room for margin of error.

 

[RGallant]

@vindibona1 that is a very good point, on the sticks being "reversed" when the head is pointed at you. I have to think about every time before I start to move in that orientation.

It is one of the reasons I think smooth fine control is so important.

On flying towards yourself do people find colored strobes help ?

 

[GFields]

Greetings! Thanks for sharing!

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Mavic Air (1), ok.
It's a smaller drone, so that's good.

I like taking my Spark into places I wouldn't my M1P.

A few rules and tips I follow . . .

- Turn off OA, it baulks flight too much when near objects, and more importantly when going through spaces.
- Turn failsafe RTH (loss of signal) to hover, just in case, though you should be close to the drone at all times while learning.
- Stay close ! Like walk right behind the drone when starting out, less so as you get better at knowing the device view.
- Turn on the camera grid, have the camera straight ahead, aim the box in the middle at the opening / path you want to follow.
( ^ Practice this while walking right behind the drone, keeping an eye on both drone position and screen view.)

Be prepared to get some great shots, but at an elevated (no pun intended) risk of losing the drone.
Have fun, like ALL drone flight learning curves, small steps !

 

[360 Guy]

BYW......your grass needs cutting.
Just saying ?

 

[Skybuyer]

@vindibona1 that is a very good point, on the sticks being "reversed" when the head is pointed at you. I have to think about every time before I start to move in that orientation.

It is one of the reasons I think smooth fine control is so important.

On flying towards yourself do people find colored strobes help ?

I absolutely find colored strobes extremely helpful. I have red and green strobes on the front of my drones. Some folks put one color on the front and one on the back. That works too.