What do you wish someone had told you before you started flying your DJI FPV?

[slup]

why don,t you go out a try to find some elk sheds there at 17.00 a pound now looks like you could cover a lot of country with that machine

Yeah ... perhaps, the only gripe is that the flight time is rather short if I want to keep the total weight down to have the quad agile with a lot of punch in the ascents. Firstly a LiPo (not a LiIon) is needed in order to provide the amps for punch ups & speeds up to 180km/h ... & secondly a rather small mAh battery (I'm using 1300mAh) to keep the weight down. With that set up like in the earlier clip, with a GoPro 10 with that kind of flying, all fun is over after approx 6-7 minutes.

But using this hefty LiIon with 4000mAh it's possible to cruise in speeds around 80-90km/h , but keeping the amp draw low (so no acrobatics) ... all up with the GoPro 10 gives 15 minutes at least.

From the first try with this massive battery ... perfect for high speed cinematic flying.

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[Torque]

If you have trouble with vertigo on your first flights, make sure you lean against a wall, fence, bench, post, something solid, and shrink your screen size down to the smallest size the googles will allow. As you aclimate to the view, you can enlarge the screen size until your're back to full screen. The small screen was the best tip I was given.

 

[Crouching Leopard]

Practice maneuvers whilst Flying high, don't underestimate how fast it is going when heading down. 80 metres becomes 30 metres in the blink of eye.

Dont underestimate how much height you need to pull it out of a dive.

Watch the battery. It goes down really fast. In S mode perhaps 6-8 minutes. Mine "landed" at close to 140K/hr because I failed to watch the battery level.

When the battery says return home , Return home straight away. Dont be tempted as with Mavics to get one last turn or shot. 20% is nothing with the FPV.

The FPV has been known to cut power at 4-8%.

Fit a battery protector to protect the casings weak spot on the right hand foot. A hard landing can push the rubber foot up into the circuit board packed in tight behind the foot. Bad design. Google for photos and videos of this.

I printed the one in the photo but you can make up something out of foam and double sided tape. Its worth the effort. The FPV has a tendency to land on its right hand rear foot first. 1 hard landing and the battery is gone. DJI wont warranty repair. I tried.

"'Dont underestimate a senior who flys FPV""

Hold onto your hat and happy flying.

I finally flew my first free flight session yesterday. I have been practicing on the simulator (Mainly "liftoff DJI Simulator" on the Steam games website) but also put in several hours in a very large local park during other peoples work hours so it was empty, so as to get over disorientation and used to flying in speed and manual mode with limiters turned on, as well as the visuals in the screen .

WOW, WOW, WOW!! I dont know what else to say. I planned the flight beforehand, set a maximum flying altitude and minimum pullout altitude beforehand in my mind, scouted the area for people, then just let her rip. Loops, barrel rolls, spin dives with rolls, tumbles, Climbs with loops and rolls. Not all of these moves were intentional but they were great fun. And no motion sickness. Then right at the end, just as I was starting to land, the ADS-B wirning system told me there was an aircraft in the area. Just as I was landing, the aircraft flew low overhead right through my practice area. I am certain he wasn't at regulation min height, (often happens around here) but because of the ADS-B warning, it was all good.

What an incredible drone. I am totally hooked. Both my personal and Drone batteries are charged ready for the next flight. I will carry on with the sim and keep real flying at height till I get better.

To finish it off, as I was walking back to my car I passed a local skate park that adjoins the public park. Turns out about 15 people had been watching the flight. Accolades on my flying skills! (they are not that great on the FPV). About 15 people stopped skating to watch the drone. I was asked to show them the drone and go through drone flying. Great afternoon.

Practice on the sim, but also get out there, fly high in sport and manual mode, and when ready, turn off the limiters.
If this what retirement is like, I love it.

 

[DoomMeister]

Sitting on the end of a picnic table learning. I’ve hit the ground more than I want to admit. I seem to use body English flying and if not in a chair I fall over

Is that body English making you hit the ground or Uncle Jack (Daniels). For FPV I might do better with a couple shots of Jack to help keep my lunch down.

I’m fine as a VO with someone else flying, but about three minutes with goggles or watching video of FPV flight with punch outs, flips, rolls, etc. and I get queasy.

 

[dirkclod]

Is that body English making you hit the ground or Uncle Jack (Daniels).

Cant remember

 

[Cgbass439]

And if you want to try the motion controller, you can have mine as long as you cover the cost of shipping and any PayPal fees for the shipping cost.

Have one. But thank you.

 

[chad61610]

And if you want to try the motion controller, you can have mine as long as you cover the cost of shipping and any PayPal fees for the shipping cost.

If that is an open offer I would be interested.

 

[mattvenn]

Make sure your compass is correct at takeoff. It can get a bad setting if there is metal close by, even it's hidden like in reinforced concrete!

Mavic mini 2 flyaway and crash

Hi all, new member and mavic owner here. I've flown 250s for a few years, always 2d and with minimal gyro assistance so this is all amazing to me. I got the mavic mini 2 drone yesterday and flew about 10 times. Very impressive. Today I tried another flight and was hovering about 6m up, full...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Hayds]

Make sure you are sitting otherwise you might fall over lol

 

[dirkclod]

Make sure you are sitting otherwise you might fall over lol

No

 

[Dangerly]

...when I've been flying for a couple hours.

You mean a few hours of flight time? How many batteries do you need for that?

 

[Dangerly]

All good advice given so far, but I have a bit different suggestion... Forget the simulator, forget manual, take it out immediately and fly a bunch in N and S modes. Get used to the goggles and FPV. Have a BLAST with it first!

Wow, that is some awesome advice! I was thinking of doing that. Does it really fly like traditional Mavics and should I expect to feel right at home, except faster in S mode?

 

[Dangerly]

And if you want to try the motion controller, you can have mine as long as you cover the cost of shipping and any PayPal fees for the shipping cost.

Seriously? I'll take you up on that, though I'd love to know why you're willing to give it up?

 

[EpicFlight]

Some people hate it. I absolutely love flying with it.

It's very subjective.

 

[EpicFlight]

Wow, that is some awesome advice! I was thinking of doing that. Does it really fly like traditional Mavics and should I expect to feel right at home, except faster in S mode?

More or less, but yes faster and quite a bit more powerful and responsive. It's the goggles and FPV experience that truly sets it apart, and the Motion Controller exploits that experience well.

 

[slup]

You mean a few hours of flight time? How many batteries do you need for that?

I mean ... a couple hours of activity which mostly are airborne but also includes battery changes, quick cups of coffee & general leg stretching/clear the head in between flights.

The clip in post #4 is a a whole Sunday afternoon of flying condensed ... from lunch until sunset, like 1PM to 6PM.

Have several sized quads to fly which have very different characteristics...

The smaller ones share 12, 4S batteries of different sizes which gives flight times ranging from 8min up to 25min (& weights, there fore different flight behaviors requiring different amount of concentration).

The larger quads require 6S batteries & share 11, the flight times spans from 5min fully loaded with GoPro & agile flying, up to nearly 20min depending on which battery I choose & if I load up the GoPro or not ... the weights of the batteries plays a role here also of course & as the bigger quads in general have endless motor power that also regulates how hard I fly them ... which in turn draw more amps, shortening the flight time.

As I only fly in full manual (called Acro mode here ...) & fast, close up face to obstacles I need to be fully focused while maneuvering ... after like max 10min continuous flying I need to either drop the speed, substantially increase the distance to obstacles or go up on height ... to be able to have any kind of stamina left when I land.

The LiIon batteries which goes for 20-25min are much heavier, affecting the maneuverability & the possibility to do quick high speed punch ups ... so usually strap them on in the end of the day for some longer tree top surfing, cruising manner flights.

Here another clip from the same day as the one in post #4 ... but this time with a sub 250g 4" quad, the clip is a complete flight with the lightest battery, a 850mAh 4S battery. The clip is from the DVR recorded in the goggles only & the periodic blurriness on the left/right 3:rd of the screen is called "focus mode" & is intended to warn that the radio connection is getting affected to the worse & to enhance the middle 3:rd so it's unaffected when Mbits in the video transmission is lost .

This smaller/lighter quad is a lot more agile then the larger quads, but have less punch on max rev... a true park ripper

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[Starz]

Seriously? I'll take you up on that, though I'd love to know why you're willing to give it up?

Someone beat you to it.
The reason would be I just didn’t like it.

 

[dirkclod]

Someone beat you to it.
The reason would be I just didn’t like it.

But I wanted it though
JK

 

[Crouching Leopard]

But I wanted it though
JK

I find the motion controller great to fly with, but it can also lead you (easier) into trouble if you get things wrong. I stuffed up on landing using the MC and ruined a battery. I have since printed out my own battery protectors.