What should I be practicing?

[ReadyKilowatt]

Now that the initial wow has started to wear off I'm trying to start a practice regimen. I really want to get beyond randomly shooting in hunt-and-pounce mode, as well as be efficient and repeatable with my flying. With that in mind, I was wondering if there were better ways to practice than others. This week, for example, I've been doing is picking an object and attempting to orbit around it while keeping it in the center of the frame. Keep in mind I've only been flying about 6 months now, so maybe even that is a little too much. I know from studying music that a lot of the work is muscle memory and stick time is the only way, but bad habits are as easy to learn as good, so I'd like to make sure I don't have to unlearn later.

Also any opinions of some of the online courses like theDroneU.com? I used Remote Pilot 101 for my part 107 certification and that was great for passing the test but now I need to actually learn to fly. I listen to the DroneU podcast and while they seem a little too exited for my taste I do get some useful information from it. Just not sure I want to spend $50/month for how-to videos sight unseen.

 

[james_mav]

What are you planning to do with your 107 certification?

 

[dirkclod]

I practice my stick moves all the time flying something .
I'll use my P2V in ATTI when it's brezzy or my others
doing figure 8's forward , backwards and sideways .
You can come up with anything but there's nothing going to make you smooth other than stick time .
JMO

 

[frankiez]

I practice my stick moves all the time flying something .
I'll use my P2V in ATTI when it's brezzy or my others
doing figure 8's forward , backwards and sideways .
You can come up with anything but there's nothing going to make you smooth other than stick time .
JMO

Zackly! I have 3 palm trees in my front yard and i practice doing a slalom between them.

 

[Former Member]

In commercial aerial photography, learning to fly is just a third of the equation. The other 2 parts are making your customers happy and making a profit. It does make sense to hone your flying skills before you start to try and get business, but it also makes sense to figure out the other 2/3's as you practice your flying.

Like what @james_mav said, what are you planning to shoot? You got your 107, what's going to be your target market? It's never too early to start thinking about that, and that's what you should be focusing on. If you plan on doing real estate work, then practice shooting homes or commercial lots. Learning to fly is the easy part. It's making your potential customers happy that's the hard part. You can be the best pilot in the world, but if you dont have any customers, or you cant make your work look good, then it will be an uphill battle.

If you are just focusing on your flying skills for now, and aren't worried about the commercial end quite yet, then like @dirkclod said, there's nothing better than stick time. However, it doesnt matter how well you fly, but what the end result of your flying is. My advice would be to get up there, be as smooth and slow as possible if you are going to shoot stationary targets, shoot alot, and then edit what you shot. Editing will teach you a lesson on how not to waste flight time by shooting things you will not be able to use (sell) later. Take a mixture of stills and video, then pretend you are doing it for a customer and put a package together. Learn to use post production tools such as Premiere or Final Cut, and ask your friends and family what they think looks good.

Aerial photographers have to be part artist, part mechanic, part pilot, and part businessman. Not a easy job when you consider that any of these jobs take alot of practice and polish and experience to get right.

You might also start looking in to liability insurance companies, and drone damage protection. When you fly for a living, sometimes it's not a matter of if you will crash, but more a matter of how many times. I have repaired a good number of customers drones repeatedly who crashed while they were trying to get that perfect shot.

As for me, I am 10% artist, 30% pilot, 30% mechanic, and 30% businessman. Not a good combination to survive in aerial photography which is why I repair them, instead of fly them, to make money. I rely on my wife the artist to tell me what looks good and what doesn't.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

What are you planning to do with your 107 certification?

I think I would be pretty well suited to tower inspections. I currently am employed in the cable industry (although I work inside plant these days I used to be certified to climb poles and use aerial bucket lifts). I also do volunteer tower work for the local ham radio club repeaters and enjoy being out in the field as opposed to in the city.

Then again, I've been an amateur photographer for about 35 years now, started out my career in video production and really enjoy the creativity in photography. So while I might not get to utilize cinematographic shots inspecting towers, on weekends I might still want to do something creative.

But the way I see it, having the ability to perform the difficult moves and be consistent while flying will still make me a better pilot, which is kind of important when flying around thousands of dollars of equipment.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

Zackly! I have 3 palm trees in my front yard and i practice doing a slalom between them.

That's kind of what I've been doing, flying around an open space full of scrub trees and sagebrush. I'm just trying to figure out some simple moves I should be working on as part of a daily practice session (think about musicians playing scales and arpeggios to get warmed up). I think 4 or 6 basic moves that I should be able to master and then combine in different ways when actually working.

 

[dbyantis]

Now that the initial wow has started to wear off I'm trying to start a practice regimen. I really want to get beyond randomly shooting in hunt-and-pounce mode, as well as be efficient and repeatable with my flying. With that in mind, I was wondering if there were better ways to practice than others. This week, for example, I've been doing is picking an object and attempting to orbit around it while keeping it in the center of the frame. Keep in mind I've only been flying about 6 months now, so maybe even that is a little too much. I know from studying music that a lot of the work is muscle memory and stick time is the only way, but bad habits are as easy to learn as good, so I'd like to make sure I don't have to unlearn later.

Also any opinions of some of the online courses like theDroneU.com? I used Remote Pilot 101 for my part 107 certification and that was great for passing the test but now I need to actually learn to fly. I listen to the DroneU podcast and while they seem a little too exited for my taste I do get some useful information from it. Just not sure I want to spend $50/month for how-to videos sight unseen.

I practise flying figure 8s for yawing control, both fast and slow.

 

[geigy]

What others said about practice. Plus, watch youtubes from people with good technique. Ken Heron is very silly (which I love), but his videos are very well polished and edited. If you go back a year or so you can see that his technique has gotten much smoother, which gives you a realistic goal to shoot for. His videos are well edited and organized too, which in the end is probably more important than raw technique.

 

[frankiez]

I currently am employed in the cable industry (although I work inside plant these days I used to be certified to climb poles and use aerial bucket lifts).

Cable industry, eh? So do I. Been installing fiber optics (OUTSIDE PLANT)to consumers for about 13 years now. I have brought up the idea of doing inspections of aerial plant, towers, poles, etc to some higher ups utilizing drones. I think that just the savings in manpower alone (no need to run bucket trucks up and down, ladders, and safety concerns) would be enough to peak their interest but they seem to be like "well, we have to do a study, yada, yada, yada"

I would be interested to converse with you via PM/chat.

 

[ReadyKilowatt]

Thanks all for the tips. Yesterday I started out flying in circles using only the right stick while watching the map to see if I could fly the same path over and over. Not the most exciting thing to watch for sure!

One thing I picked up on right away was adjusting the EXP and gain settings to get a little faster reaction times made a big difference in how well I could predict where the craft was going to go. Pretty sloppy with the default settings for sure. Also seem to spend a lot of time out at the stops too but settled down as the flight went on.