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I’m looking for some information on how much trust I should have in my drone. I’m what I would say new to drones and I have just purchased the DJI mini 4 pro but was out today and was extremely nervous about setting the drone off.
Not only was I nervous about the height to put it up but also the distance to send it off, is this a common issue with new drone users? Or am I being overprotective?
I just had the thought of my brand new drone going off into the unknown and not coming back.
Totally normal in my experience, just take your time and get to know how your drone works and reacts to your input, over time your confidence will rise and you will know both your drones and your limitations. Fly at a height and distance you are comfortable with and you will find that with each flight your confidence grows. Learn to read the information on your screen, like signal strength etc, when you do this, again your confidence will grow.
Bottom line, fly, fly and fly again. Only way to get the experience and confidence.
Hi Kev, and welcome . It’s quite normal to be nervous on your first few flights. As per CAA rules, you shouldn’t fly beyond Visual Line of Sight ( VLOS) which for the MP4 would normally be maybe 200- 300m depending on the background. I doubt whether you’d even want to go that far. Find a nice big open space ( no obstacles nearby) Take off ( once it’s updated it’s home point) Take the drone up say 15-30m and just have a wee fly round. If at any point you feel as though it’s getting away from you, simply let go of the control sticks. The drone will hover in place. Try moving the left control stick sideways whilst hovering. The drone should spin slowly in place. Do this until the drone is pointing towards you and use the right control stick to fly it forward to you . Left up or down moves the drone up or down. Right control stick moves the drone forward or backward. Easy peasy
What he said
Give it time, gets lots of practice in a quiet open area, and you will gradually get the confidence to relax a little.
I always think a little bit of anxiety is a good thing …. It will stop you getting too confident, and keep you safe and happy
Enjoy it
Oh, and make sure you set the automatic Return to Home height so the drone will fly high enough to avoid any obstructions.
If all else fails, you can press the RTH button, and the drone will come back to you
Thats something i was wondering about, you sat 200-300m. Now this might sound daft but are we viewing the drone through the screen here or with the human eye?
It must be visible with the naked eye, and without using any means of assistance such as binoculars. You might find it helpful to have someone with you who is helping you keep an eye on it (a spotter) - this might help you feel more at ease.
The CAA even say that you should be able to see the orientation of the drone at all times I.e you should be able to see which direction it is facing.
Different people will different views on this particular issue, and it has to be said … it’s only you that knows whether you know which way it’s facing.
My general rule of thumb is … don’t be a dick, and try to fly as safely as you can, but enjoy it.
I have been through the same anxiety as you when I started flying. I still feel nervous sometimes, but there is no substitute for experience…. Get it, fly and enjoy it
I’m fairly new to drones myself and felt (and still do to an extent) exactly the same. Aside from the advice already mentioned, what I found really helped in my case was getting myself along to a local meet (check out groups for one in your area). All manner of ‘stupid’ questions from a newbie answered without prejudice or judgement. Within the space of half an hour, I’d gone from 20 metres up and 30 metres away to 110 metres up and 500/600 metres away, even flying over water.
I am very new to drones too, I have about 2 hours flight time so far. I found a big open field near to home to experiment. Auto take off, return to home, a variety of manoeuvres to build confidence. I have had it up to 400 feet, I can still see it against the sky. I have flown it as far away from me as I can still see it and then set that as the maximum allowed distance. It is much easier to see against the sky than against a busy background. I haven’t tried any of the intelligent flight modes yet, that is this afternoons project.
Binge watch this guys channel, he is a member here @ianinlondon
He goes through all the controls and how to set the sensitivity of them as well as the safety aspects and legal requirements in an easy to understand way. I would start at the newer ones and work back as DJI have updated some of their nomenclature recently.
The main thing with VLOS, is awareness of the area in the sky around your drone. If an Air Ambulance helicopter or Police helicopter was arriving where you’re flying, there’s the possibility of conflict.
As usual on this site, great info for a beginner, I agree with all that has been said, 6months ago I was in your shoes, fortunately have a large field behind my house, that I used every day ( fly, fly, fly ) to get the basics going, and how the drone reacts to your finger movements. I think everyone is nervous on their first flight or so, but familiarity brings confidence in your ability. I am by no means an expert flyer, very basic moves even now, but not too bothered about people being around, or asking questions, and importantly I always try to fly by the rules as set out by CAA. Good luck
Take you and your drone into a large field, checking on drone scene beforehand that you arnt in any zones and what not. Check out whether there’s power lines or phone lines. If there’s nothing that’s going to i3nterfere with your flight, just launch your drone. While practicing and getting used to the drone forget about the orientation thing and some of the CAA stuff. Get used to the equipment you are operating.
If your trying to remember all the bollocks that the CAA throw at us AND learn to operate the drone at the same time your heads going to end up twisted.
Try doing figure of 8s left then right. Do squares, circles, triangles and then in reverse.
Try getting used to perspective, because that will catch you out at one point, of stuff that is near to you and far from you.
Get used to how your lens portrays distance from objects. Because you’ve got a wide angled lens, what you’ll see on your remote /phone will appear to be further away from your drone than it really is and that can catch you out.
I personally wouldn’t alter your settings for the time being as mentioned above until you have sussed out the controls and got more confidence, it’s just making more complications for you.
By all means once you have a good understanding of what your drone can do in stock mode and you have the confidence then change the sensitively on the sticks.
The vids above are great and give you a good understanding of what you can do to alter any input you make with the sticks, but from what you’ve said you just need to get used to flying first before altering stuff.
Same with the CAA stuff, I’m not saying you don’t need to learn it, just get get used to flying the drone first off .
Hi Kev and welcome!. I’m still fairly new here too even after a year as I don’t visit often enough!.
I, as all totally understand your concerns but again will say don’t worry!. I’m still running the poor mans Mini SE and it is often very poor at maintaining signal but will always ‘come home’ providing you gave enough time to link to enough satellites to know where you started the flight. You shouldn’t have these worries with the mini 4 pro and please don’t tell the Mrs that mine is on order!
