So I bought the Phantom 4 Pro a few days ago and am waiting for it to get here. I have been reading the forums and am now terrified to fly it lol. Any tips for someone new to drones?

That’s a hell of a drone to start with.  Take your time, read the online flight manual.  Baby steps...

If you begin your journey in Beginner Mode, you will be super fine..

The forum is always here to help guide and mentor you.

You could also look for other RC pilots in your area for tips and helpful guidance.
Thankfully, the DJI drones fly themselves, so you need very little experience if any, to get started.

Congrats on the fine drone, you will be very happy with it. I envy the new drone pilot, in you.


RedHotPoker

Start in beginner mood, sit and play with all the settings to get used to and remember where to go in the sitting. Have fun and good luck.......p.s. pay the littel extra for the dji care

Use your flight simulator and practice, practice ,practice, take your time and read thru all your manuals.

Don't update right out of the box.  It should fly fine.

DON'T UPDATE if it asks it can cause problems with some & theres no need so just fly it and get used to it in beginners mode, it will fly just fine. Mine is still on 1.4.0703 flies/films superbly.

I was the same way before I flew my P4P the first way. It's only natural to be concerned. There are many videos on Youtube to help you.

Just took my P4P+ into the sky for the first time yesterday.  I'd never flown a drone before but spent time using the simulator for about a week.  I read a lot before buying and flying it as well as watched a lot of videos.  The other thing that helped me was beginner mode.  The first take-off I did was automatic but I did all the landings and takeoffs after in manual mode.  I made a quick checklist before flying with a few "what to do if this happens" scenarios.  I watched a number of videos where people panicked, chose poorly, made mistake after mistake until they crashed their aircraft.   I was determined not to do this.   I took my time in preparing for my first flight.

Also, I didn't update the firmware.  I needed to establish a benchmark so I could judge the airworthiness of the aircraft.   Give yourself space to fly so you have some room for error.  My first few flights are going to be all about airmanship.  Once I feel comfortable with that, I will explore the camera functions and features.  After that, I will try out some of the other modes.  It's all about stick time for me so I can be comfortable with the aircraft, my controllability of it, and honing my flights skills.  

Good luck and have fun!

Watch out for trees and remember to set you RTH altitude above any hazards.

Most of the horror stories you read about on the forum are from those who thought they could fly without doing the research.  The Phantom 4 Pro is a very stable platform and has the "will to live" if you set the aircraft up properly in the GO 4 APP. Don't take it out of the box, throw a battery in it and push the sticks to the max. Its isn't a racer, it is a flying computer and camera,...and if you keep thinking of it as such, you will do just fine!

Aerial-Image Posted at 2018-2-12 23:29
DON'T UPDATE if it asks it can cause problems with some & theres no need so just fly it and get used to it in beginners mode, it will fly just fine. Mine is still on 1.4.0703 flies/films superbly.

What is the latest firmware version?  I just bought mine a few days ago, and I believe the update was 1.3...?

Latest vers is currently 1.5.300 - if you go into the app on the ABOUT section for the AC it will tell you what the drone is  on for FW version.

I started out with the P4P+ for about 2 mont ago.
I had the same feeling as You, but just take it easy, and give it time. Be familar with
the sticks movement, and how the drone react. Practis in a big open field without
any trees or other obstacles, and keep your fingers from the S-mode and ATTI-mode.

Dont be scared about all the bad things written here on the forum, but be aware of
what people experience. Most of the time people (including my self) only complain
about problems here, but remember there is millions of devices out there without
any issues. We never here from them

I would sugest you NOT upgrade the drone to the most resent firmware (.0300) because
there has been/is bugs found in that version. My drone is on the .0602 version, and got
no issues that I know of.

Make your self a good pree-flight-checklist you follow everytime you deside to fly your drone.
Its a good thing to incooperate already from the start of your dronecareear

Things like (remember full charged batteries, fresh SD card, charged phone/controler, spare batteries) could
be be on the "before-I-leave-home" list.
Before takeoff (check the drone fysicaly for any damage, including the propellers, dobblecheck if the propellers
is correct mountet, wait for optimal GPS 12+ is locked, check for any other errors like compass or IMU errors,
inteferrence and so)
Then when everything is ok, all the fun can begin

I only got a total of 4 hours flight time over the past two month because of windy weather, but feel realy comfortable
using my drone now. Just give it time and dont rush.

Thanks for all of the great tips everyone! Its been bad weather so I haven't had much of a chance to fly my P4P but moving from the Spark to that has been a fun and interesting ride so far So far so good!

Until you can operate without having to stop and think about which stick does what, be very cautious.
After that remain cautious!!
It's when pilots get too comfortable and complacent that things go horribly wrong!!

dont be, just practise and you be just fine