Lot of experienced folks here suggested practicing on a toy drone first and I think I am going to follow their advice. Found this great deal on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VQP ... 3b50INT&sdsrc=staff

with Promo code: TEN61258, you can have it for $31.


Hope this helps.

That's an excellent little unit for practicing. I'm looking at my Syma X5C across the room now. It was great for learning to fly.

zach5150 Posted at 2016-10-26 19:04
That's an excellent little unit for practicing. I'm looking at my Syma X5C across the room now. It w ...

Do you recommend Syma X5C over this one?

Just ordered thanks for the promo code, Ill get it on Friday!

FrequentFlyer Posted at 2016-10-26 19:06
Just ordered thanks for the promo code, Ill get it on Friday!

Me too :-)

Guys that have flew the SYMA Drones any tips/advise? A friend of mine said it was nothing like flying his P3A and didnt recommend it. (He started directly with a P3A and his little cousin had a SYMA)

agzela Posted at 2016-10-26 19:13
Thanks....after Im done....my kid thanks you!

I ordered this one to practice with. It's on the way and I'll post something about it after I give it a whirl (pardon the pun). https://www.amazon.com/gp/produc ... 0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Where did you find the promo code?  I can never find those things!

superjet96 Posted at 2016-10-26 19:25
Where did you find the promo code?  I can never find those things!

slickdeals

Thanks I will take a look!

I ordered the Syma X5SC on Sunday. Just received a text message from Amazon that it was delivered 3 minutes ago. Looking forward to trying it out tonight.
As to the "A friend of mine said it was nothing like flying his P3A and didnt recommend it." I see this as similar to learning to drive with a standard transmission. After learning that, going to an automatic is a breeze.

FrequentFlyer Posted at 2016-10-26 14:12
Guys that have flew the SYMA Drones any tips/advise? A friend of mine said it was nothing like flyin ...

SYMA X5C is a manual quadcopter with no bells and whistles of the Phantom series. You have really had to fly it to keep it in the air, and you will gain much experience from it.

Maxi3D Posted at 2016-10-26 21:09
SYMA X5C is a manual quadcopter with no bells and whistles of the Phantom series. You have really  ...

Thanks for this.
Mine is getting delivered tomorrow.

I think the JJRC H31 would be a good choice to learn on at only $35, as long as you stay out of headless mode...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/produc ... smid=A2P1F0527LD7PL

Practice with a Simulator
I have been practicing with a drone simulator called QuadcopterFX on my iPad (also available for android). Great for on the train, bus or plane to work or just lying in bed. Nothing to break, no need to recharge batteries. Has quite a few neat features. ALT HOLD, Return Home, Pos hold, CRS lock etc.  5 camera views, Eye level, FPV, FPV gimbal, Folow and Follow FPV.  Whilst I have not actually flown a real quad yet, I have learnt heaps using it and watching youtube videos.  Great for practising orientating the quad and learning how to bring it home manually when it is a speck in the distance.

Anyway it is cost about 5 bucks for the paid version. The free version has purposely unrealistic controls as it is only meant for testing to see if it will run on your device.   

Before these GPS drones I flew a JJRC H8C, still do. Crashed it many times at first, but it never broke, it's a tough bird. I still use it. A better drone to train with is the XK Detect X380, it's GPS and has a lot of bells and whistles. I got mine at GearBest for under $225. A year later I upgraded to the P3 series. So baby steps when moving to the Mavic.

Jake Phantom 3  Posted at 2016-10-27 07:17
Before these GPS drones I flew a JJRC H8C, still do. Crashed it many times at first, but it never br ...

Thanks for the suggestion.
I guess I'll stick with 31$ drone for now, 225$ is little too much for a practice drone.

I agree, a Syma is a great Drone to learn on.
That looks like a good deal too. I think everyone who hasn't ever flown a Drone before should get something like this. Wrecking your $1,000 Mavic with a wrong stick input wouldn't be fun.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-10-26 19:29
I agree, a Syma is a great Drone to learn on.
That looks like a good deal too. I think everyone who  ...

So stick controls are pretty much similar between mavic and these other cheap drones?

NewToDroning Posted at 2016-10-27 08:32
So stick controls are pretty much similar between mavic and these other cheap drones?

The controller will have 2 sticks same as most any multirotor with a RC.

NewToDroning Posted at 2016-10-26 17:32
So stick controls are pretty much similar between mavic and these other cheap drones?

No, even better.  It'll have WHATEVER CONTROLS YOU WANT.  It has MODE 1, MODE 2...  you can even setup a crazy control scheme that only you can figure out, lol.  So if you like how something else operates, set this up like that.

NewToDroning Posted at 2016-10-26 13:05
Do you recommend Syma X5C over this one?

Sorry for the delayed reply. There is already a ton of great feedback but since you asked...no need to get the X5C over what you ordered. It is essentially the same bird but yours had a headless orientation option. It would be nice if you can turn headless on and off so you can learn to fly in standard orientation. I like the comment that compared learning to fly a Syma is like learning to drive a stick shift. If you learn to fly a fully manual non gps drone like the Syma, you'll be a much better pilot with the exponentially more advanced Mavic (or similar).

Happy Flying!

Based on info from this forum, I ordered an X5C (V2?) last week and I am totally grateful for the advice and I'm enjoying learning to fly an uncontrolled aircraft.  I started off in my little living room and I have since graduated to fairly windy outdoors situations.  It's not going to produce any pretty video but you soon learn to recover and maintain a position.

Peel Posted at 2016-10-27 03:57
I ordered the Syma X5SC on Sunday. Just received a text message from Amazon that it was delivered 3  ...

It's a little different to that. Most of the "toy" drones have a real sponginess to their handling and are not that great at handling any small disturbances in the air. They also have a tendency to drift. Even when you put them into their "sport" or more responsive modes they just don't have the snappy handling precision of the better drones. What they do provide is an understanding of the basic flight controls, so at least you'll have an understanding of what the stick movements do.

If you start out flying toys, the first time you get hold of a bigger drone just take it easy. The responsiveness and performance will be a huge step from the little ones in most cases.

Bought the X5C-1 a couple of months ago exactly for that reason: to become acquainted with flying a quadcopter in pure manual mode, no fancy stuff like GPS, RTH etc.

Of course it's a toy and nothing compared to the Mavic Pro with all its built-in technology. But at least it gave me a feeling of how to fly these things manually. Difference between first day of flying this toy-drone and today is massive. Its zooming around comfortably indoors, not hitting anything when flying it from the living room to the kitchen to the upstairs bedroom etc . Also nice to train recovery outdoors as it's extremely sensitive to wind.

Having said that, I'm a little concerned that advanced stuff in the Mavic Pro may cause some unexpected behaviour (as a toy-drone is all manual and nothing fancy kicking in) as described by some here in this forum, but I'm sure overall it's a lot easier to fly... Looking forward to it (Ordered on Oct 7, so in for a long wait, but having fun with my X5C-1 in the meantime)

NewToDroning Posted at 2016-10-26 21:34
Thanks for this.
Mine is getting delivered tomorrow.

Great bit of kit to learn and practice with , have one myself still , if you can get to grips and fly that in various environments , you can pretty much fly anything , one word of advice , it's a very lightweight unit so be careful with wind gusts , unless you like climbing trees .
Good luck and welcome to the club

nomad65 Posted at 2016-10-27 19:54
Great bit of kit to learn and practice with , have one myself still , if you can get to grips and  ...

Syma x5c is an excellent choice to manually learn to fly. IMO, manual flying skills should be be a prerequisite to DJI products or equal drones.

nomad65 Posted at 2016-10-27 19:54
Great bit of kit to learn and practice with , have one myself still , if you can get to grips and  ...

Syma x5c is an excellent choice to manually learn to fly. IMO, manual flying skills should be be a prerequisite to DJI products or equal drones.

Just ordered the Syma X5UC to practice with while I wait for my combo order to ship!

Buying my X5SC from Amazon right now for practice!

My practice drone over the last year was a Glimpse Blade.  More expensive, but I learned a LOT and went through at least 3 sets of blades the first two weeks.  The drone took a beating but still flies even outside.  Fun little drone but I can't wait to work with something more advanced.  Everything I hear the newer drones are "easier" to work.  I have looked at the Phantoms and Inspire over and over but none of them made me want to buy till the Mavic.  Just waiting on the shipping notification from BB.

I bought the syma last year for the same purpose.  I got pretty good at flying it, but it is way more difficult that flying the DJIs.  These things practically fly themselves.  I have a P3Pro and am waiting on my Mavic.  I ended up giving the syma to my son when I was done, so it was still worth the purchase.

Cogswell Posted at 2016-10-27 23:43
My practice drone over the last year was a Glimpse Blade.  More expensive, but I learned a LOT and w ...

Same for me with looking at the Phantoms and waiting. I've had a Phantom (first 2, then 3, then 4) in my Amazon wishlist for a few years now. The instant I saw the Mavic I knew it was the one, and the time was now. Glad I waited.

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for this thread. Put in my order for my Mavic yesterday (through Amazon). I know I have to wait a while now. Looking forward to practicing with X5C in the mean time. Also looking forward to being a part of this community.

I have also been given the advice to learn flying a quadcopter with a "dumb" toy model (here in the forum).
Given that DJI advertizes the Mavic for being so super-easy to fly because of all the flying aids it has,
i was a bit stumped about this at first.

On second thought, all those flying aids (GPS, VPS etc.) will only work if the drone has the necessary input
from it's sensors. So if any of those fail (sensor error, GPS lost etc.) it's -> ATTI-mode.

So i've been convinced here that being able to fly a drone without any aids is something one should
really learn to do... not "just in case", but generally.


The one thing i don't get, though, is: Why did the engineers decide to NOT allow the pilot to go into
ATTI mode manually? How should you practice this with the Mavic if you can only get into this mode
by cheating the sensors, or by flying indoors?


"Back on topic": The Syma's seem good. To practice, i went for a UDI U818A instead because it has
pretty stable all-around rotor protecting rings and it seems they can take a beat -
AND it was in stock where i live. )

Seems that the promo code TEN61258 no longer works. Bummer..

+1 to the proposition that it's worth practising with one of these. If you're able to get a handle on something that doesn't forgive mistakes, it'll make using the Mavic easier and presumably will allow you more headspace to explore its more advanced features. And they're fun (reason enough to buy one).
I've played around with a Hubsan (which included spending a whole Sunday morning unsuccessfully trying to get it down from the top of a 25m tree). A couple more suggestions if you go this route...
- Unlike the Mavic, batteries (and props) are super cheap so buy them with your order. You'll definitely crash and it's frustrating to have to wait around for batteries and props when you could have ordered them initially. With flight times in the single digits, you'll be happy if you have a stash of batteries to hand.
- Find a very big open space to learn in.  See earlier comment about trees. The one thing all the entry-level drones seem to have have in common is a sensor that identifies trees and roof tops and aims for them.
- Another common aspect of manufacturers of entry-level drones is that they appear to want to put paid to the idea of "RTFM." Most manuals are hopeless. Go to YouTube and enter the name of your drone and you're likely to find someone who explains features and usage clearly.
Have fun!

if i bought one of them now i would have to crash it haha love these cheap things all care just goes {:4_154:}