After reading thread after thread about flyaway's, lost drones and dropping out of skies, I'm absoluely terrified to fly this thing..lol
I feel my nerves tense up as soon as it gets over 10 meters..

Maybe I should consider RC cars?.

i never crashed my drones , just fly safe & enjoy .

This is a video from my friend Dirty Bird ,  that will encourage you to fly and fear to disappear

Hi there, I appreciate your time sharing your thoughts here in DJI Forum. Please don't worry and don't feel nervous when flying your drone. I suggest you practice and watch more video tutorial on how to fly safely to avoid any of this scenario. Please fly with caution. If you have further question, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you.

I still have all three of mine and they are all still flying and performing perfectly.

You just need to fly to build confidence .

Ive never had a flyaway, crash or had my drones drop out of the sky. Follow some simple rules as stated in many posts within this forum and you will be fine.
Those that do have flyaways etc mostly dont follow the basic rules and cause the demise of their drones themselves.
Respect your drone and understand its capabilities and you will have many years of good flying fun.
Read and understand were others fail and dont go making the same mistakes that they do.

It is nervous at first but the more you fly the more relaxed you will become as your confidence improves - like learning to drive a car or ride a bike. Do your research and take your time. Don't see how far and fast it can go on your first flight!

@Anthony8858, you will likely never experience a flyaway if you follow all of the tips in this article:

Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your DJI Drone (The Complete Guide)

I felt the same. You won't often hear from people not having problems here.  You will gain more confidence each time you fly. Just "always make sure that your home point has been updated and look at it to be sure before starting the motors"!  Keep it in visual line of sight and avoid sudden movements like letting go of the sticks because it will try to brake and stop on a dime. I believe this is the cause of the many cracked bodies you hear of. After over 2 years I'm amazed of the solid performance every time I fly.

Aloha Anthony,

     Welcome to the club.  After three years of flying DJI products, I still feel that way.  It helps you plan ahead better and to be more cautious when flying.

     Even though you scored big time getting your Phantom, you still spent a lot of money and that money gets compromised in a crash.  None of us has that much money to spare and DJI keeps dangling new purchases in front of our star-struck eyes, making us drool.  So, it pays to fly safe.

     Take little steps, one at a time.  Keep track of what you are doing with notes, if needed, and keep the notes where you know where they are so you can access them.  This means you have to be a little more organized than you normally are.

     Oh, and get an external hard drive for your computer to hold all the videos and photos you will be shooting.  You should start with a minimum of a 1 Terabyte hard drive.  (It can be used up in no time.)

     You will also have to get a mid-level gaming computer so you can edit the videos and then store your videos and photos on the external hard drive.  The reason you need a gaming computer to edit and a gaming tablet to fly, is because there are a great many gaming computers and tablets out there, so competition is keeping the price down, and gaming and flying DJI products place similar demands on the computer and tablet.  Buy a drone computer and they will double the price as a specialty product.

     On another thread here on the Forum, someone was asking, "What is the best editing software?"  The answer is the FREE DaVinci Resolve!  But most everyday computers cannot run the program.  Editing can be very demanding.  You are not there yet, but it allows you to edit your phone videos to.  Go to Phantomhelp.com for a list of editing software, some of it is free like DaVinci Resolve.  I prefer to have a number of different editing programs, only one I paid money for, but others came with products I did buy.

     DaVinci Resolve is probably free because it does amazing editing and the color correction cannot be beat without extremely expensive software.  DaVinci Resolve also sells a lot of editing and recording hardware, so they will easily be able to spoil you with their free editing software and you will spend your "Professional" money on their "Professional" hardware.  Their products are amazing, in a similar way that DJI products are amazing.

     You will need to plan ahead and that will help budget the money you will have to spend eventually.  Getting the Phantom and an appropriate tablet are only the first of the investment (I hope you got an appropriate tablet).  You will need to plan the rest of your budget, so you need to do your research.  This Forum is a great place to do that research and you are getting a lot of good input so far as I have been able to tell from reading your threads.

     In summary, being a nervous Nelly is due to the risks involved in flying your investment.  Your investment is not finished yet (and probably never will be).  So you need to approach this very carefully and understand that your feelings are the same as the rest of us feel - even after years of flying.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

msinger Posted at 2018-10-16 14:31
@Anthony8858, you will likely never experience a flyaway if you follow all of the tips in this article:

Prevent a Crash or Flyaway with Your DJI Drone (The Complete Guide)

76.  Don't fly aggressively when you are approaching low battery.

  :-)  

One thing you need to remember, folks with issues post on forums looking for answers or to complain. Other than the beautiful photos and awesome videos, few post about how great and problem free their drones are. I have 6 drones, never really had any issues that weren't self inflicted. So, fly, enjoy and be safe.

One good thing about reading of (other people's) disasters is the opportunity to learn from their unfortunate experience.
There are plenty of things that could go wrong and it's good to learn what they are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.

The other good thing is that the more you read, the more you realise that while there are some genuine cases of bad luck, most issues could have been prevented if the operator knew what they were doing.  And you realise that Phantoms don't just fly away.

Drones are cheap compared to racing RC cars.  

You got me to thinking, if I had the dollars I spent of RC cars over the last 30 years i wonder how many full meal deal Inspires with all the goodies I could buy?

Can't say I've never crashed a drone, but everytime I did it was because I did something stupid.  And all the repair cost totaled up wouldn't buy me a Mavic.

IMHO there are always more negative than positive comments on the forum,  in fact on just about any forum !??
Don't worry about the few problems you read about,  but consider the millions of happy droners that fly day after day without any drama.
Works for me ............

PS:  I just wish I could get up in the air ........  It's not happening here at present due to commitments - Bugger !

i want to buy phantom

zoziano Posted at 2018-10-17 12:04
i want to buy phantom

Even though I'm a first time pilot, I went for the Phantom pro 4 v2.. I figured, if I'm gonna learn, I'll might as well learn right.
I've been flying exclusively in beginner mode, and reading the manual back and forth and a few times.
The P4Pv2 has some nice features and I'm sure it will be a blast once I'm confident in the AC as well as my piloting skills.

Hi Dirty Bird - what a ripper of a video - thanks for sharing it.
Droning is one helluva hobby eh !

As this is primarily a support forum, you mostly see the issues,  folks have no reason to even look up the forum if all is well so you dont often hear the good stories, there will be millions, probably.....

The bottom line is, you bought it to use it.
Else, it will be sat in the cupboard, not used and basically depreciating in value(not that was your main concern when purchased) as newer more advanced models come out all the time.

You could be flying 10m away and it crashes, falls out of the sky and hits concrete and game over, you could be flying 10m away over water, motor fails and game over or you use it as intended, enjoy it, else sell it.

Worse case scenario you lose it over water, so ok its gone, you still have the remote, yes you will be mad, but you will have a funny story and buy a new drone, worse things happen at sea.

If you can afford to buy a drone in the first place, you can probably afford to replace it.

You don’t want to get into a scenario, hey it's not safe to leave the house at night or don’t swim out of your depth.

You can try to minimise risk by checking the wind conditions, is there any risk of a bird strike, are the batteries charged, are the props on properly etc.

Logically, the worse case senario is a new drone………how much is that?  Come to terms with that cost and then enjoy, if you are that worried, take out insurance cover.

Funny enough, someone I knew had a Phantom 2, they bought it a year or so after I bought my first drone and they crashed it over a small lake, so I went down there, we found it and then we rescued it and lived to fly another day!
The first part of the film is from their recovered drone, it was there for a few days before the recovery(Nov 2014) fresh water above the wier so cold.

KEJ Posted at 2018-10-20 22:00
The bottom line is, you bought it to use it.
Else, it will be sat in the cupboard, not used and basically depreciating in value(not that was your main concern when purchased) as newer more advanced models come out all the time.

If you can afford to buy a drone in the first place, you can probably afford to replace it.

Yeah, thats not always the case, i sold my camera so i could get the P4P and then buy the accessories over the course of a year, 3 batteries, D1 backpack, etc, etc.....
NO way on this earth could i come up with the spondoolies to buy another......

Bashy Posted at 2018-10-25 19:36
If you can afford to buy a drone in the first place, you can probably afford to replace it.

Yeah, thats not always the case, i sold my camera so i could get the P4P and then buy the accessories over the course of a year, 3 batteries, D1 backpack, etc, etc.....

I appreciate what you are saying, but likewise I expect you are not on the breadline.
Therefore, you either consider insurance or never fly it and play it safe.

I would not be happy if I lost mine, but then if we can afford drones as toys, costing many hundreds of pounds, then I am sure we have bread on the table.
Also if this happened on regular basis I think all of us would be in trouble, but as a one off over several years, it has the potential to happen.

Most people I know at sometime in the lives have had an accient in their cars, sometimes their fault, other times someother clown, do we all stop driving as a result?

In life I have usually found those making the most noise about having no money are usually minted and basically tight (again not all, but very many people).

Being a "Nervous Nelly" is nothing more than the adrenaline that flows through my veins every time I fly.
I love it. It's part of what keeps me coming back for more.
Fly, fly, fly more and fly safe.

KEJ Posted at 2018-10-26 03:26
I appreciate what you are saying, but likewise I expect you are not on the breadline.
Therefore, you either consider insurance or never fly it and play it safe.

You expect too much really, i am on permanent sick so closer to the breadline than you think and than many are, i will leave it there cause the car part is just wrong and shouldnt be compared to drones and im not sure why you felt the need to add the last paragraph? I am the one talking about not having much money, you think i'm loaded? damn lol evidently you've not seen my car......

1Eagle Posted at 2018-10-26 15:27
Being a "Nervous Nelly" is nothing more than the adrenaline that flows through my veins every time I fly.
I love it. It's part of what keeps me coming back for more.
Fly, fly, fly more and fly safe.

Very true actually

Bashy Posted at 2018-10-26 20:37
You expect too much really, i am on permanent sick so closer to the breadline than you think and than many are, i will leave it there cause the car part is just wrong and shouldnt be compared to drones and im not sure why you felt the need to add the last paragraph? I am the one talking about not having much money, you think i'm loaded? damn lol evidently you've not seen my car......

Two things here:

Firstly, I would not want to cause any offence, so would apologise as the comment is not directly intended for you and I did also say “again not all, but very many people”.

Secondly, and all of this is relative, if we can afford to spend between £1000 - £2000 on toys, compared to many people in both the UK and the world, we would be classed
as either being well off or of having our priorities wrong if not.

Finally, I am also aware in life, circumstances can suddenly change and after all that is said and done, we are here to comment/exchange ideas/add colour and really to help each other and to enjoy our hobbies.