New guy learning to fly...

Hi A.O. Welcome to Mavic Pilots.
New flyer advice,
Wide open space.
Slow & easy
Power-lines & trees are evil.
Don't expect RTH to save you especially if you are under trees.
Don't forget to read the manual
Download Air 2 manual HERE

Figure 8s with the drone facing you and away from you, circle with the camera pointed to the center, circle with camera pointed outward, 3 dimensional cube (square, change altitude, square the other direction) the sky and your imagination is the limit.

I just wish there was a good flight simulator out there for just what you're asking. If anyone knows of one please speak up! Be great to practice with, on those rainy or windy days that you can't go out and fly. To use the DJI simulator we'd have to buy another controller unfortunately.

@A.O. hi my fellow flyer, i noticed you joined in 2017 ,have you not been flying ,since you joined ,there is nothing wrong with that i am just curious thats all ,you need a large clear space to practice controlling your drone , and that field you mentioned sounds just the job ,choose a calm day and make sure that you are alone if possible ,start with squares and practice them with the drone facing away from you, then try them with the camera facing you ,you will notice that the controls are reversed when the drone is facing you ,getting comfortable with that is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome, when you control any sort of drone,model boat, vehicle, aircraft , etc, but as you progress, it will become something that you will do without having to think to much about ,then you will gradually start combining moving more than one of the sticks at the same time ,to do figure of eights, circles ,ovals , spirals, while keeping the drone under control ,this takes time and practice to master but it is a great feeling when you do ,it is also important to fly a battery or two of these manoeuvres, from time to time ,to keep your hand in if you haven't flown for a while

As already stated... start out in a WIDE field with a lot of open space.

I don't know that there is necessarily a "progression" but there are some exercises you can do to gain skill, agility and confidence.

1) Put the drone out a comfortable distance from you and turn it to face you. While looking at it (and not in the monitor) get use to making it go backward, forward, side to side, then yaw left/right. As it is turned toward you all the controls will be backwards except for up and down. IMO this reverse orientation is the most difficult to become natural at maneuvering. For many it takes months to get able to be able to transpose the stick movements without cerebral thought... and temporary maneuvering errors which is why you always need to leave space between the drone and obstacles.

2a)Try to fly in circles/ovals. Once you get the hang of flying in large circles or ovals, righten up the radii until you get to the point where you can turn it like you're barrel racing. 2b) Learn to fly in figure-8's

3) If you feel you've progressed and really up to it, do the same exercises with the drone moving backwards.

4) Start to learn to make "compound moves"; combination of elevation/yaw, Gimbal orientation while flying toward or away from a subject, progressing eventually to three moves simultaneously. Those are a bit more advanced, but I think can be practiced early on.

That all should give you the basic feel of handling. What I'm going to recommend, at least initially is put some sort of "headlight" on your drone so you can identify when it's pointed at you. IMO this is important as you get to intermediary distances where you can still see the silhouette clearly but you can't really discern the orientation visually. For me I think it was less than 200' out when I could no longer see where it was pointed. For further distances and higher altitudes you'll want to learn to rely on the map on your phone. As you progress and you send your drone out further, I recommend a strobe to put on the bottom to make it easier to identify which can increase you VLOS (visual line of sight) both in daylight and see MUCH further out should you choose to fly at night.

That should keep you busy for awhile Congratulations on your new drone! Have fun.

Tufargon said:

I just wish there was a good flight simulator out there for just what you're asking. If anyone knows of one please speak up! Be great to practice with, on those rainy or windy days that you can't go out and fly. To use the DJI simulator we'd have to buy another controller unfortunately.

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The DJI flight simulator isn't anything to write home about. I have used it a few times with my M2 controller. It really isn't the same as flying real DJI drones. It's sort of in a free-floating atti mode that is difficult to control. It's more like flying the space shuttle than a drone as once you induce motion in a direction you have to counter it with opposite stick control. When you accelerate the drone tends to lift rather than stay at height and has other control anomalies. It can be a bit maddening. However, because it is so different and difficult to fly the simulator it can hone some skills. But it's not at all realistic from the stand point of live drone handling. JMO

A.O. said:

Yes, I started looking in 2017 and reading about crashes and losses I backed off for a while.... but now you guys are stuck with me! ;-)

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The more the merrier. We couldn’t be happier to be stuck with you!

Couple of drills for you in a Wide open space.

Start with all “line of sight” if you can master flying LOS screen flying will be easier.

-First - Exercises with no elevation change. Set to 3m say or whatever works for your environment.
Squares forward - forward, left, backward, right - then reverse
-Squares path - forward, turn right, forward, turn right forward. (After a while hit brakes(back) before each turn to make square more precise) then do in reverse.
-Orbits - fly right while turning(yaw) left this will move drone in a circle keeping it pointed at a central object. Reverse, fly left whilst turning (yaw) right. Switches directions.
-Reverse orbit. Basically opposite of Normal orbit but rear of craft points at central point and camera outwards.
-Figure of eights - self explanatory. Do in reverse afterwards and add some roll in on your turns to experiment with blending yaw & roll.

Exercises with elevation changes
-Looped de loo - fly forward, add altitude keep attitude and fly backwards, decrease altitude while still flying backwards, then fly forwards whilst decreasing altitude.
This will fly a loop. Do it in reverse.

Combine elevation and direction
-Do a figure eight. Then a loop in the central crossing reverse
-Tilted squares
-tilted circles
-Tilted 8’s

Last step is learning camera tilt control
Doing loops with camera tilts to keep subjects in frame is a good one. But any of the exercises adding in camera tilting. Will work.

After it becomes natural I the practiced in sports mode the same exercises. But be careful make sure you are in an open field to start as you will have no obstacle avoidance.

A battery every 2 days for a couple of weeks will make it instinctual.

From there flying to record video & photo is pretty easy. Just a matter of keeping to your ability and not exceeding. Going over water and around obstacles the fist few times is worth going slow at first. Line it up LOS to assist.

Intermediate- Improving your skills especially for recording.
The key is having soft initial and ending inputs. Do the exercises concentrating on softening your inputs in and out to smooth out the recordings. Try not to use screen to guide as making it subconscious is the goal.

The goal is to make it all subconscious as possible so in any difficult situations you aren’t having to think to much and your skills can help you out,

Takes time and regular flying.

A.O. said:

Yeah, I have power lines, trees and water ALL in my back yard!! I got the manual, thanks... and I've been watching this video.. but thanks again..
Taking it slow, tried the RTH from about 20 feet away and it worked fine, I didn't much like something else flying the drone and I knew if it were further away it would zip up to the height I have set which is 150 feet (tall trees here) and I did not want it to do that!!
Made a little landing pad (3ft x 3 ft) so I have a place to take off and land from that field I talked about and will try that later today or tomorrow.
Thanks for the advice!

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Everybody gave you great advice, but your going to have to really trust your aircraft. Use landing pad out at big field. Start your motors or just auto up. Then touching no right stick, carefully just give it throttle only to about 20-25 foot, pause it there for about 5 seconds. Then shoot it out about 100 ft in front of you..Grit your teeth, clinch those butt cheeks and press that darn RTH button! Let it do the full sequence to include the auto landing all the way down. You will be amazed that it nails the take off spot within inches.

There...... you got that outta the way...RTH works and works great... I use it almost every flight to capture a smooth cinematic type of shot known as a "Zip Line". The MA2 can't do what I do (M2Z model), but hopefully they will change that in firmware. But seriously you need to trust your RTH..it is one of the cool things to show your buddies..Please give it a try

A.O. said:

Thanks all, a bunch of good info here! I did two batteries yesterday... but I have a long ways to go, but having fun. After I learn to fly this thing I'll start working on the camera. I am not a photographer and need to figure out al those billions and billions of settings on there!

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Baby steps there dude, you'll get there. I am at the point now that I run out to my landing pad (Did pre-flight night before), I hit power on controller on way out I set her on the pad and power it up. I look down and do a quick visual of the telemetry and launch and do what I do. I can launch in under a minute if I really needed to (I have a SC). It has become routine and you will get there. Just don't get complacent, that is when the bad stuff will happen.

If you never ever flown any RC model I really recommend a sim and a cheap non gps quad that has an acro mode and a stability mode learn how to fly before you use your really expensive drone that flys it’s self then when a problem does arrive you can handle it a lot better. Just my advice of 20+ years in the rc hobbie it will save you in the end and make you a better pilot.

old man mavic said:

@A.O. hi my fellow flyer, i noticed you joined in 2017 ,have you not been flying ,since you joined ,there is nothing wrong with that i am just curious thats all ,you need a large clear space to practice controlling your drone , and that field you mentioned sounds just the job ,choose a calm day and make sure that you are alone if possible ,start with squares and practice them with the drone facing away from you, then try them with the camera facing you ,you will notice that the controls are reversed when the drone is facing you ,getting comfortable with that is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome, when you control any sort of drone,model boat, vehicle, aircraft , etc, but as you progress, it will become something that you will do without having to think to much about ,then you will gradually start combining moving more than one of the sticks at the same time ,to do figure of eights, circles ,ovals , spirals, while keeping the drone under control ,this takes time and practice to master but it is a great feeling when you do ,it is also important to fly a battery or two of these manoeuvres, from time to time ,to keep your hand in if you haven't flown for a while

Click to expand...

Yes! Yes! Yes! An issue that I've wanted to address here for some time now. The manufacturers sell their machines on the wonderful videos and stills they can (and do) produce and we see a delightful stream of things on YouTube, etc. and we're hooked. In the process, what is overlooked is that first you have to fly an aeroplane. And not just fly it but fly it remotely Without it, there are not many vids or shots before that sickening thud in your stomach when your aeroplane comes to grief. Kids are taught to ski without poles and we should see the absolute imperative to use the camera solely as feedback on how you did on the last flight. If you've not flown a drone yet and you're reading this, here's a promise. I promise you that if you just practice flying in open space and light winds often enough you will have moments that will give you a churn. That's part of the learning process ) Go on doing it until you don't get a churn any more and just stretch yourself; but try not to be in a hurry and see this flying training as the most valuable moments in the hobby. And hugely enjoyable as well. I can talk; I've pranged my drone(s) three times and on each occasion I am able to see where a little more time on flying training would have saved the day. Sorry it sounds like a sermon but I now feel better for getting it off my chest ) Practice, practice, practice! Mike

You’ve gotten some great advice already. When I started flying, someone on here told me “height is your friend” (unless it’s too windy). I found this to be true. I can send her up to 200’ and (around here) not worry about trees or high power lines. I can let the grandkids fly it up there without worry. As you progress, you’ll want to drop it down to get the video or photo you want. I’ve found that keeping my eye on the screen is easier than trying to watch the bird, and with 10 acres, you won’t have any concerns about VLOS. Best wishes and enjoy the sport!
P.S. There is a free app called UAV forecast that predicts how strong the wind gusts are at any given height in your area. If they’re more than 20 mph at 200’ I don’t put my mini up but I hear your Air2 will do much better in wind. It’s limiting but safe. Also, nice deer stand!