I am already reading several reports of people crashing their drone often on the first flight. When I read their report I wonder about how much common sense some people have.

So some simple advice from someone that has flown drones and other RC aircraft for over 20 years.

1) fly carefully in an open space
2) never take off till you have many sats locked and wait for the safe to take off notice
3) unless in an emergency situation always fly your drone back don't use RTH
4) if you do use RTH stop it when you see the drone and land it yourself
5) don't trust the avoidance sensors. They are good but not full proof
6) don't push your battery below 20%
7) Don't use auto takeoff use the sticks and take off yourself
8) use your common sense if you have any

2 needs amending to " or reset the home point to the controller's position or and after the drone has acquired sufficient satellites to establish a home point bring the drone overhead and reset the homeoint to the drone's position". It is also possible to set the home point to somewhere on the map but I don't trust my ability to set that point accurately enough.

Do you really think this helps and the people take your advice seriously if they are not willing or able to read and understand a manual.

MySky Posted at 7-15 21:47
Do you really think this helps and the people take your advice seriously if they are not willing or able to read and understand a manual.

If you think people generally read instructions you have little experience of real life. If my post stops one person from crashing their drone it will have been worth it.

Been flying RC in all areas for way over 20 years so perhaps I know a thing or two

Nice advice mate, hope new pilots read and follow. They should create a pre-flight check list

Generally reasonable suggestions, though I believe "common sense" is a misnomer -- not much evidence that's very common these dayas.

What's the point about item #7 ("Don't use auto takeoff use the sticks and take off yourself")?

Burstmode Posted at 7-15 23:09
Generally reasonable suggestions, though I believe "common sense" is a misnomer -- not much evidence that's very common these dayas.

What's the point about item #7 ("Don't use auto takeoff use the sticks and take off yourself")?

If you take off yourself you are in control at the very first stage of your flight. You control height and all other things. Auto take off ascends to a particular height and I have seen people fly up into things.

Ah, I see. On mine with auto-takeoff it just goes up no more than 2 or 3 meters, then hovers (I probably set it to the minimal altitude once and have left it alone).  

If I hit something that low, I probably deserve a crash.

Hi,

Your list can have many more points!  so many things to say learn to new remote pilots.

a) RTFM
b) understand TFM 100%
c) fly the first x many hours only in free airspace and learn all about the various RTH options
d) try to reset HP in flight, understand it all....
e) understand how the landing protection works, plus understand that this option cannot be switced off....
f) don`t fly under bridges
g) don`t fly under trees etc with low battery! (or be very alert to stop the automatic RTH climb....)
h) don`t fly too low over streaming water...
i) many more...


1) fly carefully in an open space
flying carefully is always a good point, can be done in non-open space as well

2) never take off till you have many sats locked and wait for the safe to take off notice
indeed wait for sats locked and HP set, "take off permitted" can be seen with to little satellites and no HP set though

3) unless in an emergency situation always fly your drone back don't use RTH
If you know the area well, and no objects between drone and HP ; imo no objections to use RTH

4) if you do use RTH stop it when you see the drone and land it yourself
Drone visual in RTH means that you can see if there are any obstacles in the fly path to HP or not.If not, no reason to stop the RTH ; one time fly manually back, other time use RTH + autolanding all the way.

5) don't trust the avoidance sensors. They are good but not full proof
True

6) don't push your battery below 20%
True, but if your fly close to HP in free area no reason to land at or before reaching 20%, for fly safety reasons that is.
Just for tricky flights (over water, windy, landing on ships), be close to landing spot at 40-30%. mayby the remaning flight time is needed to get it landed.

7) Don't use auto takeoff use the sticks and take off yourself
Why not ?  if area above is free, no reason not to do so.
if there will be "Compass Yaw errors" than they will occur after manual input...

8) use your common sense if you have any
Remote pilots do have common sense, i hope so....but reading the mishaps in this forum...not for just few (new ) remote pilots.

cheers
JJB

It does make you wonder how many people manage to crash so easily.  

DAFlys Posted at 7-16 01:02
It does make you wonder how many people manage to crash so easily.

They crash because of lack of preparation, the need to get their 1k drone up in the air as fast as they can. But sometimes crashing early is the best lesson you’ll ever learn.
Read the Nanual and watch plenty of YT videos..

This might help avoid the rush to get the drone in the air before you’re ready

1/ In bottom left hand corner on your map you will see small red/blue triangle, check to make sure that this triangle is pointing in the same direction (heading) as your AC, this will show good compass on the ground.

Raise AC to height of 8ft
Hover for 20 seconds
Fly forward 2ft
Backward 2ft
Left 2ft
Right 2ft
Up 2ft
Down 2ft
Yaw left
Yaw right
Each time returning to hover position
If you have a good horizontal each time, you will then know you have good GPS good IMU and good Compass, and your ready to fly.

This exercise takes about 1 minute and is worthwhile doing before every flight,

No6)  Landed this morning with just 18% battery left  (over-enthusiasm)

Good advice is never wasted but equally you cannot account for stupidity, it's not a paper plane after all. Read the manual is a requirement under CAA/EASA rules so how many have not obtained an op I'd let alone bothered with the basic code reading.

Blériot53 Posted at 7-16 01:52
No6)  Landed this morning with just 18% battery left  (over-enthusiasm)

better wait for 10%   see what happend in critical low batt sscenario....
even in automated cirtical landing all RC sticks do work, even UP to stop the landing or even climb   :-)

Not good for the battery but nice to know how drone will act and what you can do...

cheers
JJB

JJB* Posted at 7-16 02:03
better wait for 10%   see what happend in critical low batt sscenario....
even in automated cirtical landing all RC sticks do work, even UP to stop the landing or even climb   :-)

That was about as far as I'd be happy pushing it. I normally aim to get back at around 25% battery remaining.  I just go a little over-enthusiastic this morning

BaynhamPhoto Posted at 7-16 01:58
Good advice is never wasted but equally you cannot account for stupidity, it's not a paper plane after all. Read the manual is a requirement under CAA/EASA rules so how many have not obtained an op I'd let alone bothered with the basic code reading.

And DJI even put a CAA leaflet in the box these days too as a reminder.

Blériot53 Posted at 7-16 01:52
No6)  Landed this morning with just 18% battery left  (over-enthusiasm)

Dare-devil.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 7-16 05:48
Dare-devil.

Pushing the boundaries

DAFlys Posted at 7-16 02:22
And DJI even put a CAA leaflet in the box these days too as a reminder.

New shiny toy vs read paperwork... I rest my case fella I just hope the I don't care brigade dont ruin it for the rest of us, educate over penalise is preferential.

Bigplumbs Posted at 7-15 22:05
If you think people generally read instructions you have little experience of real life. If my post stops one person from crashing their drone it will have been worth it.

Been flying RC in all areas for way over 20 years so perhaps I know a thing or two

More than 20 years experience in building and flying RC planes and more than 12 years experience in building and flying drones showed me that, if people are not willing or able to read and understand a manual, it will also not help to give advice to such poeple, because they will not read or understand either.
If you are so experienced in real life as you have written, you would have known.

Blériot53 Posted at 7-16 05:54
Pushing the boundaries

Some days you just got to push the boundaries, just to be sure they still exist.  

im going to disagree on the rth advice.  i believe eventually when bvlos becomes a huge thing and battery life starts to exceed 1 hour, rth will be the dominate way to bring a drone home after a long hard day.  in the meantime, it does a pretty good job.  i understand in the old days where rth was fraught with poor accuracy with gps, suffered from incorrect home points, bad oa that led to crashes but it's so much better these days.  most crashes happen because of pilot error; people are not perfect.  but the closest thing to perfect is the computer and letting the computer fly your drone home is best.  are we there yet?  maybe not but i haven't heard of a rth crash that was the computer's fault.

if you're flying your drone for fun, it probably doesn't make sense to fly most of the flight yourself and then let the drone fly itself at the end.  i definitely wouldn't change course if you didn't have to.  just don't want to label rth as some sort of risk.  as a community i think we need to embrace rth and look down on it as some sort of unwanted dangerous prospect.  if rth is good enough to save your bacon, it's good enough to use under ordinary circumstances.  i don't use it alot but i practice using rth often.  the battery life is really short on the dji fpv and rth almost always kicks in while you are having fun.  often you cancel it and keep having fun but sometimes you just let it happen.  as with everything, there are exceptions.  i can see if the drone is following you around all over the countryside, you would rather not trigger the traditional rth should you lose your connection but there a good [skydio] solution for that as well.  my point is manual is good but we really really need to focus on the drone keeping itself safe, not depending on the pilot.

DowntownRDB Posted at 7-16 07:45
Some days you just got to push the boundaries, just to be sure they still exist.

DowntownRDB Posted at 7-16 07:45
Some days you just got to push the boundaries, just to be sure they still exist.

So true.
Just found the boundery of my Mini 3 P an hour ago with winds around 5 BFT or slightly above.
It was interesting to see, with the camera facing directly downward, how fast it can drift in normal mode with the wind.
Now i know exactly what the bird is capable of in strong winds.
And no battery warning anymore in sports mode.Seems it has been fixed with the current FW update.

MySky Posted at 7-16 06:22
More than 20 years experience in building and flying RC planes and more than 12 years experience in building and flying drones showed me that, if people are not willing or able to read and understand a manual, it will also not help to give advice to such poeple, because they will not read or understand either.
If you are so experienced in real life as you have written, you would have known.

I am indeed very experienced in both

Nice preflight checklist

The Saint Posted at 7-16 08:27
im going to disagree on the rth advice.  i believe eventually when bvlos becomes a huge thing and battery life starts to exceed 1 hour, rth will be the dominate way to bring a drone home after a long hard day.  in the meantime, it does a pretty good job.  i understand in the old days where rth was fraught with poor accuracy with gps, suffered from incorrect home points, bad oa that led to crashes but it's so much better these days.  most crashes happen because of pilot error; people are not perfect.  but the closest thing to perfect is the computer and letting the computer fly your drone home is best.  are we there yet?  maybe not but i haven't heard of a rth crash that was the computer's fault.

if you're flying your drone for fun, it probably doesn't make sense to fly most of the flight yourself and then let the drone fly itself at the end.  i definitely wouldn't change course if you didn't have to.  just don't want to label rth as some sort of risk.  as a community i think we need to embrace rth and look down on it as some sort of unwanted dangerous prospect.  if rth is good enough to save your bacon, it's good enough to use under ordinary circumstances.  i don't use it alot but i practice using rth often.  the battery life is really short on the dji fpv and rth almost always kicks in while you are having fun.  often you cancel it and keep having fun but sometimes you just let it happen.  as with everything, there are exceptions.  i can see if the drone is following you around all over the countryside, you would rather not trigger the traditional rth should you lose your connection but there a good [skydio] solution for that as well.  my point is manual is good but we really really need to focus on the drone keeping itself safe, not depending on the pilot.

Do you think you could have said that in fewer words. Sometimes less is more

Sorry mate point 8 is very offensive. You should be ashamed of yourself in telling people to use their common sense. How dare you be so offensive.

Bigplumbs Posted at 7-16 14:22
Do you think you could have said that in fewer words. Sometimes less is more

yeah perhaps.  a lot of my posts have been pretty wordy later; something i'll have to work on.

Hello there Bigplumbs. Thank you for reaching out and for sharing these interesting information with us. In addition it would be best to create a pre flight checklist before flying your DJI Drone for you to have a great flying experience. For reference, I will post a pre flight checklist for the said DJI Drone. Thank you.

GLOBAL HAWK Posted at 7-16 14:43
Sorry mate point 8 is very offensive. You should be ashamed of yourself in telling people to use their common sense. How dare you be so offensive.

Some time ago after you sold your Mini 3 and later said you regretted selling it you said you would be leaving the Mini 3 area but you seem to still be posting a lot.

I am wondering based on your comments and the fact you are still on here a lot if your common sense was engaged when you sold the drone
When I read people accounts of their crash's I certainly feel that using common sense is the best advice there is. Some examples

1) Hand launching from a moving boat
2) launching from a 5 story block of flats
3) hitting return to home and letting it land in water
4) Flying very low over water
5) Pushing the obstical avoiidance beyond what it can do
6) Flying into a bus
7) Taking off way before it says safe to take off
8) hitting return to home from a boat when the boat has moved

There are many more I am simply trying to help people so they don't crash their new toy

MySky Posted at 7-16 08:59
So true.
Just found the boundery of my Mini 3 P an hour ago with winds around 5 BFT or slightly above.
It was interesting to see, with the camera facing directly downward, how fast it can drift in normal mode with the wind.

  

Am I OK to disagree with 3, 4 and 7?

I don't mind rth and as long as you have no obstacles to avoid I cannot sew any reason not to use it providing your home point is accurate.

And auto takeoff; it works.  I will save the sticks in the corners for emergencies.  The more you use probably likely to have a mishap

chillibadger Posted at 7-17 06:39
Am I OK to disagree with 3, 4 and 7?

I don't mind rth and as long as you have no obstacles to avoid I cannot sew any reason not to use it providing your home point is accurate.

Te sticks in corners to start are completely the opposite direction to the emergencies one and you will never use that if you use you common sense.

Of course you can disagree. It does not mean you are right however

Hi Bigplumbs, you do realise that your sound advice, if followed, will deprive us on the forum of endless entertainment. Can you imagine the emptiness of the posts where intelligent droners, the ones who realise that their drone is not a laptop or TV or some other Hi-Tech kit that cannot come to harm if it is used incorrectly, talk about not crashing? Anyway, DJI would find their market shrinking rapidly if replacements weren't purchased.

AlansDronePics Posted at 7-18 06:05
Hi Bigplumbs, you do realise that your sound advice, if followed, will deprive us on the forum of endless entertainment. Can you imagine the emptiness of the posts where intelligent droners, the ones who realise that their drone is not a laptop or TV or some other Hi-Tech kit that cannot come to harm if it is used incorrectly, talk about not crashing? Anyway, DJI would find their market shrinking rapidly if replacements weren't purchased.

drones don't harm people when they are used incorrectly, that's a myth.

it's always a good idea to fly smart and fly safe so as to minimize risk but there's no track record of drones hurting or killing anyone or causing any amount of property damage regardless how they are used.  if anything, the drone gets damaged or destroyed and that's about it.  exactly why these drones are so popular.  i'm willing to bet more people have been hurt or killed by tvs and laptops that were use "correctly" so maybe it's more relevant to have a serious discussion about human error and accidents.

incorrectly using drones and hurting people is not a thing.

The Saint Posted at 7-18 06:16
drones don't harm people when they are used incorrectly, that's a myth.

it's always a good idea to fly smart and fly safe so as to minimize risk but there's no track record of drones hurting or killing anyone or causing any amount of property damage regardless how they are used.  if anything, the drone gets damaged or destroyed and that's about it.  exactly why these drones are so popular.  i'm willing to bet more people have been hurt or killed by tvs and laptops that were use "correctly" so maybe it's more relevant to have a serious discussion about human error and accidents.

I don't disagree with what you said regarding injuring persons, but if you read again, I said the HiTech kit cannot come to harm, I said nothing about people. For clarity, I meant that the HiTech laptop or TV won't fall out of the sky and smash if you press the wrong button...
Otherwise, we are singing from the same hymn-sheet, so to speak.

Good points!

Suren Posted at 7-15 22:31
Nice advice mate, hope new pilots read and follow. They should create a pre-flight check list

Ha ha, they literally did. Its in the Fly app menu