Flying safely, knowing your limitations and understanding how your drone works is essential when taking photos and aerial videos. As a drone enthusiast, I have seen many YouTube videos where drone crashes are shown to be horrible in their consequences, not to mention their costliness. Most of these failures could have been avoided by simple precautions.
I've been flying drones professionally for a while now, and I'd like to share 15 simple steps on how to prevent accidents. I mainly fly Phnatom 4, but these tips can also be applied to Mavica Pro and Spark, or any other drone. Better to be protected than sorry later! You don't want to learn them the way I learned them.
How to fly a drone safely?
1. Before you fly, practice in the DJI GO simulator! I recommend doing this for at least two hours. Get used to the controller and pay attention to which way the drone is facing. If the front is facing you and you move to the right, the drone will move to the left. It is a good idea to fly so that the front is facing away from you.
2. Read twice the instruction manual that comes with the product!
3. Initially, do not fly more than 30-40 m and get used to the controller. Don't get me started on the camera and thinking about pictures. For the avid photographer, ignoring the camera will be difficult, but the most important thing for first flights is to learn to control the drone.
4. Practice using the Homecoming feature. Long press the "H" button and see how it works first hand (of course, read the manuals beforehand). Before you start the function, you must have a GPS signal. Also check the map for a green H.
5. Set the DJI GO to over 100m (unless there are taller objects around, then set it higher) to make sure your drone doesn't hit any trees or buildings on the way home. You may be inclined to fly your drone out of sight, but this can be unnecessarily risky. Keep the drone in sight to avoid collisions.
6. Watch out for power lines, wires and tree branches during flight. Obstacle avoidance sensors may not detect thin objects, so you must avoid them. Especially on your first flights, it's a good idea to arrange with a friend to help keep an eye on the aircraft so you can concentrate on your smartphone screen. Two pairs of eyes are always better than one!
7. When taking off, use the auto start function and let the drone hover at 1 meter for about 30 seconds. This helps the battery to warm up, and if there are problems with the battery, you will notice them when you pick up the. The plus side is that it is better to crash 1m above the ground than 100m.
8. In winter, when outside temperatures drop below 10° Celsius, turn on the rotors and let the battery warm up until the temperature reaches 25° Celsius - this can be checked in the appilcation
9. Don't fly backwards or avoid it. It's always better to see on the screen the landscape you are flying, so you can spot an unseen obstacle in time. Even when it comes to P4P rear sensors, as I mentioned earlier, they will not avoid objects such as branches and wires.
10. Don't rely 100% on obstacle sensors. Although they can save a drone's life in certain situations, they can't detect everything and won't work in low light conditions.
11. Don't fly in areas with strong interference (e.g. Near large metal objects) and don't fly under high voltage lines.
12. No matter what you do, do not pull both control rods to the lower inside or outside corners. This stops engines in the air if held for more than a few seconds! This is a failsafe function and should only be used in case of failure. This key combination, known as Combination Stick Command or CSC, works with Phantom 3 and Phantom 4, which have older firmware versions. Recent software versions and products have been changed to stop the emergency. Nevertheless, read the emergency instructions in the user manual.
13. Avoid flying when it's windy. Any small drone is unstable in the wind, and DJI drones do not take wind speed into account when calculating the time it takes to return home. So if you are far away, you may not be able to return to the starting point in time if the winds are strong. To measure wind speed, you can buy an anemometer.
14. Some bird species are disturbed by drones. Some even try to defend their territory by attacking drones. YouTube is full of videos in which pilots have hostile encounters with seagulls or raptors, resulting in the drone's life ending and injuring an innocent bird. Therefore, do not fly near large groups of birds. Try not to disturb them.
15. As in commercial aviation, takeoffs and landings are the riskiest stages of flight. Especially when landing, make sure the landing site is free of obstacles and is relatively flat. See which direction the wind is blowing, and keep in mind that your drone may drift a bit in that direction. And if you think you need to land on sand or a puddle of water, don't do it! Catching with hands is possible, although it is a bit risky for new pilots. Check out the YouTube tutorials before trying it yourself.
These are the basic tips I learned through flying. This is not everything you need to know to become a great pilot, but it's a good start.
Now get out and start flying safely!
Article written from a DJI article (http://store.dji.com/guides/)
