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Tips for New Flyers

Jack Daw

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Having monitored these boards for the past couple of months, I’ve come up with a few points that I thought might help people new to the Mavic Air. Some of you may know all of this, and all of you will know some of it, but it can’t hurt. In any case, I hope it stops newbies from making the most common mistakes, answer a few questions before they’re even asked. Please feel free to add to this, or to correct anything you think I might’ve gotten wrong.

1. So far as I can tell, about 80 to 90% of all flyaways, accidents, and the like are caused by one of two things: either a mis-calibrated compass, or an insufficient GPS signal. The first can be spotted by making sure that the little red arrow shaped thing on your map is pointing in the same direction as the aircraft itself. The second can be prevented by not taking off until you have 10 or so satellites locked in, even though the program will let you take off of you have only eight. Seriously, taking care of these two things will solve the majority of your problems.

2. Watch out for the wind. It’s not at all uncommon for somebody to fly out a certain distance and then find that they can’t get back before the battery runs out, because the wind is blowing against them. Don’t let this happen to you.

3. If you’re using any kind of unidirectional antennas, there’s a simple way to tell whether you are aimed directly at your aircraft: make sure that the aircraft in the compass at the lower left of your screen is lined up with the little white triangle in the circle around it. That tells you that you’re facing the right direction.

4. The pause button is your friend. It will stop the aircraft from doing pretty much anything it’s doing, including flying the wrong direction, landing in an unsafe place, and so on. Get used to having your finger on it, or knowing by instinct where it is.

4. Set your RTH higher than you think it needs to be. Trust me on this.

5. If you’re flying at night, which I do all the time, there are couple of things to bear in mind. First of all, it’s hard to know where your aircraft is, and what direction it’s facing. You’ll rely more on your tablet screen then you do in the daytime. I find it’s best to set the video exposures to “auto”: it may not always make for the best video, but it does generally give you the best picture of what the aircraft is seeing. Secondly, I fly higher at night than I do in the daytime, just because it’s more difficult to see wires and the like. This is especially true around things like lighting towers, telephone towers, and so on. You don’t want to run into them, so go over them. Thirdly, get a flashing strobe light to attach to the bottom of your craft. Depending on how far you like to fly, it won’t always make it more visible, but it will certainly help within the 1st km or so.

6. Get the DJI Care Refresh. You’re almost certainly going to need it, sooner or later, and if you don’t, it’s a pretty cheap way to buy some peace of mind. State Farm insurance is good, too – in some ways better, but not available everywhere.

7. If you’re having problems with range, and you live in Europe, the solution is very simple: look up FCC hack, and use it.

8. Some people abide by the Line of Sight law, and some people don’t. Whether you do or not is up to you, of course, but try not to be stupid about it.

9. It’s notably common for people to make one of two very basic errors: not unfolding the antenna on the front legs of the craft, and not taking off the gimbal cover. Do whatever you need to do to avoid this.

10. If you want to use the various autonomous modes, it's best to practice them somewhere where you won't crash the Air if you screw it up. "Autonomous" does not mean foolproof: on the contrary, it can be harder to control than regular flying.

11. The yaw and gimbal controls are set at the factory to be too sensitive for most people. There are Youtube videos on how to slow them down. Very useful.


What else?
 
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You're got it right down to the tibs, mate. Needed to hear that that myself.
 
Oh, one more thing. The SD card is easier to remove than you think. Don't try to grab it with both fingers. SD cards have a little ridge on top (or on the bottom, since for some reason it goes into the MA upside down). Stick your index finger underneath it, pull back, and your nail will catch in the ridge and you can pull it right out. I'm a compulsive nail-biter, and have no problem doing this at all.
 
I do see that most people does not know that you have to push the SD card in to get it out. Use the USB-C USB-Micro adapter to push it inn, then it goes more out and gets easy to remove.
 
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4. Set your RTH higher than you think it needs to be. Trust me on this.

Just one caution on this, one of the most common causes of crashes are people using RTH not knowing there is an obstacle above the drone (maybe they flew out of VLOS or just didn't notice). So if you are going to do that, don't use RTH until you are 100% sure nothing is above your drone (a tree, a power line, a roof, etc. etc.)

One other thing I'd stress is the important of battery maintenance/storage, as well as never flying below 30%. You get all that from the manual but it's astonishing how many people don't bother to read it.


Memory Cards

The second one is with SD cards, very few people seem to understand what is required, and it's hard to blame them because the memory card manufacturers are purposely as misleading as possible with their advertising. If you put a card that is too slow into the Air, you will get choppy video or have other issues.

The Mavic Air records video at 100Mbps which is 12.5MB/s which means you need a card with a minimum sustained write speed of more than 12.5 MB/s. Memory card manufacturers only advertise maximum theoretical transfer speeds which are completely useless. For instance, you can find a very slow card that advertises "100MB/s" making people think it is suitable for video - it is not because that is the theoretical maximum read speed. You can even find some cards that advertise write speeds, but those again are theoretical maximums and not minimum sustained write speeds, which what matters. There are however symbols on the card that will let you know if it will work or not:

V10 / V30 / V60 / V90 = minimum sustained write speed in MB/s. You need at least a V30 for the Mavic Air (corresponding to 30MB/s)

U1, U3 = another standard for minimum sustained write speed in MB/s (1 = 10, 3 = 30). You need at least a U3 (30MB/s).


You can ignore pretty much everything else. Class 10 (the circle with a '10' in it) simply means it passes a minimum 10MB/s write standard (you find this symbol on faster cards still, so it is useless for our purposes). The roman numeral "I" or "II" is the UHS bus, UHS -I is more than fast enough, so there is no need to buy a UHS-II card as the Air does not even have a UHS-II slot, though it is backwards compatible.

MB = Megabyte
Mb = Megabit
There are 8 bits in a byte
Do not confuse the two as there is an enormous difference.

How Much Storage Do I need?

At 4K/30p (100Mbps / 12.5MB/s):


15 minutes is 11.3GB

30 minutes is 22.5GB

45 minutes is 33.8GB

60 minutes is 45GB

Mavic Air battery lasts roughly 15-16 minutes before you need to land at ~30%, so it's nice and easy to approximate storage needs per flight or per charge.

Finally, if you don't want to lose footage and avoid corrupt files, these are best practices (not specific to drones either):

- Never fill up a memory card 100%

- ALWAYS format it in the drone (or the device you will be using it in). Never format in a computer.

- DO NOT switch memory cards between devices without a fresh format in the destination device

- Retire your cards early and often or if they are anywhere near their advertised MTBF. Memory is VERY cheap these days, and pales in comparison to the value of a once in a lifetime flight or moment you might lose if you don't look after your cards.

- ALWAYS buy quality cards (Sandisk, Samsung, Lexar, Sony, etc.) and from a retailer you trust. I'd personally even avoid second tier brands as well (Transcend, PNY, etc.) There are also lots of knockoffs kicking around on eBay and Amazon with very legit looking packaging, often unknown to the seller.

- Use a card reader whenever possible, rather than downloading right from the device. Not only is it faster, but it saves wear and tear on the (often fragile) ports.
 
Last edited:
Question for a complete drone new flyer. My buddy is a flyer and I was looking to get into and he suggested looking at DJI. If I am looking at the Air am I looking in the wrong area for a complete newb?
 
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Just one caution on this, one of the most common causes of crashes are people using RTH not knowing there is an obstacle above the drone (maybe they flew out of VLOS or just didn't notice). So if you are going to do that, don't use RTH until you are 100% sure nothing is above your drone (a tree, a power line, a roof, etc. etc.)

One other thing I'd stress is the important of battery maintenance/storage, as well as never flying below 30%. You get all that from the manual but it's astonishing how many people don't bother to read it.


Memory Cards

The second one is with SD cards, very few people seem to understand what is required, and it's hard to blame them because the memory card manufacturers are purposely as misleading as possible with their advertising. If you put a card that is too slow into the Air, you will get choppy video or have other issues.

The Mavic Air records video at 100Mbps which is 12.5MB/s which means you need a card with a minimum sustained write speed of more than 12.5 MB/s. Memory card manufacturers only advertise maximum theoretical transfer speeds which are completely useless. For instance, you can find a very slow card that advertises "100MB/s" making people think it is suitable for video - it is not because that is the theoretical maximum read speed. You can even find some cards that advertise write speeds, but those again are theoretical maximums and not minimum sustained write speeds, which what matters. There are however symbols on the card that will let you know if it will work or not:

V10 / V30 / V60 / V90 = minimum sustained write speed in MB/s. You need at least a V30 for the Mavic Air (corresponding to 30MB/s)

U1, U3 = another standard for minimum sustained write speed in MB/s (1 = 10, 3 = 30). You need at least a U3 (30MB/s).


You can ignore pretty much everything else. Class 10 (the circle with a '10' in it) simply means it passes a minimum 10MB/s write standard (you find this symbol on faster cards still, so it is useless for our purposes). The roman numeral "I" or "II" is the UHS bus, UHS -I is more than fast enough, so there is no need to buy a UHS-II card as the Air does not even have a UHS-II slot, though it is backwards compatible.

MB = Megabyte
Mb = Megabit
There are 8 bits in a byte
Do not confuse the two as there is an enormous difference.

How Much Storage Do I need?

At 4K/30p (100Mbps / 12.5MB/s):


15 minutes is 11.3GB

30 minutes is 22.5GB

45 minutes is 33.8GB

60 minutes is 45GB

Mavic Air battery lasts roughly 15-16 minutes before you need to land at ~30%, so it's nice and easy to approximate storage needs per flight or per charge.

Finally, if you don't want to lose footage and avoid corrupt files, these are best practices (not specific to drones either):

- Never fill up a memory card 100%

- ALWAYS format it in the drone (or the device you will be using it in). Never format in a computer.

- DO NOT switch memory cards between devices without a fresh format in the destination device

- Retire your cards early and often or if they are anywhere near their advertised MTBF. Memory is VERY cheap these days, and pales in comparison to the value of a once in a lifetime flight or moment you might lose if you don't look after your cards.

- ALWAYS buy quality cards (Sandisk, Samsung, Lexar, Sony, etc.) and from a retailer you trust. I'd personally even avoid second tier brands as well (Transcend, PNY, etc.) There are also lots of knockoffs kicking around on eBay and Amazon with very legit looking packaging, often unknown to the seller.

- Use a card reader whenever possible, rather than downloading right from the device. Not only is it faster, but it saves wear and tear on the (often fragile) ports.
Thanks for the valuable information.
 
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Question for a complete drone new flyer. My buddy is a flyer and I was looking to get into and he suggested looking at DJI. If I am looking at the Air am I looking in the wrong area for a complete newb?

These kinds of questions are really hard to answer. It depends on how much money you want to spend, what you want to use it for, and so on. I started out with a Tello, which costs $100 and is made by DJI in conjunction with another company. A gateway drug: it took about 2 weeks before I shelled out for an Air.

There's also a slight paradox here, inasmuch as, on the whole, the more expensive the drone is, the easier it is to fly -- which makes the question of where to start a little complicated.

The DJI line seems to fallout as follows (much oversimplified).

1. Tello: cheap, fun to fly, can fly indoors, basically a toy with an OK camera.
2. Spark: cheap-ish, but of all the DJI drones, it's the one that seems most pointless to me, since with a controller it's only a little cheaper than an Air.
3. Air: Much better camera, very small and portable, somewhat limited in range, though different people have different experiences.
4. Pro: Slightly worse camera, oddly enough, and larger than an Air, better range.
4. Pro II: Best camera, but again, relatively large, and pretty expensive.

For me, also new to this, the Air offered the best tradeoff of price and features, and the portability was important to me. If your interests are different, you may be better served moving up or down the price-line.
 
These kinds of questions are really hard to answer. It depends on how much money you want to spend, what you want to use it for, and so on. I started out with a Tello, which costs $100 and is made by DJI in conjunction with another company. A gateway drug: it took about 2 weeks before I shelled out for an Air.

There's also a slight paradox here, inasmuch as, on the whole, the more expensive the drone is, the easier it is to fly -- which makes the question of where to start a little complicated.

The DJI line seems to fallout as follows (much oversimplified).

1. Tello: cheap, fun to fly, can fly indoors, basically a toy with an OK camera.
2. Spark: cheap-ish, but of all the DJI drones, it's the one that seems most pointless to me, since with a controller it's only a little cheaper than an Air.
3. Air: Much better camera, very small and portable, somewhat limited in range, though different people have different experiences.
4. Pro: Slightly worse camera, oddly enough, and larger than an Air, better range.
4. Pro II: Best camera, but again, relatively large, and pretty expensive.

For me, also new to this, the Air offered the best tradeoff of price and features, and the portability was important to me. If your interests are different, you may be better served moving up or down the price-line.
Thanks I forgot to mention that the price was acceptable knowing without doing so leaves the question way to open ended. Thanks for the great input - probably picking one up tomorrow.
 
"1. So far as I can tell, about 80 to 90% of all flyaways, accidents, and the like are caused by one of two things: either a mis-calibrated compass, or an insufficient GPS signal. The first can be spotted by making sure that the little red arrow shaped thing on your map is pointing in the same direction as the aircraft itself. "

I bet 90% plus right there.
 
"1. So far as I can tell, about 80 to 90% of all flyaways, accidents, and the like are caused by one of two things: either a mis-calibrated compass, or an insufficient GPS signal. The first can be spotted by making sure that the little red arrow shaped thing on your map is pointing in the same direction as the aircraft itself. "

I bet 90% plus right there.
I thought that the red arrowhead shaped object orientation -IS- the aircraft???
 

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