Hopefully you've never made any of these mistakes, but in the hopes that others can learn from my dumber moves....



1.Get the Inspire in perfect position for the shot, sun at its back, an incredbile subject of a seal fighting a pelican for a fish, film it to the limits of battery life past the warnings, and finally bring it back to terra firma at the alst minute for a landing, then forget to stop recording before you power off the unit....footage lost.

2. Perfectly plan and time a shot of tracking a train on a parallell run, waiting patiently for the train, then executing a flawless parallell flight at full speed with the camera panned off to the train on the right, beautifully following the train and then seeing it slowly speed away, moments before you realize you didn't press the record button.

feel free to share dumb things not to do with your Inspire 1

I would strongly advise that you do not deliberately let your battery level fall below 20%. It is not good for the battery at all...

I have also forgotten to stop recording. I have developed a routine for flying which involves a bunch of checks. Checking video status is one of them

Even if you dont stop recording and turn off the inspire and you realise it at home, hopefully there is a solution. Charge the inspire but dont touch the sd card. When the battery is fully charged (since you depleted the battery, which I would recomend never do that), put it back in the inspire. Insert the sd card in the camera and turn on the bird. Wait 15 seconds and turn it off. Your file is ok now.

Kevin,

This is SO true!! I have already managed to do both of your examples. It is a bummer being a walking human error..

The preflight check list is helping me. I think we need cue cards...

Exactly ! This has happened to me with my phantom 2 even when I thought I'd planned it all only to forget to turn on the GoPro before take off when filming last years fireworks display , and a few other times with no epic footage upon landing .. At least with the inspire you can stop and start the cam ... Hopefully dji will address this loss of video upon landing ... The same thing in reverse ??

I have also forgotten to stop recording. I have developed a routine for flying which involves a bunch of checks. Checking video status is one of them.

Can you please post your checklist?

Kevin, we all learn by making mistakes in everything. Mistakes are the best lessons you will ever experience because a mistake is burnt into you mind and not doing it a second time becomes second nature and you will avoid it without even thinking about it. Just like eye/hand reactions.

mistakes are definitely a vital part of the learning process, and I think its somewhat easier to appreciate them with a little self deprecating humor about the dumb mistakes we occasionally make.

I'm using checklists now and not only do a preflight, but also a pre-leave-home, nothing worse than driving to a great location and waiting for just the right light only to realize that you forgot to pack the iPad and your iPhone doesn't have the DJI app on it, nor does it have a data signal in this beautiful but remote filming location!

Well... For me, almost losing a video file just because I forget to stop recording is a no-go and should be fixed by DJI. As a professional programmer I know that the so called file finalization process is part of the file handling process and should never depend on the enduser.

In this case the standard and (very) simplyfied process would be:

1.) User starts recording > video file is created > video data is written to video file.
2a. ) User stops recording > after the last video data are written into the video file, video file is closed (finalized).
2b.) System shut down initiated (because battery empty, user switched off device, etc.) > after the last video data are written into the video file, video file is closed (finalized) > initiate system shut down.

The issue here seems to be
1.) only 2a.) is considerated.
2.) 2b.) does not work as it should.

As I sayed before, this kind of processes should be handled by the operating system (firmware) itself, not by the enduser.

one guy(not me, yet) i heard about went to take his micro sd card out, and it shot like 6 ft out of the trunk and landed in lush green grass never to be seen again.  the spring is strong....

I agree, shutdown process should include finalizing and stopping recording before shutting off completely. Totally programmable and should be addressed by DJI in a firmware update.

ge0se Posted at 2015-3-19 03:41
I agree, shutdown process should include finalizing and stopping recording before shutting off compl ...

Hopefully around 2017

brianmlevy@me.c Posted at 2015-3-16 00:45
I would strongly advise that you do not deliberately let your battery level fall below 20%. It is no ...

Battery care in manual says to ensure you completely drain your battery on every 10th charge....

brianmlevy@me.c Posted at 2015-3-16 00:45
I would strongly advise that you do not deliberately let your battery level fall below 20%. It is no ...

Why would they suggest emptying your battery to as low as 7% every 10 charges? To ruin your battery faster?

Another thing to avoid- I find that when I flying in places where I'm nervous (over water, ravines, etc) that I tend to forget to raise my landing gear. I've gotten better. lol

That's a good one Chad! It looks like it will topple over with the gear down. My stupid pilot thing seems to be forgetting to turn of wifi. It does make a difference!

Talking about turning off WiFi... Would be great if the DJI Pilot App optionaly alerted you that WiFi is on before starting the engines or even when starting the App. Please consider implementing this, DJI

kevin@thinkpsa. Posted at 2015-3-19 02:53
mistakes are definitely a vital part of the learning process, and I think its somewhat easier to app ...

I agree with you there Kevin a pre- leaving home checklist is a good idea. I went out to take shots at a Castle Cornet in the middle of the night all lit up with floodlights. Preparing to get some awesome pictures, setup the I1 ready to take off, NO SD card! It was still at home in my pc!
What a Plum!

Dangair Posted at 2015-3-19 11:02
Why would they suggest emptying your battery to as low as 7% every 10 charges? To ruin your batter ...

I always bring my batteries down around 7% and let them cool for a few hours or even a day or two before recharging. I get great battery life and once recharged they are a full capacity as new.

Thats odd. I've forgot to stop recording mutiple times before shutting down. None of my footage has ever been lost.
I guess I got the luck of the draw.

I have also forgot to press record all together....
Wasn't my happiest moment. lol