i'm the worst drone/quadcopter pilot..ever.

[vash]

i have ham fist. big sausage finger. my fingers are perfect for ON/OFF type situation..like a light switch. or a gun trigger.

i bought a cheap micro drone thing to see if i even have any hopes of flying one around. oh boy..if my desk was a city block and my paperwork was small gathering of people..i would be a catastrophe. i suck!!

you guys good from the start? or is there a learning curve with everyone?

i really want one to pull a camera around and film things. for off season hunt scouting.

[crustychief]

The newer big nes have stabilization built in and are more beginner friendly.

[Porsche-poor]

I got a small Lego based one for Christmas. It crashes you just rebuild it. But it can not haul a camera around.

[masraum]

there's a bit of a learning curve, and especially with the small controls, it's especially hard to make fine adjustments.

I think the really small, cheap drones also have less sophisticated systems which makes them a bit harder to fly well. IE, most drones should just hover in place if you leave them alone, but many/most of the small ones will move around and require a bit of correction to keep in place. At least, that's been my experience.

I recommend starting in a large space with high ceilings (or no ceilings) and a fair amount of room where you don't have a ton of stuff to run into. As you play more, you'll get a more sensitive hand.

I remember when I got mine (that mostly sits in a closet) a lot of folks were modding the tiny controllers to make the sticks longer so they could more easily control the drones.

[Deschodt]

Ha, trust me it's not just you....
it's easier to fly a real helicopter than those $%#$% cheap drones...
The <$100 ones will need to be setup very carefully to go straight, and wil fly out of your range into a wall soon enough anyway ;-)

I flew an expensive one recently, $2000+, it was so much easier and stable... The cheap stuff is horrible, big market for replacement parts out there ;-)

[rusnak]

If you guys want a pile of spare parts that used to be a flying Vision 2 from DJI, I'll box them up and you can have them.

Edit: Sent PM. Let me know how you want it shipped, address, etc. I have the original box, some trick parts, instructions, etc. I'll send the tools, battery, the whole shebang.

[MikeSid]

For $100 get a small Parrot Mambo. Parrot makes large "drones" and the flight control sensors and stabilizers are great - even on this little guy. They are super easy to fly, can do tricks at the push of a button, and it has a small cannon that shoots 6mm plastic BBs. How fun it that?

It has a camera but only takes still photos with pretty poor resolution. No live stream video. But it's all about flying this little thing fast, doing tricks, and trying to hit little paper targets (or whatever else you want to hit) in your house. Super fun, right out of the box. It's something you'll find at Best Buy, as opposed to a toy store.

[cabmandone]

I have tried both. I suck at flying them equally.

[MikeSid]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS7g_c6DbaM

[Ayles]

Which one did you get? I had a Cheerson cx10 that was almost nothing off of Amazon. Its touchy but gets a lot easier to fly with practice. I was getting good with it and the damn thing just died. Never grabbed another but I might pretty soon to entertain my son.

[dad911]

I learned on RC planes in the 70's, and helicopters in the 80's. The new stuff is so much easier.

I'd still recommend a simulator. I've been using this: ClearView RC Flight Simulator - Home

[93nav]

I assume you bought a RTF (Ready To Fly) one. Usually with those, the controllers are not very good. Getting a good Spektrum controler would help, assuming the systems are compatible. The other thing is, did you read the manual? When you plug in the battery, make sure the drone is FLAT and LEVEL until it is done initializing. I have a cheap Blade drone, and it will sit there hovering hands off.

Oh, and yes this is a learning curve, and older you are the longer the curve (IMHO).

[arerrac]

Just to add a little humor. My brother is really into all things RC and has a few of them. He got a big quad that has a camera and will follow the transmitter ($2000+). So he uses it up at Lake Berryessa when he's out on the boat. It will follow and film the boat while he drives. Well one morning, he's out in the boat and wants to get his drone up. He fires it up and due to a glitch of some sort, it just took off like a shot. It went up, up and away. He said he just sat down and watched until it was out of sight. Probably ended up at Travis AFB! He tells the story way better.

[sammyg2]

I got a drone for Christmas.

Haven't had much time with it so far but it flies well and is easy to control. Sure is noisy tho.

It has one design problem tho, I found it out by ACCIDENT.

To turn it off you simply hold the down both throttle sticks for 3 seconds.
What could go wrong?

The second time I was flying it i took it up about as high as it would go. Seemed like a mile but it was prolly 8 or 900 feet.

I was worried about losing it and the wind was getting stronger up there so I hit the down control, for .... wait for it ....... more than three seconds.
It turned into a brick.

Good thing it's tough and made of plastic.




No ,that isn't me. I got it off you-tube.

[Ngrich99]

Don't feel to bad... http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/02/03/15-million-drone-lost-training-mission-fort-huachuca.html

[DanielDudley]

I had a cheap micro drone. It would not take off from a desk, you had to hold it in your fingers and power it up, then ''launch'' it.

No way mine could hurt your fingers much. I have no idea about yours. I flew mine around the living room between Christmas and New Years, then gave it away.

[charlesbahn]

To learn, get PhoenixRC, a computer simulator that lets you fly with your own controller., excellent for learning to fly planes, quads, etc.

Only problem is you can become insensitive to crashing, which gets $$$ with real aircraft (ask me how I know).

Charles