Fresh meat-

[Bishamoten]

Hey all,

New guy on the forums, in fact new to the whole drone experience. I'm currently waiting for my Solo to arrive on my doorstep, and am anxiously anticipating the day. In the meantime I've been parusing forums just trying to get a feel for what exactly I'm getting myself into.

I would like to ask, if anyone has a list of links to threads that they feel every novice and well frankly ignorant want to be drone pilot should read and digest prior to placing their sausages on a flight controller, it would be greatly appreciated by me and more importantly the environments I'll be flying in.

I'm excited to explore the realm of drones, there seems to be endless possibilities to what they can be used for. Which brings me to my second question, what are some of your favorite things to do with your drone? I would like to extend that question to other types of drones as well.

Thanks in advance to everyone's input, and suggestions, recommendations are welcome. Thanks for having me here all, and I look forward to being a part of the community.


Cheers-

 

[Dirby]

read the instructions.

 

[Hoover185]

Hey all,

New guy on the forums, in fact new to the whole drone experience. I'm currently waiting for my Solo to arrive on my doorstep, and am anxiously anticipating the day. In the meantime I've been parusing forums just trying to get a feel for what exactly I'm getting myself into.

I would like to ask, if anyone has a list of links to threads that they feel every novice and well frankly ignorant want to be drone pilot should read and digest prior to placing their sausages on a flight controller, it would be greatly appreciated by me and more importantly the environments I'll be flying in.

I'm excited to explore the realm of drones, there seems to be endless possibilities to what they can be used for. Which brings me to my second question, what are some of your favorite things to do with your drone? I would like to extend that question to other types of drones as well.

Thanks in advance to everyone's input, and suggestions, recommendations are welcome. Thanks for having me here all, and I look forward to being a part of the community.


Cheers-

I was in your shoes a few months ago - this is the right place to be. In the three months I've had my Solo, I've upgraded the gps module to one that gets Russian sats as well and changed out the wifi cards in the drone and controller to more powerful ones, and troubleshoot my gimbal install, all with these this one forum. Just look around the threads for what you're interested in, there are lots of knowledgeable people here and quite a few that know how these things are built from scratch. If you have a problem that you don't see already answered here, just start a thread and you'll have answers within minutes probably. Happy flying!

 

[Chuck]

Welcome to the forum. Dirby and Hoover185 hit it on the head. As soon as you think you are comfortable with the manual, read it some more. For me, joining this forum was the best move for me. I have learned so much on here, and everybody is great about helping out. Don't be afraid to ask questions on here, as somebody will most likely have the answer. Good luck.....

 

[Bishamoten]

I'd say that's pretty solid advice. Noted.

I was in your shoes a few months ago - this is the right place to be. In the three months I've had my Solo, I've upgraded the gps module to one that gets Russian sats as well and changed out the wifi cards in the drone and controller to more powerful ones, and troubleshoot my gimbal install, all with these this one forum. Just look around the threads for what you're interested in, there are lots of knowledgeable people here and quite a few that know how these things are built from scratch. If you have a problem that you don't see already answered here, just start a thread and you'll have answers within minutes probably. Happy flying!

Thanks, I appreciate that. I've seen the posts/videos on those projects. I figured when it finally arrived I would at the very least check the copper around the stock gps unit and place a space in there to help improve gps lock.

I'm curious about the stick antennas and signal strength under canopies and objects. Obviously this depends on the density of the canopy or object, but I'm trying to get an idea of the impact the flight responses are in different settings.

 

[Bishamoten]

This being my first drone, on a scale of 1-10 how easy is this drone to fly? 10 being just walk away.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Welcome your definitley in the right place, solo is as easy as you want it to be. You have I think it's 6 flight modes, it starts in fly GPS and you'll want to get manual down which is like fly only it won't just sit in one place, it drifts with wind. Manual is needed if the GPS has an issue and loses signal, it's saved me a bunch and as soon as you get comfortable in the open, try to practice with it. Be sure you start in a wide open area as solos GPS is touchy and until you get to practice in manual, you'll be in bad shape if you lose signal. When you get it change your return to land height to higher than anything nearby like trees and turn on advance flight just so you can map manual flight to a or b. Your better off trying in manual if you lose GPS than hoping solo rights itself, it's pretty easy long as you keep solo pointing away from you till you get the hang of the controls.

Got to get to sleep cause I work in a few hours, but these folks will have you ready by the time solo shows up. Congrats on the solo and any questions even if you think there stupid ask em here and you'll get good answers. I've flown under two years, but have learned more in my few months here than over a year flying before joining. I'll drop in after work but have fun and fly safe.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Looks like your on your way and doing it all right if your here and watching videos on what to expect, read up and you'll be as prepared as you could be. Most folks who get one and crash are cause they didn't do any of the things you are, admittedly after I bought my phantom I didn't and I was ok flying cautiously, but I've learned a ton here since pre ordering solo and it's made me much better at both filming and flying for sure.

 

[Smokealotapotamus]

One thing that really helped me was getting a smaller quad to practice with and get the basics down before flying my Solo. I got both the Hubsan X4 and Syma X5C. After getting proficient with those, flying Solo in GPS mode was cake.

 

[Raybro]

One thing that really helped me was getting a smaller quad to practice with and get the basics down before flying my Solo. I got both the Hubsan X4 and Syma X5C. After getting proficient with those, flying Solo in GPS mode was cake.

Totally agree. My little $50 Syma X5c took a beating and probably saved me a few Gs.
After getting the hang of flying a quad I got a Phantom 2 and now the Solo.

 

[Smokealotapotamus]

Totally agree. My little $50 Syma X5c took a beating and probably saved me a few Gs.
After getting the hang of flying a quad I got a Phantom 2 and now the Solo.

Same here. The Hubsan with a good prop guard saved me tons in the long run. An added benefit is once you master one of those twitchy things, the rest will come easy. I got my Syma after the Hubsan, and even that seemed easy after the Hubsan.

A word of warning to people with long hair, prop guards on the Hubsan will not prevent all four props tangling in your hair to the point where you need to cut it a bit if you happen to crash into your own head.

 

[Rich]

One thing I don't think they stress enough if you are new to things that will hover is to always be sure you know where the tail or nose is.

When hovering learn to keep the tail pointed at you! If you don't the controls are reversed and you will get confused, especially in a stress situation!

Keeping the tail pointed at you helps a LOT until you have mastered flying in any orientation. In a quad, about the only thing you have for orientation it the gimbal hanging off the front of the quad.

Good luck, go slow, keep the tail pointed at yourself and have fun! If you get in trouble, hit pause and take a breath.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Same here. The Hubsan with a good prop guard saved me tons in the long run. An added benefit is once you master one of those twitchy things, the rest will come easy. I got my Syma after the Hubsan, and even that seemed easy after the Hubsan.

A word of warning to people with long hair, prop guards on the Hubsan will not prevent all four props tangling in your hair to the point where you need to cut it a bit if you happen to crash into your own head.

Now that's funny looks a bit like you may want to smokealillessapotomus, when flying at least. Smoked a long time but quit some years back, still can't say it's in any way worse than alcohol though. Their actually trying to pass the bill here next month and even have most of the police support, they'd much rather focus on the heroin epidemic around here, it's scary how bad that's gotten around the city.

 

[Adimuzio513]

One thing I don't think they stress enough if you are new to things that will hover is to always be sure you know where the tail or nose is.

When hovering start lean-to keep the tail pointed at you! If you don't the controls are reversed and you will get confused, especially in a stress situation!

Keeping the tail pointed at you helps a LOT until you have mastered flying in any orientation. In a quad, about the only thing you have for orientation it the gimbal hanging off the front of the quad.

Good luck, go slow, keep the tail pointed at yourself and have fun! If you get in trouble, hit pause and take a breath.

Yea orientation is the hardest part of it all for sure and it takes some time to train your brain to swap controls around. I'm comfy now flying or landing nose in, out or however, but it took a lot of hours for it to feel natural to do so. Still occasionally if I have issues it takes a sec to right myself in fast oh $hit situations and I've flown over 200 flights going on two years. Just take it slow though and it's easier than you'd think to control the basic functions as long as you keep your nose out away from ya for a bit and keep practicing, slowly adding new maneuvers and flight modes.

 

[Dirby]

This being my first drone, on a scale of 1-10 how easy is this drone to fly? 10 being just walk away.

this is real easy about a two if you stay in beginners mode.
read instructions and try everything out with out the props on until you feel comftorable with all the controls.
than take it to a BIG FIELD and try it out in beginners mode at first.
go slow and don't do any stupid stuff.