- Hey guys, what is going on?
Today we're talking beginner drone tips.
This is for people who are first-time flyers
who have never flown a drone before,
or those of you who just started flying.
There is a lot of information in here,
and I've set it up in a way where if you go from step one
to the last step, you'll become
a very successful pilot pretty quickly.
So guys, no chit-chat today, let's just get right into it.
(feelgood club music)
A lot of these tips may seem super obvious
but I'm sure there's plenty of you out there
who just are new to drones in general.
I know the first time that I got a drone,
I got the Phantom 2.
I had no idea what I was doing, and that was way different
than what you're getting nowadays.
So with the Spark or the Mavic,
you're gonna get a drone that's pretty much ready to go.
With the Phantom 2, I had to actually put the gimbal on
and build it and all that, and it was--
With the Mavic and Spark, you should be able to start flying
and get some awesome shots.
So let's go over the 20 things that I think you need to do
as a first-time flyer, or beginner flyer.
Okay, number one is very basic,
but a lot of people don't realize this.
You need to take the stickers off every sensor.
You need to take the gimbal guard
off the front of the gimbal, and then
there's usually a clamp on the gimbal itself.
So you need to take all the pieces off
so that your gimbal completely is free.
If your gimbal's not rotating freely
then you don't have the gimbal clamp off,
and you need to go through and just look at your drone.
So flip it over, turn it around,
look at all the different sensors.
If there's a sticker on it, take it off.
There's not supposed to be stickers on any of that.
Also go to your phone and download DJI's app.
You have to have the app to fly
and you need to have your drone set up ready to go.
So that goes into number two,
and that is update your firmware on both your drone
and the app to the newest firmware and software.
Okay, before you go out into the wild and start shooting,
you need to check that your drone will connect
to the controller.
And when I do this, I take the propellers off,
because as a first-time flyer,
you don't wanna accidentally hit the sticks
in the wrong direction, take off and crash in your house.
What you wanna do is take the propellers off,
have it sit there, and make sure that you're connected.
Make sure that everything boots up properly,
and that your controller and your software on your phone
connect to your drone, and you can see
the image on your phone.
So with this is number four, which is do not fly indoors.
I know you're gonna be very anxious to go fly,
you've just got a drone, you're ready to do this,
but I have seen so many videos on YouTube
where people fly because it's dark out
and they just got their drone,
or it's raining or something like that.
What happens is people take off in their house,
and the drone will take off and hit your TV,
it'll hit your wife, it'll hit your kids,
it'll run into the Christmas tree.
Whatever it is that's in the house,
it's most likely gonna hit it, it's gonna break your drone,
and it's gonna cost some damage.
Okay, number five goes along with this.
If the weather is bad, if there is any conditions
why you cannot go outside and fly, don't fly indoors.
I know it sucks, I know you wanna go fly.
There are so many times that I wanna go out there and fly,
but I definitely restrict myself from flying
for different reasons, because you wanna make sure
that you have successful flights.
If the weather's bad, if there's any sort of conditions
that are gonna ground you, don't fly.
Number six, this may seem super basic,
but charge your phone, charge the controller,
and charge all the batteries for your drone.
The last thing you wanna do is get out there
and have something at 2%, and then you can't fly.
Okay, number seven is another one
before you even leave the house.
You need to understand the FAA rules
if you're here in the US.
There are specific rules, and just being ignorant
to the rules doesn't give you a pass on the rules.
If you break the rules, if there's gonna be issues
then there's gonna be consequences.
Okay, number eight, it's a clear day,
you're ready to go fly, so go outside and fly,
but don't just go fly it right outside your house.
If you're in like a very busy metropolitan area,
or there's just not a lot of clearance,
you need to go find somewhere with a big open space to fly.
You might have to drive a little bit of a distance
to get there, you might have to take a few hours
to get to a space like this, but you wanna find a space
that is big and open and there's no consequences.
It's the first few times you're flying.
You just wanna learn the drone
without having to worry about things around you.
So when you're finding those big open spaces,
just make sure it's not a restricted area.
So this goes back to the FAA rules,
which basically says don't fly in certain areas,
so there's certain airspaces,
there's certain restricted areas that are off-limits,
and you need to know about these areas before you go fly.
So things like national parks, completely off-limits.
Wilderness areas, off-limits,
anywhere in like class A, B, C, D airspace.
All the airspaces except for G are off-limits,
unless you have a flight plan,
which you're not going to, a first-time flyer.
You need to find class G airspace,
which is uncontrolled airspace,
and you need to have an area that's big and open
and nowhere in a restricted zone.
Do your research, figure out what areas are around you,
there's different apps that show you
where restricted airspaces are.
Even the DJI app won't allow you to take off
in a restricted airspace.
So just be aware of where you're at,
and what kind of airspace is around you.
Okay, number 10, this is before you go out to that field,
make sure you have a memory card, stick it in,
make sure it works, so do a recording at home.
The last thing you want is to get out,
you're flying, you wanna record something,
you wanna start testing this out,
and then you don't have a memory card.
Trust me, I have forgotten my memory card,
it will happen to the best of us,
just don't forget your memory card and make sure it works.
All right, so you're out in a big open field,
there's no restrictions, nothing whatsoever.
We're on tip number 11, and this is pull the drone out,
connect everything, but then first
reset your IMU and your gyro.
This is for if you're the first time flying
and you've never flown before,
you basically just wanna make sure
that everything is set up properly.
You don't have to reset your IMU all the time.
You only really need to do this at the beginning
just to make sure everything is set up.
And then your gyro, you might have to reset that
every once in a while.
So it's just something to do the first time you're flying.
From there, just reset your gyro once in a while
just to make sure things are good.
All right, you're ready to fly,
everything is squared away, you're ready to go.
The gyro's set up, good things, everything is awesome.
So now turn on your drone,
but you gotta wait for the GPS to engage.
So let it sit there, let it register,
and you have to wait till that GPS clicks on
and shows your home point where you are exactly.
All right, if you start flying before the GPS registers,
it may stick your home point somewhere way far away,
maybe even back in the factory, who knows?
And the drone might just take off and go that way
when it says return to home.
So you need to let your GPS reset
so it knows exactly where you're at.
And you're right here, this is where your GPS is,
it's where your drone is, so that if anything happens,
your return home works properly.
Okay, so this is something I do whenever I go somewhere new.
If there's any issues, this is where
you'll start to see 'em pop out,
but take your drone off and let it hover
for like 20, 30 seconds.
Just let it sit there.
If there's any issues with your drone,
it's gonna come out right then and there.
If there's any issues with the GPS connecting
and keeping it where it's at,
you're gonna notice this right then and there.
So number 13 is take your drone off, let it hover,
let your hands off the controls.
Just let it sit there and make sure
everything is functioning properly.
Okay, now that your drone's hovering,
take it back down and land it.
I know this may seem a little redundant,
taking off, landing, but you wanna make sure
that everything works properly.
So you did your pre-flight, every set up on the front end.
You take off, everything's working in the air.
Now land it, make sure everything still works.
Okay, now everything is set up, everything works.
You're good to go, now let's start flying.
Okay, so tip number 15, now that you're flying
get it up in the air and just start flying around
playing with the controls, but always keep it
in line of sight.
You don't wanna fly behind a building, behind a tree,
out way too far a mile that way,
because you're new to drones, so you need to understand
that this is a complex piece of equipment.
So just fly it with line of sight.
Just hover around, watch the drone,
don't be looking at your screen
because you wanna know how your drone flies
and how you can control the drone using the controller.
Okay, number 16 goes right along with that.
Just play with each thumb controller, each direction,
so you know what everything does in the air.
Play with your camera going up and down, do all that stuff,
and figure out what everything does.
Don't go try and get some crazy shot right away,
just play with it, just make sure you know
how your thumbs work and how that controls
the drone up in the air.
Now number 17, fly a little bit of distance away.
Keep it in line of sight still.
Hit that return to home button and see what happens.
You have to understand how return to home works,
so that if you're in an emergency situation down the road,
you know what's gonna happen when you hit that
return to home button.
And you've gotta make sure that everything works properly
and you know what's going on there.
Now that your drone has come back,
it's returned, it's landed, it's shut off,
because that's what's gonna happen when you return to home,
get the drone back up in the air,
so keep playing with it, now let's play with photography.
So flip it into photo mode,
and just start snapping off shots.
It doesn't matter if they're good,
it doesn't matter if they're super exciting.
Play with different angles, see how you can position
the camera to take different types of photos.
Go into your menu settings and play
with all the photo settings, just play.
It doesn't matter how good these photos are.
You wanna understand everything about the photo side
of your drone before you are in a situation
where you wanna get good photos.
Okay, so number 19 just follows right along with that
is flip it into video mode and do the exact same thing.
Play with all the video modes, play with how you fly
and how you shoot, just start making movements
with your joysticks and shooting
and see how the results come out.
The best way to learn how to fly a drone
is to play with the drone and fly.
So just play and fly and shoot and see what happens.
Okay, and my last tip for beginner flyers,
this is number 20, is just run through all your batteries
this first time you're flying, first few times flying.
Just run through your batteries,
obviously don't let 'em get to zero.
Make sure you bring your drone back before it hits 30%.
Give yourself a little bit of cushion there,
but what I mean is just be out there
and play and practice, because the best way to get good
at flying a drone is to practice, practice
and practice some more.
So what you need to do is just go out there,
run through batteries, try all those settings,
and just learn everything about your drone.
After a few times of doing this,
you're gonna become very good at flying a drone,
and then you get into the situation
where you wanna get awesome shots.
You're gonna know exactly how to do it,
and you're gonna know exactly how to fly
to get specific shots.
So from here you just start working on your skills
as a drone pilot and figure out if you wanna be
a photographer, a video, what it is you wanna do
with drones so that you can start practicing
and get more skilled at it.
All right guys, I hope that was helpful,
I hope these 20 tips will help you become
a better flyer very quickly.
These are the kinds of things you need to start with.
Like I said, it's all about practice.
Guys, if you haven't already,
make sure you hit that subscribe button on our channel.
I've got a ton of drone tutorials on the channel
along with some other filmmaking and photography,
and there's a ton of information
on how to become a better flyer
and really get those awesome, epic shots.
If you haven't already, make sure you find us
on Instagram @wonderworx,
and I will see you on the next one.