Hi all,  this is my first post on the forum and I am waiting to take delivery of my Mavic pro 2 and fly more pack.

I have numerous years’ experience of flying large RC helicopters and planes and purchased an inexpensive non GPS drone to practice with, which to date I have had about 50 flights with.  

My question is that I am aware that my previous experience in rc may give me a false sense of confidence and therefore ask you on this forum whether there is any advice you would give which may assist in my conversion to the Mavic Pro 2 drone.

  

Many thanks in advance

  

Paul

  

Go for it. Your previous experience will make you an expert from the moment you lift off. Flying a DJI quadcopter is easier than any of the RC planes or non GPS quadcopter you have work with. One suggestion, read the manual as there are many nuances and safety issues to be dealt with.

No advices needed as long as you use your brain. As you flew with several RC helicopters, it will be much easier with the Mavic Pro.

Marty Markoe Posted at 4-11 03:24
Go for it. Your previous experience will make you an expert from the moment you lift off. Flying a DJI quadcopter is easier than any of the RC planes or non GPS quadcopter you have work with. One suggestion, read the manual as there are many nuances and safety issues to be dealt with.

Many thanks Marty Markoe,  your reply gives me confidence as I am keen not to make any basic errors which we all know can be expensive, dangerous and happen in seconds.
I am looking forward to having the mavic pro experience.
Thanks for taking the time to reply

Paul

saviour Posted at 4-11 03:29
No advices needed as long as you use your brain. As you flew with several RC helicopters, it will be much easier with the Mavic Pro.

Many thanks saviour, I am feeling less stressed already and am looking forward to my first flight.
Thanks for taking the time to post

Paul

You'll be just fine, they're very easy to fly, wait till you get a GPS lock and the app says ready to fly, no worries...

AZRJR Posted at 4-11 03:50
You'll be just fine, they're very easy to fly, wait till you get a GPS lock and the app says ready to fly, no worries...

Many Thanks AZRJR, Have not flown anything with GPS before, in fact the helicopters only have single axis gyros for the rudder so I’m looking forward to the experience.

Thanks for thaking the time to post

paul

P.S. If you noticed below my screename, you can see how many DJI drones I have, The Mavic 2 pro is the best by far...I've tried to fly a T-Rex copter and nearly killed myself so you should be giving us tips..Flying a GPS drone is simple...The transmission system is the finest I've ever used..In the desert I go out over 4 miles, nobody can beat that...You've made the right purchase first time out, Good on you...

AZRJR Posted at 4-11 04:33
P.S. If you noticed below my screename, you can see how many DJI drones I have, The Mavic 2 pro is the best by far...I've tried to fly a T-Rex copter and nearly killed myself so you should be giving us tips..Flying a GPS drone is simple...The transmission system is the finest I've ever used..In the desert I go out over 4 miles, nobody can beat that...You've made the right purchase first time out, Good on you...

Thanks AZRJR, that’s a very impressive collection of drones you have and to be able to go such a distance is truly amazing. One of the more difficult issues with helicopters and my little non GPS quadcopter I have has always been orientation which without GPS and the additional camera information is very difficult .

I am glad to hear that you think the flight control will not be too difficult as I am only too aware that drone pilots have a multitude of other information to process at the same time as flying not least being the task of taking film and photographs.
This is something I am looking forward to as I found it impossible with RC helicopters, I do some aerial photography with kites but although successful the results are dictated more by luck than judgement.

Many thanks

Paul

I agree with the masses, you'll be fine. BTW welcome to the forum

Woe Posted at 4-11 05:04
I agree with the masses, you'll be fine. BTW welcome to the forum

Many thanks Woe, and very happy that this is such a friendly place as even with lots of RC experience changing to something so advanced can at times fell a little daunting, I am now however looking forward to it.

Thanks for taking the time

Paul

For someone with your experience you will find it pretty easy flying this drone, it’s particularly steady safe and reliable, I have included below a simple start up procedure I have used since I started flying, although it may be something you are already aware to do with RC aircraft, it’s no harm refreshing.
Good luck and enjoy your new craft.

1/ only calibrate compass if app asks you to .

2/ start AC leave until you receive enough gps lock ,

3/ if you get Compass interference turn off AC and move to another location,
without interference.

4/ In bottom left hand corner on your map you will see small red 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 less than 2 minutes and is worthwhile doing before every flight,

I haven't had much experience with RC copters, but my number one advice would be to understand what all the settings do and adjust them during a pre-flight check according to your requirements. For example loosing connection to your drone would mean that the drone automatically returns to home(maybe you don't want this), you can change that setting to just landing or hover. This is only 1 example but there are various situations where control is removed from you and the drone reacts in it's own "intelligent" manner, but if your aware of the settings and you know what will happen in each situation then you should be prepared for them.
Another good 1 is don't go outside, catch GPS and set a home point, then go indoors. Might seem pretty obvious but if your home point doesn't refresh and your settings are right your drone will try to fly outside through the wall.

hallmark007 Posted at 4-11 05:22
For someone with your experience you will find it pretty easy flying this drone, it’s particularly steady safe and reliable, I have included below a simple start up procedure I have used since I started flying, although it may be something you are already aware to do with RC aircraft, it’s no harm refreshing.
Good luck and enjoy your new craft.

Many thanks hallmark, that is indeed very helpful and something that I will defiantly integrate into my pre-flight checks.

Thanks for taking the time to post

Paul

Ben Mason Posted at 4-11 05:23
I haven't had much experience with RC copters, but my number one advice would be to understand what all the settings do and adjust them during a pre-flight check according to your requirements. For example loosing connection to your drone would mean that the drone automatically returns to home(maybe you don't want this), you can change that setting to just landing or hover. This is only 1 example but there are various situations where control is removed from you and the drone reacts in it's own "intelligent" manner, but if your aware of the settings and you know what will happen in each situation then you should be prepared for them.
Another good 1 is don't go outside, catch GPS and set a home point, then go indoors. Might seem pretty obvious but if your home point doesn't refresh and your settings are right your drone will try to fly outside through the wall.

Many thanks Ben Mason, I think you are addressing one of my major concerns in that I will need to take the time to understand the flight settings before my first flight so that I understand what the drone is doing and why.
The last thing I want is to have something unexpected as that is where lack of experience can become expensive. I will study the manual to ensure that the pilot aids are working for me and not surprises.

Many thanks for posting

Paul

@Tollytastic, you can find many useful tips in this guide:

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

msinger Posted at 4-11 05:52
@Tollytastic, you can find many useful tips in this guide:

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

Thanks msinger, wow that's some great information, essential reading for every new Mavic pilot. My Mavic 2 is not scheduled to arrive till Saturday so I will have time to read and digest.

Thanks for taking the time to post

Paul

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 06:01
Thanks msinger, wow that's some great information, essential reading for every new Mavic pilot. My Mavic 2 is not scheduled to arrive till Saturday so I will have time to read and digest.

Thanks for taking the time to post

Just a quick note to everyone who has replied,

I would like to say a major thank you, please don't underestimate the difference your experience has made to a noob. I must admit that I pushed the purchase button with some apprehension but now I am looking forward to the experience thanks to your help.

I am so glad that I asked the question

Many thanks

Paul

Welcome to the forum and I wish you many safe flights. Given your listed experience I think you will master the drone very quickly indeed - your focus will then turn to integrating your flight skills with aerial photography and videography which is a whole new ball game. As others have advised, it is best practice to follow a set preflight checklist and read this before your drone arrives...
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/ ... er_Manual_v1.8_.pdf

A J Posted at 4-11 07:01
Welcome to the forum and I wish you many safe flights. Given your listed experience I think you will master the drone very quickly indeed - your focus will then turn to integrating your flight skills with aerial photography and videography which is a whole new ball game. As others have advised, it is best practice to follow a set preflight checklist and read this before your drone arrives...
https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Mavic_2/20190124/Mavic_2_Pro_Zoom_User_Manual_v1.8_.pdf

Many thanks A J, very helpful to have this manual at this stage. I think you are absolutely correct, when I have mastered the flight control the challenge will be moulding the photography and flying skills together to hopefully get some good smooth results such that I have seen on this forum.

Many thanks for taking the time to post the information.

Paul

Welcome to the DJI family!
As long as you stay VLOS you should be good. It's flying far (technically maybe still within the line of sight, but just too far to see) where you probably get some new experience and need to be ready for.
Have fun flying!

Hi Tolly, welcome aboard! I have got pretty much same RC background you have been through. It's a piece of cake to fly a M2P comparing to 3d helis! The harderst thing was to update the whole thing to make it ready to fly. There's a lot to learn and understand right. Have a go with default settings for a start, choose a suitable spot for first flight (sure you know all this). At first I used sport mode to learn how the craft react, not going far away, then learned step by step other modes and functions. Bons premiers vols Paul, courage, you'll have great fun ^^

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 07:47
Many thanks A J, very helpful to have this manual at this stage. I think you are absolutely correct, when I have mastered the flight control the challenge will be moulding the photography and flying skills together to hopefully get some good smooth results such that I have seen on this forum.

Many thanks for taking the time to post the information.

You're very welcome and this forum is a great source of info.

DarthSLR Posted at 4-11 07:53
Welcome to the DJI family!
As long as you stay VLOS you should be good. It's flying far (technically maybe still within the line of sight, but just too far to see) where you probably get some new experience and need to be ready for.
Have fun flying!

Hi DarthSLR, Sounds like very good advice, I think that flying at distance will take me some time to build up the confidence, It was ok with Rc planes but they have at least a 6ft wingspan and are easy to see, definitely not what I wanted to do with the RC Helicopters but I am very much looking forward to the new experience with the drone. Good advice which I will follow, start close and work away with experience.

Thanks for taking the tine to post

Paul

FLYINHASS Posted at 4-11 07:54
Hi Tolly, welcome aboard! I have got pretty much same RC background you have been through. It's a piece of cake to fly a M2P comparing to 3d helis! The harderst thing was to update the whole thing to make it ready to fly. There's a lot to learn and understand right. Have a go with default settings for a start, choose a suitable spot for first flight (sure you know all this). At first I used sport mode to learn how the craft react, not going far away, then learned step by step other modes and functions. Bons premiers vols Paul, courage, you'll have great fun ^^

Hi FLYIMHASS, great to hear from someone who has already made the jump although unlike you I am not a great 3D pilot mainly flying scale.
Great advice, I think you hit the nail on the head for me in that the flying I hope will be somewhat intuitive but I must take care with the multitude of settings and options. Good call to start with the default settings and move on from there.
Very much looking forward to starting.

Thanks for the good wishes and taking the time to post.

Tolly

Welcome to the forum.

I am more of a visual person so when I started flying drones about a year ago I just watched every YouTube video I could find on my type of drone. Read the manual front to back as everyone has mentioned. When starting out I would not even worry about taking video or pictures. Just work on getting to know the drone. Then once your fully comfortable you can start seeking out interesting areas to film.

A couple of apps for you phone that will come in handy are the B4UFLY and UAV Forecast. These apps allow you to get flight conditions and NFZ restrictions where you are planing to fly.

This is a great place for information and feedback.

Hurley1718 Posted at 4-11 09:23
Welcome to the forum.

I am more of a visual person so when I started flying drones about a year ago I just watched every YouTube video I could find on my type of drone. Read the manual front to back as everyone has mentioned. When starting out I would not even worry about taking video or pictures. Just work on getting to know the drone. Then once your fully comfortable you can start seeking out interesting areas to film.

Hi Hurley1718, I think more great advice, yes as you suggest I will start with just flying and mastering the drone and add in the photography when I have the confidence to concentrate on two things at one time (never easy).
Good call with the video's I think they are what inspired me to look into drone flying in the first place.

Many thanks for the help and taking the time to post

Paul

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 09:32
Hi Hurley1718, I think more great advice, yes as you suggest I will start with just flying and mastering the drone and add in the photography when I have the confidence to concentrate on two things at one time (never easy).
Good call with the video's I think they are what inspired me to look into drone flying in the first place.

You are welcome and happy flying.

Hi, we would like to congratulate you on having this awesome Mavic 2 Pro. We're sure that our valued DJI Forum members would provide their experience when flying DJI drones. Since you have a great experience flying RC helicopters, we're confident enough that you could fly our DJI drones easily. You may check our video tutorial for beginner mode as well when in terms of flying your new Mavic 2 Pro.

DJI Tony Posted at 4-11 10:17
Hi, we would like to congratulate you on having this awesome Mavic 2 Pro. We're sure that our valued DJI Forum members would provide their experience when flying DJI drones. Since you have a great experience flying RC helicopters, we're confident enough that you could fly our DJI drones easily. You may check our video tutorial for beginner mode as well when in terms of flying your new Mavic 2 Pro.

Hi DJI Tony, many thanks for posting the video which I enjoyed. I hope in the not too distant future to be taking video and stills and enjoying all the possibilities offered by the DJI Mavic Pro 2

Thanks for taking  the time to post.

Paul

Make sure before take off you hear "home point has been recorded please check it on the map". Read the manual. Keep it in beginner's mode until you feel happy with it. Stopping distance, be very aware, especially in Sports mode.

I flew several cheap drones, they were very hard to control, my first Mavic was a huge surprise, you can literally park it in the air (until battery depletes). Check the RTH function in the manual, it acts differently if fairly close to take off point. Don't panic, know what the "Pause" button does.

If you lose signal, don't panic, if you set it up correctly, it will return to home.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.......

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 05:38
Many thanks hallmark, that is indeed very helpful and something that I will defiantly integrate into my pre-flight checks.

Thanks for taking the time to post

Your welcome, good luck Paul .

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 11:08
Hi DJI Tony, many thanks for posting the video which I enjoyed. I hope in the not too distant future to be taking video and stills and enjoying all the possibilities offered by the DJI Mavic Pro 2

Thanks for taking  the time to post.

You're most welcome! Please let us know if you need our assistance. Thank you for your support.

Mavic57pro2 Posted at 4-11 11:56
Make sure before take off you hear "home point has been recorded please check it on the map". Read the manual. Keep it in beginner's mode until you feel happy with it. Stopping distance, be very aware, especially in Sports mode.

I flew several cheap drones, they were very hard to control, my first Mavic was a huge surprise, you can literally park it in the air (until battery depletes). Check the RTH function in the manual, it acts differently if fairly close to take off point. Don't panic, know what the "Pause" button does.

Hi Mavic57pro2, many thanks for your help, again very useful especially with beginner mode and checking RTH function which I have now looked at on a few videos and recognise the importance of understanding that function and especially the pre-programming.

It will take some getting used to not panicking if signal is lost as with my other non GPS RC equipment signal loss was usually the end of play, even the deployment of failsafe usually hasn’t failed to safe in one piece.
The fact that signal loss is now not catastrophic is truly fantastic and just shows how far this technology has moved on.

I think your last piece of advice is my favourite and that is to enjoy the experience'

Many thank for taking the time and effort to post

Paul

Consider using a modern iPhone to run the DJI GO-4 App (Check the DJI approved devices list). iPhone X seems to be the flavour of the month.
Although I am not a fan of Apple it is quite apparent that IOS users report way less compatibility issues than the users of many Android devices

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 05:12
Many thanks Woe, and very happy that this is such a friendly place as even with lots of RC experience changing to something so advanced can at times fell a little daunting, I am now however looking forward to it.

Thanks for taking the time

You're welcome. we are here to help.

One of the differences is that you will be able to fly more distant and higher... sometimes will not be able to see or hear your bird. I advice you to get familiar to bring it back without relying on RTH function, and practice for more smooth flying for those cinematic shots!

I think that having a RC background will help you a lot.
Maybe the stick configuration was different in your past, but if you are able to fly anything without all the DJI help, that is a huge advantage!

Tollytastic Posted at 4-11 08:52
Hi DarthSLR, Sounds like very good advice, I think that flying at distance will take me some time to build up the confidence, It was ok with Rc planes but they have at least a 6ft wingspan and are easy to see, definitely not what I wanted to do with the RC Helicopters but I am very much looking forward to the new experience with the drone. Good advice which I will follow, start close and work away with experience.

Thanks for taking the tine to post

You're welcome mate! Fly safe!

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