I'm now sufficiently comfortable with Sport mode, that I'm going to take the plunge (hopefully not literally...) into Manual mode on the 1st, as planned. I could use some advice from more expienced FPVers! Specifically, control stick adjustment.
I read the FPV manual, and will again before I go to Manual, but I have no idea about what might be"good" stick settings, in terms of "resistance" and "centering". Assume that my primary motivation for my first Manaul mode flights is to simply not crash.

What stick settings woud you recommend for my initial transition?

Also, a question come up in my Sport mode flying, as my maneuvers have become progessively less sane. There's a rock formation that I've named Guardian Rock, which is about 600 ft ATL up the opposite wall of the canyon, with the canyon ridge at about 1100 ft ATL. For the last several flight days I've been doing "straffing runs" on Guardian Rock, getting gradually lower and closer. What I'll do is zip by on a close pass of GR at Warp 6, then do a hard pull up, a turn at the top, and then a dive back down. At least, that's what I try to do.

It seems to "stall out" at the top, and won't transition immediately from the climb, to the descent. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? I'm modifying the flight profile so this happens less, but I'm just making it up as I go along.

I also regularly get the "Gimbal at maximum angle", or whatever the actual message is. I assume that's just a system limitaton that I need to live with?

I've got a good sense now for the limits of my "control bubble" in this highly variable and challenging terrain. I haven't caused a "loss of signal" RTH for at least 3 flights now!

I also invented something! But don't try this at home...

I found out how to induce vertigo while flopping around the sky! In my flights up to now, I've tended to look mostly down, with goggles on my head. For some reason I decided that I want to look straight forward instad, rather than down, while flying. That seems to work fine, when I remember to do it, but what does NOT work fine is to move my head while I'm doing something squirrely.

Quease-O-Rama!

Easy enough to fix...just stop moving...but it definitely caught me by surprise. During my Instrument Ratnig training, my instructor had to work really hard to induce vertigo in me while I was wearing the foggles. He did it, but he had to invent some maneourers more radical than he had learned in his instructor training. No harm, no foul, we both enjoyed it.

But FPVers beware! Don't move your head sharply, while also throwing the aircraft around sharply!

:-)

TCS

I think you're overthinking most of it. But then again most of the people in this form seem to overthink most of it. I think you'll do fine. You've done more prep work than most.

I've gotten kids who have never flown anything, to fly in manual for a few moments atlest.  For your 1st flights leave the control sticks as they are. Go up to height switching to manual and just putter around for a few seconds. If you get in trouble hit the pause button. It'll bring you to a stop and drop you down into sport mode

After you get used to it go ahead and take the centering off of the left stick. Good luck and I'm hoping to see some good videos from you in manual soon.

@Chaosrider the stick transition is easy, because the goggles tell you where you need to put them. Here's what you'll do.... take off in N/S mode, fly up and out of the way, while gaining some altitiutde (give yourself plenty of room for mistakes). When you get to your desired location, you will stop the drone into a hover and flip the switch from N/S over to M. WHEN you flip the swith over to M, you will see two little indicators at the bottom of your goggles which will represent stick placement. There will be little green markings that will show you where the sticks need to be placed, in order for the UAV to transition to M Mode. The right stick will need to be centered, and the left stick will need to be a little below center, about 3/8th of the way down it's range of motion. Once you have lined your sticks into those green areas, the indicators will disappear and you will now be in M Mode.
Once you have achieved M Mode, you will NOT want to let go of the left stick, because the stick will return to center (until you adjust the tension) and will give your UAV throttle. Once you're in M Mode, just start flying around by primarily moving your right stick and make small movements with your left stick to keep the height about where you want to be. It'll seem scary and exciting, but will be a LOT of fun! A few things to consider....

• Make sure to change the toggle switch to allow Manual Mode in the goggles, before taking off.
• Only turn on M Mode, do not adjust the attitude restriction yet, get used to flying in M Mode before doing that.
• When on the ground, after everything is connected and before takeoff, switch to M Mode and adjust your gimble orientation. I would recommend starting at 10°. Then switch back to N/S Mode to take off.
• Keep your finger on the brake, left side of the controller. I also fly with my fingers off the buttons on the right side of the controller, so I don't get confused by accident.
  The right side of the controller controls your camera controls AND the motor function, in M MODE. If you accidently hit the motor Start/Stop quickly (possibly by mistake, thinking it's the brake), you could kill the motors and the UAV will plummet. Never done that, but have read about people doing it. Either way, my fingers are never on the right buttons, except when I start my motors in M Mode.
• Use the brake button at any time you have concerns about possibly losing control. It will take you to a complete stop and switch you back to N Mode. The physical switch won't move though, so once you've got your heartrate back down, remember to flip the switch back to N Mode, before landing or deciding if you want to go back into M Mode.
  

Happy flying and I'm looking forward to seeing more videos!

Oh, and to answer your other question. The Gimble Message is probably happening when you're trying to dive or accelerate at a high pitch, and the gimble is trying to remain fixed on the horizon (My guess). But, you're pushing the drone hard and the gimble is hitting it's max range.  If that's the case, you won't see that happen in M Mode, since the gimble stays at a fixed position and only changes according to the pitch of your UAV. I only get that message in M Mode, if I hit the breaks while going fast, and the drone has to adjust it's position to stop. The message pops up, then goes away, after the gimble is back in the position it's supposed to be in. That all happens in < 1 second.

As for moving your head with your goggles on, that's something I still struggle with, at times. I try to start flying by looking straight ahead, but my head always ends up looking up and to the right, slightly. It happens without me even noticing it usually and then I do notice it and bring it back to looking straight, but almost every time, it goes back to looking up and slightly right. It's weird but I'm glad I don't get nauseous when I move my head around with my goggles on.

SgtRay Posted at 5-29 11:17
I think you're overthinking most of it. But then again most of the people in this form seem to overthink most of it. I think you'll do fine. You've done more prep work than most.

I've gotten kids who have never flown anything, to fly in manual for a few moments atlest.  For your 1st flights leave the control sticks as they are. Go up to height switching to manual and just putter around for a few seconds. If you get in trouble hit the pause button. It'll bring you to a stop and drop you down into sport mode

Hmmm...my concern about this scenario is that if the left stick is left with its regular settings, that it will tend to move to some middle range power setting, and that if I wanted less power than that, I'd have to hold the stick down against the tendency to re-center.

Is that right, or am I missing something?

This certainly won't be the first time that I've over-thunk something!

Tomorrow is the day...

Thx,

TCS

Chaosrider Posted at 5-31 06:55
Hmmm...my concern about this scenario is that if the left stick is left with its regular settings, that it will tend to move to some middle range power setting, and that if I wanted less power than that, I'd have to hold the stick down against the tendency to re-center.

Is that right, or am I missing something?

You are correct.

Keep in mind I recommended this for 1 flight 1 time. Also keep in mind I've done it it's a minor inconvenience.  You can change it immediately. You can change it on day one when you pull out the Box. I was just recommending that if it made you feel better for the flight.

You'll do fine.

This is not one of my videos but I saw it today and thought I should post it here..
Don't make a big deal out of manual flight. If it was a ordinary drone the work being put into it would be great! But this drone is so computer controlled that misshaps are not really that big a deal as long as you have altitude

https://youtu.be/juYz_u9ru2s

RH009 Posted at 5-29 13:55
@Chaosrider the stick transition is easy, because the goggles tell you where you need to put them. Here's what you'll do.... take off in N/S mode, fly up and out of the way, while gaining some altitiutde (give yourself plenty of room for mistakes). When you get to your desired location, you will stop the drone into a hover and flip the switch from N/S over to M. WHEN you flip the swith over to M, you will see two little indicators at the bottom of your goggles which will represent stick placement. There will be little green markings that will show you where the sticks need to be placed, in order for the UAV to transition to M Mode. The right stick will need to be centered, and the left stick will need to be a little below center, about 3/8th of the way down it's range of motion. Once you have lined your sticks into those green areas, the indicators will disappear and you will now be in M Mode.
Once you have achieved M Mode, you will NOT want to let go of the left stick, because the stick will return to center (until you adjust the tension) and will give your UAV throttle. Once you're in M Mode, just start flying around by primarily moving your right stick and make small movements with your left stick to keep the height about where you want to be. It'll seem scary and exciting, but will be a LOT of fun! A few things to consider....

OK, this is new for me.

So you don't take-off in Manual mode? Is that an FPV newb training suggestion, or is it no possible to take-off in Manual mode.

I think your suggestion to keep my right fingers of the buttons is a good idea.

I'm not at all sure that I like the idea of leaving the left stick in the "self-centering mode". I want to be able to set the throttle somewhere, and have it stay there until I tell it to change, rather than constantly having to positively control the throttle position.

The more I think about it, the less comfortable I am with the notion of taking off in N/S mode, and then changing modes in flight to a mode that I've never used before.

I wish the "Reply" button in this forum SW didn't grey out the rest of the screen while I'm composing my replies. I like to be able to refer back to the message that I'm replying to, while composing my responses.

Well, something will happen...

Thx,

TCS

Chaosrider Posted at 5-31 10:13
OK, this is new for me.

So you don't take-off in Manual mode? Is that an FPV newb training suggestion, or is it no possible to take-off in Manual mode.

I just saw this, but also saw in the FPVPilots forum that you already flew M Mode,so you'll have to let us know your thoughts and how it all worked out, minus the pine tree.

RH009 Posted at 6-1 18:40
I just saw this, but also saw in the FPVPilots forum that you already flew M Mode,so you'll have to let us know your thoughts and how it all worked out, minus the pine tree.

Taking off in Normal mode was definitely the right call! My biggest resistance to it was not having a clear step-by-step understanding of the transition from Normal mode to Manual. So here that is, in case anyone else might find it useful:

1) Take off in Normal mode
2) Go the practice area that you've selected, and hover at a minimum of 200 ft. If you live in highly variable terrain, as I do, make it 300 ft. The reason for this is that when you complete the transition to Manual mode, the drone becomes unstable, and the altitude provides the time to recover.
3) Punch the 5D "button", and go to "Settings"
4) Select "Control"
5) Select "Remote Control"
6) Select "Button Customization"
7) Go to "Custom Mode", and select "Manual"
8) Back out of the "Settings" area
9) Flip the switch on the Remote Controller to "Manual"
10) An image of the control sticks will appear in the goggles. It will ask you to move the sticks to follow a green line that appears for the left stick. Do that
11) It will then tell you that you are in Manual mode.
12) On your first Manual flight, plan to hit the Brake button within a couple of seconds of going into Manual mode, because the aircraft will start to behave strangely. This will put you back in Normal one.
13) Once you are stabilized in Normal mode, you can return to Manual mode just by moving the switch on the Remote Controller to Normal, and then back to Manual.
15 Lather, rinse, repeat, until you get good at it.

Now, that's what *I* mean, when I say that I want a CHECKLIST! ! DJI should put something very much like that in the manual for the FPV.

My first flight consisted of about 4 short Manual segments, followed by the Brake. But I got better with each one. The second flight was a good deal more eventful.

"I did indeed!

It's possible that I could have taken off in Manual mode successfully, but not likely. Eventually it will be easy, but not soon.

The root cause of the crash was overconfidence, based on how well the first flight had gone. The second flight had gone even better; I was sort of in control of the drone in Manual for the entire 3:30 Manual portion of the flight.

While in one of my favorite thinking positions, I realized that I could correct the rearward and downward drift I had encountered during my first flight by adding a bit of power, and pitching forward a bit. That worked! So I headed down the canyon, a route that I know exceedingly well.

But I wasn't really in control of it. I was able to keep it in the air, and keep it moving in some semblance of the direction that I wanted, but I was sloppy. I haven't yet developed the muscle memory skills to be able to make small adjustments smoothly.

Still, when I got down around the Flag, my usual turn-around milestone, I was indeed able to turn it around, and head toward home, in a random walk sort of way. I was bombing along at about 55 mph, wavering around in the sky, and went a bit past the house, since I still had battery power.

The proximate cause of the crash was that by the time of this second Manual flight of the day, the wind had picked up substantially. When I started flying backward during a gust, at a much lower altitude than I wanted, all I wanted to do was go UP, and I didn't have the knowledge or automatic responses to make it do that. The flight leading up to that had been fully satisfactory as a second Manual flight, even though sloppy.

What I should have done, as soon as it wasn't acting at all the way I wanted, was to eject, and hit the Brake button. But I decided to try to pull it out.

Bad plan! Over confident.

The good news is, I replaced the prop and put in a fresh battery, and it flew like a champ, as always, in N/S mode, even though I was getting high wind warnings. The gimbal works fine, and the lens appears undamaged. The friction on the throttle is annoying when flying in N/S mode, but I scan the instruments sufficiently reliably that it was just an annoyance, and not a problem.

More Manual flights planned for today!

The big question now is, what do I do with that punctured battery? Is there any recycle value to it? Is there any reason that I should send it back to DJI? Or...? I haven't quite figured out a mechanism by which the battery could get punctured, while the aircraft itself suffers no more than a bent prop.

I'm not at all sure that I like Manual mode. I'm a big auto-pilot/cruse-control kinda guy. I just want it for the extra power that it opens up, but that could be done with an "Extreme Sport" setting that give you full power, while retaining the flight stability systems. I think I'd like that better.

But we'll see!

8-)"

SgtRay Posted at 5-31 09:41
This is not one of my videos but I saw it today and thought I should post it here..
Don't make a big deal out of manual flight. If it was a ordinary drone the work being put into it would be great! But this drone is so computer controlled that misshaps are not really that big a deal as long as you have altitude

The recovery process when you hit Brake is wicked fast. It just gets it done!

During the second flight, I found myself frequently flying along at a weird angle to the horizon. Particularly as a long-time fixed wing pilot, it's not at all intuitive that if you bank while turning, the bank just stays there. My inclination is to think that once I let the right stick re-center after a bank, that the aircraft will level off as well, but that's not what happens.

At one point, it seemed like I was flying along "level" based on the slope of the ridge, which at that point is at about a 45º angle to the horizon! I'm a bit surprised that I could keep it flying more or less in the direction I wanted at that bank angle. It certainly wasn't something I did consciously.

Thx,

TCS