What will be your most important advise to a new-be?

[Skymaster]

Well, that way you won't have to wait fore the delivery truck......

Well, that way you won't have to wait for the delivery truck
& have a well stocked spares room!

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

 

[ZeroG]

Learn how to fly on a smaller, cheap quad - practice different orientations daily for a few weeks. Also, get familiar with drone laws

 

[AlekLe]

I'm still a newbie....but I would say a few things:

1) Don't fly inside because it was raining outside the day you get it (not that I did that )

That's absolutely true!

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[tonyb]

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

baby steps, practice-practice

 

[ro7all]

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Set distance and height limits and start in beginners mode

 

[BumblerBee]

Read the manual (downloadable from DJI site), watch the turtorial videos on DJI website, then read the manual again. Look though what the app has to offer while Mavic is connected, but the props are off. Read the manual again. Use the built-in sim. Read the manual once more just to be on the safe side. Fly in Beginner mode in a wide open space, taking it slowly, and exploring the functions one by one.

 

[Ursus Horribilis]

Always do a thorough pre-flight check before you take off. I mean a proper, and thorough check-over. Make sure the props are on properly. Check that the battery is 100% charged. Not 93% but 100%. Check that the battery is properly seated. Check that all sensors are clean. Wipe them with a soft cloth (no water) if necessary. Look at your mobile device to see if you have an adequate number of satellites. Twelve to sixteen is good. Also, read the manual again, and see if there's anything I've missed on the pre-flight check.

Finally, be careful, be safe and obey the laws in your country.

Good luck, and I wish you all the best with your new hobby.

Bud

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

 

[mbsz53]

My best advice would be to always keep in mind why you bought the drone. I bought mine to take beautiful images from an amazing perspective. As I became more confident in my abilities and the operation of the drone, I found myself pushing the limits (eg. Flying farther, flying faster, testing the agility, etc.) Then I realized, 'wait a minute, that's not why I bought the bird.' I've wheeled in my excitement and zest for exploration, realizing that would eventually end in disaster. That's what insurance is for, right? Well anyway, protect your investment and always keep in mind why you bought the drone in the first place. You wouldn't buy a camera and swing it around on it's strap, or toss it across the room to a friend. Remaining reasonable, while flying your drone, will keep it around for, hopefully, a very long time.

 

[Wipster]

Rth valuable always use.

 

[butterflyslicer]

Buy a cheap $30 drone off of amazon or elsewhere and learn to fly it first. Learn how to hover it and do figure-eights.

The Mavic has GPS, which causes new pilots to believe they are actually controlling the craft when, in fact, they are only steering it, but not actually keeping it up in the air and controlling it. Unaided flight (i.e., without GPS) requires constant stick inputs just to keep the craft from drifting in one direction or another (a bit like trying to balance on top of a unicycle). Eventually, your GPS will crap out on you during a flight. If you can't control the drone without GPS, you WILL crash WHEN (not if) that happens. Learn how to hover and fly without GPS first.

This is the biggest cause of crashes I've seen from friends who had no prior drone experience and then suddenly start flying a Phantom or a Mavic. Also, it's the reason why I wish they had a manual mode on the Mavic, so you could actually practice flying without GPS.

30 bucks is going to give you a fifteen dollar controller and a fifteen dollar drone... should be able to get your money back if it flies off into the sunset without your 'knowledge'... I can make a pretty good paper plane for about 50 cents but it does not respond to commands very well.

 

[Kestrel]

Rth valuable always use.

I disagree, while yes RTH works perfectly, People need to learn how to fly back to the home point on their own and not to use RTH as a crutch.

 

[Kestrel]

30 bucks is going to give you a fifteen dollar controller and a fifteen dollar drone... should be able to get your money back if it flies off into the sunset without your 'knowledge'... I can make a pretty good paper plane for about 50 cents but it does not respond to commands very well.

There are a lot of cheap quads that fly well, you just have to learn to fly them. If you ever check out quadcopter 101's youtube channel, all he does usually is cheap quadcopter reviews and he flies them really well, you have to master the skills of flying, once you master that you can fly anything.

There are a few grades of quadcopters/drones. Toy grade which would be your cheaper drones. Hobby grade which would be the Mavic and Phantoms and Typhoons and such then Professional grade which on the low end would be the inspire series on up to full on 10,000+ dollar drones. Toy grade quads don't have any of the training wheels like hobby grade drones do, it takes practice, I started out with a toy grade quadcopter and after about a month of flying it every day I was pretty decent at flying it. If someone starts out with a Mavic and then buys a cheaper drone they wont know how to fly it.

 

[jazar]

Take off from a clear area. Fly above the trees and obstacle and keep it in sight.

 

[jazar]

I read every crash report and watched every crash video and learned from everyone else's mistakes.

 

[geigy]

I disagree, while yes RTH works perfectly, People need to learn how to fly back to the home point on their own and not to use RTH as a crutch.

Opinions differ. Here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

First, I think you would agree that it's good to try out RTH to make sure it is set up correctly, and behaves as you expect. Many people are surprised, for example, when RTH causes the drone to ascent to the configured altitude, and crash into a tree or whatever.

Second, the drone can sometimes navigate a straighter line than even a relatively experienced pilot, in a cross wind situation. Flying manually by pointing the compass toward yourself and flying straight ahead will result in a curved path if the wind is at an angle to your path (which it generally is). You will find yourself constantly having to turn into the wind as you get closer and closer to home. This curved path can be critical if you are running the battery a little on the low side, because by travelling along a curve you are using more battery, and running a higher risk of losing your drone. Doing a nice loping curved return path from a mile out to sea, landing with 7%, made a believer out of me, haha.

Similar problem flying toward any fixed point - windage will cause the drone to follow a curved path, unless you are good enough to correct for it. Unfortunately, this correction is all seat of the pants because DJI Go does not give you explicit heading or bearing readouts. I wish it did. I would be very interested in whether anyone has dealt with this issue, because I would prefer to fly manually instead of relying on RTH.

Bottom line - RTH is your friend. Think once twice and three times before cancelling it. That goes double if you have no map readout.

 

[Kestrel]

Opinions differ. Here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

First, I think you would agree that it's good to try out RTH to make sure it is set up correctly, and behaves as you expect. Many people are surprised, for example, when RTH causes the drone to ascent to the configured altitude, and crash into a tree or whatever.

Second, the drone can sometimes navigate a straighter line than even a relatively experienced pilot, in a cross wind situation. Flying manually by pointing the compass toward yourself and flying straight ahead will result in a curved path if the wind is at an angle to your path (which it generally is). You will find yourself constantly having to turn into the wind as you get closer and closer to home. This curved path can be critical if you are running the battery a little on the low side, because by travelling along a curve you are using more battery, and running a higher risk of losing your drone. Doing a nice loping curved return path from a mile out to sea, landing with 7%, made a believer out of me, haha.

Similar problem flying toward any fixed point - windage will cause the drone to follow a curved path, unless you are good enough to correct for it. Unfortunately, this correction is all seat of the pants because DJI Go does not give you explicit heading or bearing readouts. I wish it did. I would be very interested in whether anyone has dealt with this issue, because I would prefer to fly manually instead of relying on RTH.

Bottom line - RTH is your friend. Think once twice and three times before cancelling it. That goes double if you have no map readout.

Sure you should test it every now and again and I do every once and awhile just to make sure its working but sorry I prefer to be in control of my aircraft at all times. It's not that hard to come back home even from greater distances.

 

[Te Rangitira]

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Not just read the Manual, read it and understand it. Watch as many YouTube clips as you can. Start slowly, there is no need to go straight to 400 feet and 3 miles away! Get used to the remote ie how to turn the correct way, how to pan left and right. Or just do your first flight in sport mode like I did. When you find beginners, flying is easy as. It is all fun, but so much to learn. I have had about 15 flights and only just scratching the surface of the learning.
Te Rangitira

 

[Joe Hopper]

READ THE MANUAL!!!! By far most crashes are due to human error. Most crashes could be avoided by understanding the device , it's capabilities and it's limitations.

Well spoken. I've experienced 2 crashes (1 with a P3A and 1 with my Mavic), both were 100% my fault. My advice, plan your flights in advance, focus completely on what you're doing and if the worst happens, figure out what exactly went wrong and learn from your mistake(s)..quite likely it was something you did or didn't do. Most important, don't be so fast to blame the manufacturer as I see some many chose to do in these forums.

 

[LINXXL]

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Learn on a cheap drone with no flying assistance so you actually know how to fly a drone. Then instead of worrying with the Mavic you can really enjoy it.

 

[mavic53]

I have been watching Youtube videos and reading the posts here.
Would love to hear some of your suggestions.

"The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it."

Make sure you press record