Fear of Flying

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Location
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After a few days of flying at 2 mph and taking great care to not clip the tops of the trees I'm passing over, realized that I was scared to death of crashing Solo. Well, tonight just before dusk, I set performance for rabbit and holy socks, she really jumps. So I burned a battery racing around the field and, while I don't plan to fly carelessly, I have a lot more confidence in handling this beast.

A little about how I came to be here. I have a small media production company in Connecticut and saw the writing on the wall with FAA in the past year. I took over two months to decide on a camera platform, and during that time put in about 30-40 hours on a Syma 8 (well actually several when counting the terminal crashes). I haven't started to dial in Solo to get rid of the micro vibrations I'm seeing in my footage, yet. I have a lot of 3DRpilots reading to catch up on.

I can see that this is a real nice community led by people that care deeply about the boards.. Everyone is so helpful here that it is appropriate to say, "thanks in advance" for the advice I'm sure I will be receiving shortly.

I love my Solo!
 
Enjoy your new tool.

I too have a small video production company and flown properly, this does a great job.

A word of advice.... The video looks far more impressive in Turtle mode over jack rabbit mode. Also, much more control,

All the best!
 
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well crashing on the trees 75% chance to locate but living on the island like me zero % to retrieve into the bottom of the ocean that's why im very carefull make sure everything check, full bats, gps locks etc etc
 
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After a few days of flying at 2 mph and taking great care to not clip the tops of the trees I'm passing over, realized that I was scared to death of crashing Solo. Well, tonight just before dusk, I set performance for rabbit and holy socks, she really jumps. So I burned a battery racing around the field and, while I don't plan to fly carelessly, I have a lot more confidence in handling this beast.

A little about how I came to be here. I have a small media production company in Connecticut and saw the writing on the wall with FAA in the past year. I took over two months to decide on a camera platform, and during that time put in about 30-40 hours on a Syma 8 (well actually several when counting the terminal crashes). I haven't started to dial in Solo to get rid of the micro vibrations I'm seeing in my footage, yet. I have a lot of 3DRpilots reading to catch up on.

I can see that this is a real nice community led by people that care deeply about the boards.. Everyone is so helpful here that it is appropriate to say, "thanks in advance" for the advice I'm sure I will be receiving shortly.

I love my Solo!
Welcome to the forum, bluesgeek. You are right about the people on here. They will bend over backwards to help you in any way they can. Just keep on flying with care, and you will get to be proficient in no time. Good luck, and safe flying.
 
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Also, FYI: to mitigate vibrations in the footy, try 1) balancing props 2) making sure the gimbal is floating freely on the rubber damper bits (sometimes the plastic filter bit on the HDMI cable can get caught in between the gimbal and the quad's shell and 3) not trying to go too fast against wind or while descending. Happy flying!
 
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Also, please learn to fly in manual mode, and set your A button to Fly:manual. It will save your craft one day...
 
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well crashing on the trees 75% chance to locate but living on the island like me zero % to retrieve into the bottom of the ocean that's why im very carefull make sure everything check, full bats, gps locks etc etc
Enjoy your new tool.

I too have a small video production company and flown properly, this does a great job.

A word of advice.... The video looks far more impressive in Turtle mode over jack rabbit mode. Also, much more control,

All the best!

Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, I keep it on turtle for cam work. My only concern is that if I get in a jam and need to power out of a situation, I won't have the propulsion.

Yesterday I was flying in GPS and as I passed under a tree in an open field I didn't lose GPS lock, but Solo moved off fairly quickly to the side (toward the tree trunk of course :) ). I had to fight to get it back. Then a half second later it moved with the same speed in another direction and I had to work to pull it back. I did not lose GPS lock and was in regular Fly. I have enough non-GPS manual experience to be at least suspect that this was something GPS related. Is it possible that some sats are lost while staying locked and that position becomes extremely inaccurate and Solo moves erratically as a result?

Back to the concern, is there a way to quickly get more propulsion if turtle isn't enough?

Perhaps an answer is to set performance for camera pan to turtle and for flight to medium.
 
well crashing on the trees 75% chance to locate but living on the island like me zero % to retrieve into the bottom of the ocean that's why im very carefull make sure everything check, full bats, gps locks etc etc

Would it be safe to assume that you fly with getterbacks?
 
Welcome to the forum, bluesgeek. You are right about the people on here. They will bend over backwards to help you in any way they can. Just keep on flying with care, and you will get to be proficient in no time. Good luck, and safe flying.

Thanks very much for the welcome. I look forward to getting to know everyone.
 
Also, FYI: to mitigate vibrations in the footy, try 1) balancing props 2) making sure the gimbal is floating freely on the rubber damper bits (sometimes the plastic filter bit on the HDMI cable can get caught in between the gimbal and the quad's shell and 3) not trying to go too fast against wind or while descending. Happy flying!

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them.
 
Also, please learn to fly in manual mode, and set your A button to Fly:manual. It will save your craft one day...

I did have my B button set to manual, but there's something to be said for the added safety of making it A.

And I'm so glad that I took the advice of experienced fliers and put in a lot of disciplined time on a trainer (Syma 8). I'm no expert but I can keep bearing with any orientation and have practiced recovering from vortex stall and even from intentional collisions with small tree branches. I practiced in high wind whenever I got the chance and navigating in close at various altitudes. I believe I'm prepared now to attend to the next step with Solo.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am guessing they come to some degree in the spirit of "learn from my mistakes."
 
Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, I keep it on turtle for cam work. My only concern is that if I get in a jam and need to power out of a situation, I won't have the propulsion.

Yesterday I was flying in GPS and as I passed under a tree in an open field I didn't lose GPS lock, but Solo moved off fairly quickly to the side (toward the tree trunk of course :) ). I had to fight to get it back. Then a half second later it moved with the same speed in another direction and I had to work to pull it back. I did not lose GPS lock and was in regular Fly. I have enough non-GPS manual experience to be at least suspect that this was something GPS related. Is it possible that some sats are lost while staying locked and that position becomes extremely inaccurate and Solo moves erratically as a result?

Back to the concern, is there a way to quickly get more propulsion if turtle isn't enough?

Perhaps an answer is to set performance for camera pan to turtle and for flight to medium.
Hey BG, Welcome and congrats for starting the correct way with prior experience that would translate to manual mode. I'm sure it has already saved your Solo. GPS lock can still be kept while the position accuracy will fluctuate and in fact always is as satellite come in and out of view. So yes, while flying under a tree you can maintain a 'lock' but the accuracy may have jumped from 15' to 50. Enough that Solo thought it's position had changed and needed a correction. I can't tell you how many new pilots crashed last year when the exact same thing happened and they did not have the experience or reaction time enough to correct before it found the tree.

For me, I prefer to fly around in manual mode until I am doing something that requires GPS, like Smart Shots or programmed missions. I find it more fun to be the pilot and you eliminate the surprises like you experienced.

Fly Safe..
Jubal
 
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Welcome aboard. crashing is a rite of passage.
If you fly it will eventually happen but you are off to a great start.

What is comforting is that 3DR is solid behind mechanical or electrical failures so that should boost your confidence a bit.

Have fun with it, and questions are a good thing.
 

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