Hi guys.
I love the Mavic. This is my first drone. Actually... this is already a second one, because I crashed the first one by the Saint Vitus cathedral in Prague on the 10th flight. Those damn gothic architecture, you are never know where to look to avoid crash

And I am in the 3rd world country where I can't buy DJI Care Refresh. Well, hello from Russia.

So the question is - how to overcome fear? I am really nervous every time. Important note - I am, of course, a real noob still. Only my 10-12th flights...
Practice in the fields?
More practice?
Pre flight checks?
Fly only forward?

What's your thoughts about this?

Shatohin ,  Like they say , If you fall of a horse just jump back on and ride it again !!
                   Just don't make the same mistake twice
FlySafe-FlyFree
                  

The more fight hours you log, the more relaxed you become.
To my knowledge there is only one way to achieve that end.
Happy flying amigo and try to avoid backwards flying unless you are in total clear area.

Pratice, practice, practice and alwas fly in LOS. Check your environment before you fly. Check for high power lines, cell towers, etc. Use UAV FORECAST app to check the wind, NFZ, KP etc. before each flight. Believe or not you are a PILOT now and your drone is NOT a toy!

SAFETY FIRST - FUN SECOND.

Altitude is your friend. Climb at least 50 feet above the highest obstacle before flying forward from the takeoff point.  Always land straight down with the green light facing you so all stick controls are intuitive.  Before landing straight down, point the camera straight down to scope out the landing area. Always check for greater than 10 satellites before taking off, and make sure it updates the home location. After you take off, and before you climb, rotate the Mavic  360 to assure the radar compass agrees with the direction. Practice, practice.......and learn from the mistakes others have made before you also own them.

Preflight the Mavic before flight, especially the props. When the Mavic is sitting on the ground prior to takeoff, check the battery is properly inserted. It may be that some people carry the Mavic to the takeoff point with their hand over the top and their fingers resting on the lugs that you would normally depress to remove the battery. It would be easy enough that one or both of these could have been pressed enough to loosen the battery.
Don't be in a hurry to takeoff. After the RC, app and Mavic are all turned on, check the first page that shows the state of everything, make sure everything is normal, correct Mode, full batteries on both Mavic and RC, full GPS signal. Takeoff either manually or auto and hover directly above your takeoff point until you know that the home point has been set. You should already know that you have the correct setting for RTH that suits your circumstances and any other settings in the app that directly affect your flight.
Fly in an open place away from obstacles and line of sight only. If you have enough space, practice figures of eight both with the Mavic facing you and facing away from you so that you start to learn to automatically yaw or turn in the direction that you want.
Be patient and good luck.

Here's a tip, to check aircraft is working fine.

Start it up, raise 2m hover for 30 seconds
Fly forward 1/2 meter fly backward 1/2 meter
Fly left 1/2 meter fly right 1/2 meter
Up 1/2 meter down 1/2 meter yaw left yaw right.
If the aircraft returns each time to horizontal, then you know you have a good craft.
Each time bringing aircraft back to hovering position.
This exercise will take less than 2 minutes, and it will ensure you have good gps good IMU good compass and now your good to fly. Enjoy

Think of it as a toy, relax, find somewhere quiet with some space, fly it around till you stop being scared.

Don't forget to enjoy it, it's not a job, you're not flying a commercial jet, the risks are relatively low and don't stress yourself with checks and safety nonsense. Once you put it all in context your fear will go.

fans06b77ccc Posted at 2017-5-13 17:27
Altitude is your friend. Climb at least 50 feet above the highest obstacle before flying forward from the takeoff point.  Always land straight down with the green light facing you so all stick controls are intuitive.  Before landing straight down, point the camera straight down to scope out the landing area. Always check for greater than 10 satellites before taking off, and make sure it updates the home location. After you take off, and before you climb, rotate the Mavic  360 to assure the radar compass agrees with the direction. Practice, practice.......and learn from the mistakes others have made before you also own them.

Honestly, for the actual flying part, this is the best advice.  If you are flying at an altitude above anything you can crash into, you'll have a really good time and feel a lot more confident.  after to ascend to a good level, just give the Mavic a slow spin and verify that you are higher than anything around, then have em fun flying.

Practice starting and stopping, climbing and diving, hovering, camera modes, etc.  Get some really good flying in before getting near a lot of crashable stuff.  It'll make a big difference.

Wow, guys!
Sorry, was off the grid for the few days.
Thanks for the huge amount of guys advices and recommendations! All of this will copy to my notes.
You are awesome!

Like some of you said, last weekend was flying my little one in the country side, on the huge fields, with no obstacles at all. Good for practice and to feel the device better. Will continue to learn on my previous mistakes and mistakes from this great community.
Although I wish all you guys only good fortune and less winds.

Small question though...
The default settings out of the box now is 400 m distance and 120 m altitude.
I have already noticed that this is a bit small values. Want to set a bit wider range.

What good values you can recommend for the newbie? I think 500 m and 5000 m is too much maybe

Thanks again!

I always consider that my view from the drone is only a small portion of the environment around me.  You often may not be aware of what is to the side of you, behind you, below or above (unless you turn and familiarize yourself).  Then add to that depth of field issues.  As long as you know your surroundings, you should be fine.  Chose flight plan wisely and be conservative giving yourself sufficient room to avoid obstacles that your vision position can't save you from.

Then forget about your first Mavic and enjoy flying your new one........