I'm Joshua Bardwell you're going to
learn something today
at least I hope you learned something if
you're new to the hobby of drone racing
or quad copters or multirotors whatever
you want to call it in this video I'm
going to go over the top mistakes that I
think people who are new to this hobby
make and hopefully if you are new to the
Hobby you can avoid some of these
mistakes and if you're not news to hobby
well I hope you're still entertained by
hearing what I think the top mistakes
are you can go down into the comments
and tell me which ones you think I
missed or where you think I got it wrong
or where you think I got it right
share your horror stories so the other
noobs who come watch this video can go
down and read the comments and NC does
not just making all this up without any
further ado let's get into the list and
the first mistake on the list is not
spending enough time learning to fly in
a simulator so you can get a simulator
for your computer that will let you
learn to fly a multi rotor and the
experience of flying in the simulator is
not exactly like flying in real life the
simulation is not perfect but it's
actually pretty good
and spending five or ten hours maybe
learning to fly in a simulator will
actually really help you when you first
go out with your real copter here's the
thing the first time you fly with your
real copter you are going to crash
you're not going to fly beautifully and
land it wonderfully and everything will
go great that's just not going to happen
for 99% of us and the second time you're
going to crash and the third time you're
going to put it in a tree and the fourth
time you're going to crash into a you
know you're just going to crash a lot
and eventually you crash less and less
so get the first 50 100 200 crashes out
of the way in the computer where you can
just hit the reset button and get right
back in the air
now in order for this to make the best
use of your time you really should be
using a transmitter not just not just
like an Xbox joystick or whatever so
that the muscle memory you're learning
in your hands actually applies the great
thing is that if you know what
transmitter you're interested in getting
you can usually get a little
adapter like this one and it plugs into
your computer and you let you use your
transmitter that you will actually be
using with your quadcopter as a joystick
with a simulator so you're actually
having the experience of using your
actual transmitter as you fly I strongly
strongly recommend anyone who is new to
to multirotors to spend to spend this
time it is not cool or sexy to be
sitting in front of a computer instead
of out there with your quadcopter but if
you have scrimped and saved and gotten
your first few hundred dollars together
to get a quadcopter there's nothing more
heartbreaking than smashing it into the
ground and destroying it and not being
able to fly it and that's going to
happen like sharp boosts once said don't
fall in love with your quadcopter you're
going to destroy it it will happen and
then you'll fix it and then you'll get
back in the air and you'll break it
again and fix it and etc but you're
going to do that a lot lot more in the
beginning do it in the simulator the
second mistake on this list the
beginners make flying in Auto level now
if you want to fly a camera platform
like a phantom or a Mavic or any of
those if you want to fly that kind of
copter then auto level GPS assisted all
that stuff is perfect that's what it's
for but if you want to get into racing
or freestyle you're going to be flying
in accra mode not Auto level mode and
people ask sometimes on ons on my videos
who are you flying an auto level or acro
and I just want to smack myself in the
head and like no one is flying Auto
level and any of these awesome racing
and freestyle videos no one none of them
are flying in Auto level Auto level
seems like a good thing
acro seems hard at first and it may be
it has a little bit more of a learning
curve than Auto level but here's the
thing
Auto level teaches you all kinds of
terrible habits and after you get past
the very basic point of trying to learn
how to hover Auto level will fight you
every step of the way
in being able to do good racing and good
acro moves oh I know someone out there
right now is saying I know a guy and he
won a race in Auto level he placed first
place in the Nationals good good for
that's that's not doesn't mean it's a
good idea for everyone okay
so bite the bullet learn to fly in a
crow or rate mode same thing different
name don't learn to fly on auto level
mode it'll be harder at first that's why
you're practicing in the simulator but
then once you get it it will be so much
better and the thing is if you learn to
fly an auto level mode it's not like
when you decide to fly in rate mode okay
I'll just pick it up you've learned so
many bad habits from auto level mode
that unlearning those habits you
actually takes you twice as long to
learn to fly in accra mode so just bite
the bullet learn to fly in accra mode
the third item on the list is overpaying
for your gear at your local hobby shop
here's what here's our often happens
someone wants to get into racing so they
go to the local hobby shop and they say
I want a racing drone and a local hobby
shop sells them something who knows what
they end up paying two or three times as
much as they ought to for inferior gear
if they quickly outgrow or break and
then when they go back they they just
sell them more stuff I know there are
good local hobby shops out there and I
feel like they absolutely deserve your
support but so many of the ones that
I've been in they don't have what I want
I went I needed some props and I went to
buy pot and they didn't have reversed or
they didn't clockwise props because they
don't do multirotors I was like what am
I doing here or if they do have
something like what you want it's so
overpriced and I know that if you're
running a brick-and-mortar store that
you have to charge more than if you're
running a warehouse out of China I
understand that I appreciate that I'm
not opposed to that I'm willing to pay
more for the ability to walk in the door
and get something and walk out but I've
heard stories of people being charged 50
bucks for an A's 32 or something and I'm
just like come on use that's that's not
right so don't rush out into your local
hobby shop and just buy the first thing
they plunked down chances are that you
will do better getting something off the
internet you will get a better product
and you will spend less money and if you
think oh but I need to support
my local hobby shop well only if they're
a good one in chance there aren't many
of those left these days so the state
number four
cheeping out when people ask what it
costs to get into drone racing I say
about between 600 and let's say 1,300
dollars depending on how much you want
to spend if you've got nothing and
you're starting from scratch and I know
you can do it cheaper than 600 somewhere
around 300 it starts to get really
questionable if you're buying absolute
bottom-of-the-barrel gear you're really
throwing your money away you're getting
stuff that is not going to last you're
not going to have a good experience
flying it and you're going to end up
replacing it now this is a tough one for
me because let's face it this is an
expensive hobby and I hope that as many
people as want to get into it can get
into it so I don't want to say that if
you just because you only have so much
money to spend you can't get into this
hobby you don't want to put down the
person who is in it on a shoestring and
and is still having a great time but if
you have a little bit more to spend it's
probably worth it to go ahead and spend
it and I would say I would say if you're
spending five or six hundred dollars on
your first set up including the copter
the goggles the the transmitter
everything you're probably doing okay if
you're spending more than that you may
be doing better you may just be spending
more that's a tough call but if you're
spending less than as you get down into
the 400 300 I've seen some decent
copters in the 200 to 250 dollar range
I've even reviewed some of them there
are some okay copters out there so I'm
actually pretty good copters in that
range so if you were to say 200 for the
copter hundred for some kind of gut
headplay goggles or something like that
and another 50 or 100 for a transmitter
of some kind now you're in the range of
two to four hundred dollars if you're
spending much less than that you should
might ought to think about spending a
little more than that mistake number
five rushing going too fast I know this
hobby is all about going fast right here
so excited to get in the air but you
miss things and the stereotypical
example that we see every Christmas also
known as I lost my drone day is people
take off and they don't know how
fail-safe works on their copter and then
their copter flies away and we make fun
of phantom users for doing this right
but racing drone pilots do it too the
copter flies away so there are some real
distance this is a complicated hobby and
there's a lot of ways that you can get
it wrong there's a lot of mistakes you
can make and there's things you need to
be know how to do and like setting up
your failsafe and a few other things ok
I'm not this is not the video to go into
what they are the thing is you're in
such a hurry to just freakin get any air
that you don't spend the time in the
simulator
you don't setup your failsafe and they
make these other mistakes and you end up
trash in that beautiful new drone that
you just bought take the time to learn
the things that you need to learn and
and you'll get in the air and you'll
have a much better experience so then
how do you know what those things are
and that brings me to mistake number 6
that I think people make which is going
it alone I know you're in the middle of
freaking nowhere you don't know anybody
who flies a drone and you called me you
reach out to me on the internet for help
desperate because your flight controller
wasn't working your receiver wasn't
working yes come to me I'll do
everything I can but there's only so
much I can do as a random guy on the
internet and if you were sitting in the
room with me I could fix it probably in
20 minutes and it'd be done but trying
to troubleshoot over the Internet is an
exercise in frustration here's the thing
there is a flight group near you now for
some value of near I talked to one guy
and he was in the middle of freaking
nowhere Texas and I said well why don't
you will go to go to San Antonio or go
to I don't know whatever Austin from
near nearby city and he said well gosh
that's two hours away and I'm like look
on some Saturday make a day of it reach
out to them on their Facebook page find
somebody people in this hobby are so
willing to help you to reach out to them
on their Facebook page or whatever find
somebody will help you dry
for two hours who cares it's two hour
drive you live in Texas two hours is a
morning commute
spend five hours six hours out there in
somebody's workshop working on your
copter and learning soaking up
information and then drive two hours
home and you had a great day right
that's that's a great way to spend your
time wherever you live and if you're you
probably within a couple hours drive of
you have a flat big city with a flight
Club and if you could find them go go to
Facebook and search for city name fpv or
city name drone racing or whatever try
to find just they're out there you just
got to find them Facebook is actually a
surprisingly good it's almost better
than Google because oftentimes these
groups don't have a web page but they do
have a Facebook group so search for
those things find the people out there
don't just think you're stuck alone and
having to learn all this is too much for
most people to learn on their own you'll
be overwhelmed you get frustrated you
get tired of it you'll give up and
that's a shame because it is a great
dream that you had that made you want to
get into this hobby it's real and you
can have it but there's a whole lot of
hurdles to get over and it's so much
easier if you've got somebody to help
you steer you through them well there
you go those are how many days I have
six the six biggest mistakes but I think
people make when they get into drone
racing you tell me what you think any I
missed big mistakes I'm sure I missed
some I didn't think of them and tell me
what you think of mine if you've got any
horror stories or things that happen
when you were getting into the Hobby put
them down in the comments thanks for
watching happy flying