Also a great thing to know is the video always drops out before you have lost all connection. So if the video feed is gone you can go to the map in the bottom left corner and fly it back just using the map. knowing this has saved my drone more then once, I am by no means a pro this is a useful tip.
Power lines took my mini 3 out. Flying down a street showing it off and about to bring it back to land it to show it to a friend and I got it coming in HOT about 50 ft away and as I’m bringing it down, looking at the RC screen and never saw the cable in the screen. It clipped the cable and turned into and spiraling meteor straight to the ground. Almost hit a biker😅. Broke the front left arm off(only thing that really broke was the front arm axis- $12). Broke a tooth off my yaw motor on the gimbal(no damage to gimbal or cam, but needed to replace the stabilizer rubber and piece on yaw motor, but motor is still working fine. Rubber-$13. Yaw motor-$22). I was easily able to replace and fix everything for less than $60 and watching UA-cam. I thought my drone was doa when it crashed and just accepted I wasted $800, but I brought it back to life. DJI makes some really good products
I've only got about an hour flight time and almost did the same thing today. I could easily see the cluster of power lines but those single wire power lines are invisible on the screen, I came down within arms length of hitting it. Was quite the reality check.
My other job is flying as crew in a medical helicopter. Before we take off or land (especially from off airport areas) we discuss all the obstacles, hazards, airspace above us, how we will take off and what direction we will depart into, along with contingencies for emergency procedures so that there we maximize our situation awareness. Although clearly that is a different type of operation, I find using the same mentality when flying a drone works extremely well and makes my drone flights safe and enjoyable. 🚁
As a beginner, my two worst crashes happened when flying at dusk. The darkness can really sneak up on you to the point where your drone’s obstacle avoidance becomes ineffective. Seems obvious, but it has caught me. 😢
Google maps as well as earth is your best friend because you can research the area before even going there. You can plan out take off spots, emergency landing spots which can be simplified by hand launching as well as hand catching 👍🏽
I watch lots of videos on safe flying small aircraft as a private pilot. So as you were going through your points I could see how so many of them apply in both kinds of flying! Especially so many flying accidents can be traced back to loss of situational awareness.
3:46 probably going to be the best advice on there. Take off and land the drone facing away from you so it mimics the movement of your sticks. I've flown over 600 hours and can say that is the best advice given. Zero crashes. Although I did trim a power line once but didnt crash.
4:31 I agree. I also bring the drone back to my hand or for landing facing back to me, so it’s easier to control. Especially landing in my hand on a moving boat. Cheers
I always take off my Drone, and identify the heigtht at which I know I'm safe and won't hit any obstacles. This helps me feel safe when flying above that height.
I usually do two flights. First flight is a survey flight. It helps me get a feel of the points i want to fly to and take note of all obstacles, plan the flight. The second flight is when I fly and shoot, after accounting for all obstacles. Most people crash their drones because they fly for the first time and wing it, or rely on obstacle avoidance without understanding the environment.
Great tips. I've recently got a dji mini 3 after gaining confidence using 'cheap' drones over the last 6 years or so. Inverted controls was something I got used to with RC cars and helicopters, but it still catches me out when the drone is visible directly above but I'm not sure which direction it's pointing, I've learned to look at the mini map on the controller to verify the heading. Get airborne locally is a pita due to a flight restriction zone.
Agree with everything mentioned. All the years i have been flying drones, i will say 60% of the time i look at the drone and 40% at the screen. And as mentioned move closer to what you are going to film, makes sense for sure.
All good points, I like the extra emergency landing option, been caught out and had to think quick, so that's a new thing on my pre-flight check list...
When i started flying drones a few years back i had a difficult time with opposite direction. Then i figured out to turn my back to the drone everytime i flew the drone back towards me,so left was still left,right was still right. After a while it gave me enough confidence to work on opposite direction, now i’m totally used to that and i have no issues what so ever. I never trust the sensors, it’s an indicator for me but before i start flying i always make sure i know the terrain were i fly and if there are obstacles and other things that can harm the drone. I always keep the drone in sight (vlos) and when i have to fly further away my son (he is almost adult so i trust his feedback and judgement) is my spotter, for example when i fly near de coast and track boats at sea. And always and i mean always make sure that you have enough battery power to return safely and you have a tail wind…really important. Last but not least, don’t stress and panic when birds attack the drone. Never descend but simply increase hight and wait for the birds to fly away, they will loose intrest in the drone if you do that. Good video, i learned a few new things myself…i really appreciate it 👍🏻
its good to hear you mention the limits of obstacle avoidance. I had a DJI mini 3 and decided to upgrade to a mini 4 pro and I was enthusiastic to test the avoidance. I kept trying to fly it into walls and poles and trees and it did an amazing job at bypassing the objects. Truly impressive technology, but it does not make your drone invincible. I got too comfortable with the drone after a few weeks of use and ended up slamming it into a building by accident and it was totaled. I got the drone repaired and I am flying again, but this was a lesson learned.
Thanks to all, and you "The Drone Creative". Thanks. Another reason to reset C1 - When the RTH is deployed - it's nice to capture video while it is descending from a few hundred feet, you can use the left stick and scroll the gimbal. Then when it's in your face hit C1 and use right stick to center over the landing pad and its a beautiful thing - left stick down. Turn off video. Relaunch or power off.
Thank you for this video. Im a brand new drone pilot and have found this video (as well as some of the comments) incredibly helpful. Thank you all contributors to this video
That's one thing I don't understand. My ancient and not very good GoPro Karma has a 'Return Home' and 'Return to You' options, where the latter makes the drone follow the controller, even on the move. How hard is it to do DJI?
@@0lebolMaybe in the higher end models, like the Mavic Pro. I have two models of the Mini series (the original Mini and 3 Pro) and it's not there. Unless there is a hack to activate it. Do you happen to know how?
After a number of years not flying drones, your videos are extremely helpfull to get me much quicker up to speed again. In particular when it comes to safety and save flying. Thank you for your brilliant work🙏
An easy way to spot powerlines is to look for the power poles. The powerlines are near invisible when in flight. If the horizon is below the top of the power pole, you’re good to go .
Much appreciated! I'm a new pilot and nearly learned this lesson the hard way by almost running it into some power lines, above a river. All I had needed to do was look up prior to flying as they were almost directly over me. I nearly ran into them but saw a glint on the screen and immediately stopped the drone just before running into them.
Basically if you are not aware of your surroundings then fly your drone around 50 to 100 meters above so it will be above most of the power lines and other obstacles. Also make sure there is always a line of sight maintained between the controller and the drone i.e don't send it behind a mountain or building.
I had a unique experience while night flying for some photos that I feel should be shared. The mini 4 pro has some failsafe in its software if its too dark for the collision sensor vison system, they become inactive, and a compass calibration is required. 2 of my take offs were very eratic, and I felt like I was losing control of the drone. I stronly suspect it was the street lights in my take off area. I was taking off in normal mode, I believe when some of that light was detected by a side of the drone only a part of the vison system was activated, making the drone try to avoid the side that was not exposed to light, actively "avoiding" what it thought was a collision and overriding my controls. After this theory I have been taking off in spor t mode (this shutts off obsticle avoidance). I have not had any reoccurance of these events since I started to do that. Definitely nothing I planned or expected to happen, so im hoping this hepls people avoid that as it was terrifyingly lol.
I found this video extremely helpful. While many tips were common sense, us Earthlings don’t always practice such thoughtful ways. Your presentation was very informative and easy to follow as are all of your videos that I have viewed. Keep up the great work and thank you very much😎
Great advise when starting your drone, to have the camera pointing away from you so the control sticks mirror the actual movement of the drone! Thanks for all the tips.
Thanks for the video, I just ordered my first drone at 57 years of age I’ve been watching all these type videos while waiting for it to arrive. It’s a Potensic Atom
That was my first drone purchase this past September. It is great for a beginner (which I am), so I won’t be shy about saying that I quickly ordered a DJI Mini 4 Pro before I even returned the Potensic Atom. I don’t regret it not one bit. The video quality is much better, especially at night. Having the omni directional obstacle avoidance with DJI is such a great feature for a beginner. If cost is a factor, then I understand because the M4P was NOT in my price range at all lol. I now also have a DJI Neo, haven’t flown it outside yet, but I’m excited to get them both in the air this weekend. Anyways, I hope you don’t mind my input and I hope you enjoy your new drone - happy flying!
A great video again, thanks for that. I want to add another one: When handheld launch, keep the drone above you head, or at least keep the wind in your back. This prevents the drone flying in your face in case of a wind gust.
All good reminders again thanks Matthew. I always get something from your videos. I didn’t know about the strength of signal indicator for example. Almost got caught out by flying too far over water last week with my Mini 3 Pro chasing ferries. Automatic RTH kicked in but it hadn’t quite reached me when critically low battery and landing in current location were announced. Fortunately as it came down I was able to stop it and manoeuvre it sideways close enough to grab it before it descended into steep dense bracken. I’ll set my max distance a bit in those situations.
Great hints, many thanks. Reflections on water can also confuse the sensors from drones, in worst case can make them starting the landing procedure. So as you said - it´s better to have some extra meters between the drone and water.
Very detailed and informative video.Most of the content creators forget to mention the hazards involved.They just focus on promoting a particular drone , emphasizing on only positive aspects.Thank you for actually highlighting the hazards involved while flying a drone.Such an informative video.
One of the most educational videos I’ve watched. Some lovely Northern Ireland scenery as a bonus. Just received my Dji Mini 3 today. So learning all I can before first flight tomorrow 🤞
Great tips for flying drone here for someone with little experience. One tip that I came to experience and learned my lesson was that flying toward electrical wires. I can see the wires coming up pararral to the drone but once I got closer to the wires I stopped and instead of backup then lift up or down to avoid I lift up not seeing that there are more wires above the drone. The drone hitted the above wires but luckily didn't drop and was able to maintain the on air. Next time, backing up is the best approach to see all the wires is much safer and move away from the wires. Hope you find this tip helpful.
Great tips! The max distance feature nearly cost me my Mini 2 last year. I took off from a moving boat, and when I tried to land later, the Mini 2 reached its max distance from the home point (where it took off), and I didn't know at the time how to change that. Thankfully, the captain turned the boat around so that I could land it with only a few minutes of flight time remaining. It's still a good feature, but it should be set to 'no limit' when you're flying from a vehicle.
I often see beginners going out with their drones into areas that require advanced flying skills and getting into trouble quickly. I always suggest spending enough time with your new drone in a more conservative location, such as a park or field to master the controls before flying in areas such as you presented in this video. You touched on the orientation flip on the controls when it faces you, which to me is a good indicator of skill. For example, if you can't instinctively know right from left when the orientation is reversed, and find your self correcting the drone's direction because left is now right, then you need to practice more developing your flying skills. Mistakes are more easily forgiven in a field or park than in populated areas, or where there are buildings or as in your video, water, rocks and wind.
I took my drone to new zealand and was never able to fly in germany before cause i didnt get a pilot license, insurance etc yet. I did flew my drone through small bridges, between trees etc after i got more and more skilled. Then i wanted to fly through the cathedral cove stone arch. I did it once and wanted to repeat it sideways. Since i was starting my drone from a boat i had to turn off the sensors and then cause i didnt know the area that well and couldnt see my drone i crashed it in the arch. Had to get a waterproof bag and swim over there to retrieve it. I was lucky and it was lowtide so i obly had tl replace 2 rotors
@@seitenname3531 I've been flying RC fixed wing for 30 years, so drones were an easy conversion, in fact MUCH easier. I have been a Part 107 professional pilot for 7 years now, and had zero crashes. Playing Mozart on the piano takes years of practice and learning to become proficient, same with drones.
@@57JackCaptainSparrow no crashes? Even with the fixed wing drones? I couldnt get much more training in since we were there on vacation but i deffinetely am planning on getting the necessary papers to fly in germany. That way i can practice flying and also get better at the technical camera stuff. I want to order some nd filters and learn the settings, as well as color grading the raw footage. What kind of drones are you flying?
@@seitenname3531 I fly DJI now, mostly Matrice 350. I went to Europe last year for a couple months, got my EASA Training and UAS Operator Registration and my Flyer ID for the UK. BTW, my "no crashes" comment was intended for my drone flying... I've crashed a few fixed wing RC planes in my day!
Actual pilot here, getting into dones. One trick to know the height of the highest obstacle is to get next to it and note where it falls behind the horizon. When you can't see the treetop above the horizon, you're pretty close to the altitude at which that tree actually is. Add yourself a little buffer, like 10 or 20 more feet, and that is a good base altitude for not hitting anything. That's my minimum safe altitude. Personally, for return to field, I add 50 more to that.
Quick note on the flight distance restriction option. I set that up on an older drone I had and flew it off of a slow moving boat. As the boat moved away from the home point, it reached that pre-set limit and stopped even though the boat and the controller was less than 30 feet away and kept moving forward. I had set that geo fence weeks before so it took a bit for me to figure out what was going on. It was easy enough to swing back around the grab the drone but this was the last time I used that feature.
One thing to mention about RTH altitude. Check not just the height of obstacles, but also the wind speed at different altitudes. Apps such as UAV forecast let you do that, or just fly to the set height, and check for yourself if your drone struggles. It's tempting to set it really high to avoid crashes, but on the other hand, the wind at 100m can be twice as strong as on 30m, resulting in a flyaway, as the motors struggle to cope. Find a happy medium above obstacles, but not too high either.
Many thanks!!! Really helpful tips and tricks (as always). There is however one more limitation on the DJI mini 4 pro obstacle avoidance that I learned the hard way. The obstacle avoidance does NOT work in dimmed light or at night.
Thanks for the great content. These type of videos have helped me avoid some of these common mistakes. I don't have all the obstacle avoidance on my Mini 2 SE and I am kind of glad that I don't have it as I don't rely on it.
This is why I LOVE the head tracking of the DJI Avata 2 PFV drone even though it has no obstacle avoidance! I can quickly look in any direction while the drone is flying and the camera\drone turns to show where I am looking while it continues flying in its current direction. It's like vision assist but full and instant view...Just don't stare in another direction than it is travelling for too long! It's like watching a cute girl go by while you walk ahead and smack into a wall!
My new drone (1st) arrives Tuesday. I got a DJI. After searching Amazon and seeing mixed to poor reviews on nearly everything, the light came on and I started searching UA-cam. It soon became apparent that DJI was a highly respected drone. Since I did those searches, this video came up. Glad for that. I became pretty good at digital photography with a little Nikon Cool pix while I was Geocaching. Subject matter, framing, that kind of thing. That little camera has a crazy good macro lens well suited for nature pix. I am looking forward to a new photography past time when this arrives and keeping the drone alive will be a good thing.
I learned some things. I didn't know about vision assist. I have an Air 3, so it has it. And I didn't know about the optimum signal indication. I'm going to have to try those out today. Thanks.
I wondered if expensive sensors in all directions can detect in time power lines and avoid them. Now, I know! A trick: To install very small lights of different colors on each forearm of your drone and to paint 2 spot of the same colors on left and right of your stick. Rather than going right or left, when your drone camera is facing you, it's faster and fool proof to go "green" or "red". When rotating your drone, think of clockwise and anti-clockwise.
I learned of the lack of sideways obstacle avoidance when my Mavic Air 2 crashed into a tree. I had no idea how I would get it down but it was sitting directly on a branch upright. I was able to try and take off again and it fell down far enough that I was able to reach it with a long pole. Just had to replace all the props and it is flying again.
I learned the hard way while using Lychi that one particular tree get much larger in the 10 years since the satellite photos were updated. Epoxy and 45 minutes holding the arm in place, I was flying again!
I laughed given my channel name when you mentioned waterfalls…another thing I would say is, flying a drone in an open area like the coast is EASY!!!! Get into a forest or canyon, GPS signal will be weak or absent completely, this causes the drone to drift sometimes quite dramatically!!! It’s really annoying to fly in these conditions but sometimes the scenery is worth the risk. FYI I have used DJI care 4 times lol😂
I also fly the drone on a similar path to what I was thinking but at a much higher altitude looking around for potential shots. Thanks for the advisory.
Thanks so much, great tips! I would recommend turn off downward vision sensors, when close to water, plus not sitting on that part of the rock, you were on, as it looks like it could fall off! 😊❤
Thank you. Yeah, having the downward sensors on over water does cause the drone to 'bob' up and down. You do get smoother footage with them off over water.
Unfortunately, for beginners, having obstacle avoidance sensors can be the last thing they need because it can give a false sense of security. I learned on the very simple drones of 8-9 years ago where you had to be aware of everything the drone was doing, no gps, not even any altitude hold and no video to your cell phone. It was a struggle learning to fly it at first but was well worth it. I've had a mini 2 now for 2 years, flown it nearly 250km over 30 hours, never crashed it once. At the time I bought it, the mini 3 was available but I felt spending extra money for the sensors wasn't worth it. The mini 4 though, with the way points and other features are something I'm looking into now, but again, these features must be used very carefully. An analysis of the environment in which you are using them must be done first! Great advice here in this video Brendan!
head wind situation happened to my 2 days ago and I didn't have enough battery to return so my mini 4k drone landed in an empty field near me but then I tracked it and recovered it with no damage so my advice is if you don't have enough battery to get home then you should find a good safe and accessible spot to land and avoid landing in fields with high grass
Picked up an Avata 2. Power lines. And slim branches are a lesson. Barely missed a few power lines. A long super thin almost vine like took my Avata 2 out while it was going over 40 mph. Crushed the frame on ground impact. I ordered a whole new housing assembly and replaced it. Works fine, but needs just a couple screws, some too bad of shape to put back in I reached out to DJI, shipped it to them. Don't get carried away, Avata 2 has no obstacle avoidance at all, be careful that you the pilot be the cause of the drones destruction.😅
thank you for all the tips. I think that you could summarize this video after all is said and done is don't trust obstacle avoidance be your own obstacle avoidance by previewing and knowing what's out there.
As a standard Rule - here in the States anything above 100ft should have a red blinking light on top . Trees - I keep a 80 ft guess on trees. So when I fly longer distance, my hight is 100 ft plus. Easy fix.
50 feet above the highest obstacle in the area, so 150 for you, doesn't cost much more energy, and is cheap insurance. Just in case GPS altitude loses accuracy.
This is a good video. 3:46 tip was the best. reverse thinking made me crash my DJI mini 4 Pro today! :( I was just landing it and it got caught in the branches, and hit every ugly stick on its way down. The error was that I flew left to avoid the branch, but because the drone was reversed, I flew right in to the thing I was trying to avoid.
Thank goodness I flew RC airplanes all through the 90'sI learned to imagine myself in the cockpit at all times. Especially helpful when doing low Inverted full speed fly-bys. I seen many plane pilot's pull up for a straight up climb out only to turn a very nice plane into instant garbage.
Main issue I had after flying fixed wing aircraft models was the drone elevator stick is reversed. Aircraft upwards is elevator stick downwards. On a drone, stick up, is fly upwards... apart from that drones are easy to fly...
Here are 12 more drone mistakes you should avoid making! - ua-cam.com/video/z0H5iPBnfig/v-deo.html
Excellent instruction for an enthusiastic beginner anxious to learn new skills with my new DJI Min 2 ⚠️Thank you.
@@rdnewland Happy to help! Enjoy your new DJI Mini 2! One of my all-time favourite drones 😀
Thanks so very much for the link.
Also a great thing to know is the video always drops out before you have lost all connection. So if the video feed is gone you can go to the map in the bottom left corner and fly it back just using the map. knowing this has saved my drone more then once, I am by no means a pro this is a useful tip.
This is a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Power lines took my mini 3 out. Flying down a street showing it off and about to bring it back to land it to show it to a friend and I got it coming in HOT about 50 ft away and as I’m bringing it down, looking at the RC screen and never saw the cable in the screen. It clipped the cable and turned into and spiraling meteor straight to the ground. Almost hit a biker😅. Broke the front left arm off(only thing that really broke was the front arm axis- $12). Broke a tooth off my yaw motor on the gimbal(no damage to gimbal or cam, but needed to replace the stabilizer rubber and piece on yaw motor, but motor is still working fine. Rubber-$13. Yaw motor-$22). I was easily able to replace and fix everything for less than $60 and watching UA-cam. I thought my drone was doa when it crashed and just accepted I wasted $800, but I brought it back to life. DJI makes some really good products
TREE😢
The same thing happened to me! But somehow I ended up flying just barely between the powerlines and I immediately packed it up after I landed 😅
Appreciate you sharing this 🙌
lol happen to me ! Lol but thank god my drone was ok
I've only got about an hour flight time and almost did the same thing today.
I could easily see the cluster of power lines but those single wire power lines are invisible on the screen, I came down within arms length of hitting it. Was quite the reality check.
My other job is flying as crew in a medical helicopter. Before we take off or land (especially from off airport areas) we discuss all the obstacles, hazards, airspace above us, how we will take off and what direction we will depart into, along with contingencies for emergency procedures so that there we maximize our situation awareness. Although clearly that is a different type of operation, I find using the same mentality when flying a drone works extremely well and makes my drone flights safe and enjoyable. 🚁
Same with skydiving. Scan before you exit & as soon as you're out, start looking for the drop-site & an alternative. 👍
Same mentality for sure because as soon as we don’t follow those steps we hit something we don’t see 😂
Good words…thanks for sharing. It makes a lot of sense.
Enjoyable, safe and cheaper. Thanks for your job in keeping us alive in exchange of a big bill.
Fan or Hater? Both!
Safety is essential. Thanks for sharing✨
As a beginner, my two worst crashes happened when flying at dusk. The darkness can really sneak up on you to the point where your drone’s obstacle avoidance becomes ineffective. Seems obvious, but it has caught me. 😢
I had no idea you could use the mavic's sensors as cameras as well! That blew my mind thank you!!
Yeah, it's a very handy feature!
You can do it with the minis too it's useful for checking around before shots
@@RandomPrimoShit 🙏
Google maps as well as earth is your best friend because you can research the area before even going there. You can plan out take off spots, emergency landing spots which can be simplified by hand launching as well as hand catching 👍🏽
I watch lots of videos on safe flying small aircraft as a private pilot. So as you were going through your points I could see how so many of them apply in both kinds of flying! Especially so many flying accidents can be traced back to loss of situational awareness.
3:46 probably going to be the best advice on there. Take off and land the drone facing away from you so it mimics the movement of your sticks. I've flown over 600 hours and can say that is the best advice given. Zero crashes. Although I did trim a power line once but didnt crash.
Also, if You take-off a little slower the drone will move forward a little bit.
Did it charge your battery?
4:31 I agree. I also bring the drone back to my hand or for landing facing back to me, so it’s easier to control. Especially landing in my hand on a moving boat. Cheers
I always take off my Drone, and identify the heigtht at which I know I'm safe and won't hit any obstacles. This helps me feel safe when flying above that height.
I usually do two flights.
First flight is a survey flight. It helps me get a feel of the points i want to fly to and take note of all obstacles, plan the flight.
The second flight is when I fly and shoot, after accounting for all obstacles.
Most people crash their drones because they fly for the first time and wing it, or rely on obstacle avoidance without understanding the environment.
This is actually great advice and something I do as well!
Great tips.
I've recently got a dji mini 3 after gaining confidence using 'cheap' drones over the last 6 years or so.
Inverted controls was something I got used to with RC cars and helicopters, but it still catches me out when the drone is visible directly above but I'm not sure which direction it's pointing, I've learned to look at the mini map on the controller to verify the heading.
Get airborne locally is a pita due to a flight restriction zone.
Agree with everything mentioned. All the years i have been flying drones, i will say 60% of the time i look at the drone and 40% at the screen. And as mentioned move closer to what you are going to film, makes sense for sure.
I would say my ratio of looking at the drone and the screen is about the same!
All good points, I like the extra emergency landing option, been caught out and had to think quick, so that's a new thing on my pre-flight check list...
When i started flying drones a few years back i had a difficult time with opposite direction. Then i figured out to turn my back to the drone everytime i flew the drone back towards me,so left was still left,right was still right. After a while it gave me enough confidence to work on opposite direction, now i’m totally used to that and i have no issues what so ever. I never trust the sensors, it’s an indicator for me but before i start flying i always make sure i know the terrain were i fly and if there are obstacles and other things that can harm the drone. I always keep the drone in sight (vlos) and when i have to fly further away my son (he is almost adult so i trust his feedback and judgement) is my spotter, for example when i fly near de coast and track boats at sea. And always and i mean always make sure that you have enough battery power to return safely and you have a tail wind…really important. Last but not least, don’t stress and panic when birds attack the drone. Never
descend but simply increase hight and wait for the birds to fly away, they will loose intrest in the drone if you do that. Good video, i learned a few new things myself…i really appreciate it 👍🏻
"turn my back to the drone" Goes against pointing the antennas at the drone for best connection.
@@oregon1232 so far i did not have any connection issues 😉
its good to hear you mention the limits of obstacle avoidance. I had a DJI mini 3 and decided to upgrade to a mini 4 pro and I was enthusiastic to test the avoidance. I kept trying to fly it into walls and poles and trees and it did an amazing job at bypassing the objects. Truly impressive technology, but it does not make your drone invincible. I got too comfortable with the drone after a few weeks of use and ended up slamming it into a building by accident and it was totaled. I got the drone repaired and I am flying again, but this was a lesson learned.
Thanks to all, and you "The Drone Creative". Thanks. Another reason to reset C1 - When the RTH is deployed - it's nice to capture video while it is descending from a few hundred feet, you can use the left stick and scroll the gimbal. Then when it's in your face hit C1 and use right stick to center over the landing pad and its a beautiful thing - left stick down. Turn off video. Relaunch or power off.
Thank you for this video. Im a brand new drone pilot and have found this video (as well as some of the comments) incredibly helpful. Thank you all contributors to this video
Thank you - happy to hear the video has helped!
+ Do not use automatic return to your homepoint if you start from a moving boat... expensive mistake :-)
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That's one thing I don't understand. My ancient and not very good GoPro Karma has a 'Return Home' and 'Return to You' options, where the latter makes the drone follow the controller, even on the move. How hard is it to do DJI?
I'm pretty sure dji has it in one of their settings
@@0lebolMaybe in the higher end models, like the Mavic Pro. I have two models of the Mini series (the original Mini and 3 Pro) and it's not there. Unless there is a hack to activate it. Do you happen to know how?
My air 2s has it m'y Mavic air 1 had it to @@Michal_Kosakowski
After a number of years not flying drones, your videos are extremely helpfull to get me much quicker up to speed again. In particular when it comes to safety and save flying. Thank you for your brilliant work🙏
Really appreciate your comment, thank you!
An easy way to spot powerlines is to look for the power poles. The powerlines are near invisible when in flight.
If the horizon is below the top of the power pole, you’re good to go .
This is a fantastic tip - thanks for sharing!
Thanks! Will need when my Mini 2 SE arrives.
Much appreciated! I'm a new pilot and nearly learned this lesson the hard way by almost running it into some power lines, above a river. All I had needed to do was look up prior to flying as they were almost directly over me. I nearly ran into them but saw a glint on the screen and immediately stopped the drone just before running into them.
Basically if you are not aware of your surroundings then fly your drone around 50 to 100 meters above so it will be above most of the power lines and other obstacles. Also make sure there is always a line of sight maintained between the controller and the drone i.e don't send it behind a mountain or building.
I had a unique experience while night flying for some photos that I feel should be shared. The mini 4 pro has some failsafe in its software if its too dark for the collision sensor vison system, they become inactive, and a compass calibration is required. 2 of my take offs were very eratic, and I felt like I was losing control of the drone. I stronly suspect it was the street lights in my take off area. I was taking off in normal mode, I believe when some of that light was detected by a side of the drone only a part of the vison system was activated, making the drone try to avoid the side that was not exposed to light, actively "avoiding" what it thought was a collision and overriding my controls. After this theory I have been taking off in spor t mode (this shutts off obsticle avoidance). I have not had any reoccurance of these events since I started to do that. Definitely nothing I planned or expected to happen, so im hoping this hepls people avoid that as it was terrifyingly lol.
All good points. I learned pretty quick that forward for the drone is always the way the camera is pointed. I didn't realize that the first flight.
It's definitely the safest way to fly!
I found this video extremely helpful. While many tips were common sense, us Earthlings don’t always practice such thoughtful ways. Your presentation was very informative and easy to follow as are all of your videos that I have viewed. Keep up the great work and thank you very much😎
Great advise when starting your drone, to have the camera pointing away from you so the control sticks mirror the actual movement of the drone! Thanks for all the tips.
My pleasure, thanks for watching!
Great summary- all new drone users should watch this.
Thanks for the video, I just ordered my first drone at 57 years of age I’ve been watching all these type videos while waiting for it to arrive. It’s a Potensic Atom
That was my first drone purchase this past September. It is great for a beginner (which I am), so I won’t be shy about saying that I quickly ordered a DJI Mini 4 Pro before I even returned the Potensic Atom. I don’t regret it not one bit. The video quality is much better, especially at night. Having the omni directional obstacle avoidance with DJI is such a great feature for a beginner. If cost is a factor, then I understand because the M4P was NOT in my price range at all lol. I now also have a DJI Neo, haven’t flown it outside yet, but I’m excited to get them both in the air this weekend.
Anyways, I hope you don’t mind my input and I hope you enjoy your new drone - happy flying!
A great video again, thanks for that. I want to add another one: When handheld launch, keep the drone above you head, or at least keep the wind in your back. This prevents the drone flying in your face in case of a wind gust.
This is an excellent tip! Thanks for sharing!
All good reminders again thanks Matthew. I always get something from your videos. I didn’t know about the strength of signal indicator for example. Almost got caught out by flying too far over water last week with my Mini 3 Pro chasing ferries. Automatic RTH kicked in but it hadn’t quite reached me when critically low battery and landing in current location were announced. Fortunately as it came down I was able to stop it and manoeuvre it sideways close enough to grab it before it descended into steep dense bracken. I’ll set my max distance a bit in those situations.
I really appreciate your videos. They have been truly helpful.
You're welcome! Thanks for watching!
Great hints, many thanks. Reflections on water can also confuse the sensors from drones, in worst case can make them starting the landing procedure. So as you said - it´s better to have some extra meters between the drone and water.
Very detailed and informative video.Most of the content creators forget to mention the hazards involved.They just focus on promoting a particular drone , emphasizing on only positive aspects.Thank you for actually highlighting the hazards involved while flying a drone.Such an informative video.
We seldom see so much good information in one video - BRAVO! I am planning to buy a drone - all this is so needed. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much for watching!
More excellent tips. There's always more to learn, and this is my go to place to learn it.
Really appreciate your ongoing support watching my videos!
One of the most educational videos I’ve watched. Some lovely Northern Ireland scenery as a bonus. Just received my Dji Mini 3 today. So learning all I can before first flight tomorrow 🤞
Northern Ireland is filled with stunning locations to explore and capture. Enjoy your new Mini 3!
Great tips for flying drone here for someone with little experience. One tip that I came to experience and learned my lesson was that flying toward electrical wires. I can see the wires coming up pararral to the drone but once I got closer to the wires I stopped and instead of backup then lift up or down to avoid I lift up not seeing that there are more wires above the drone. The drone hitted the above wires but luckily didn't drop and was able to maintain the on air. Next time, backing up is the best approach to see all the wires is much safer and move away from the wires. Hope you find this tip helpful.
Great tips! The max distance feature nearly cost me my Mini 2 last year. I took off from a moving boat, and when I tried to land later, the Mini 2 reached its max distance from the home point (where it took off), and I didn't know at the time how to change that. Thankfully, the captain turned the boat around so that I could land it with only a few minutes of flight time remaining. It's still a good feature, but it should be set to 'no limit' when you're flying from a vehicle.
Im a total newbie to drone flying and ive just discovered this video. Thank you for a very informative video
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Totally agree! Extremely professional tutoring 👏
Thank you!
I often see beginners going out with their drones into areas that require advanced flying skills and getting into trouble quickly. I always suggest spending enough time with your new drone in a more conservative location, such as a park or field to master the controls before flying in areas such as you presented in this video. You touched on the orientation flip on the controls when it faces you, which to me is a good indicator of skill. For example, if you can't instinctively know right from left when the orientation is reversed, and find your self correcting the drone's direction because left is now right, then you need to practice more developing your flying skills. Mistakes are more easily forgiven in a field or park than in populated areas, or where there are buildings or as in your video, water, rocks and wind.
I took my drone to new zealand and was never able to fly in germany before cause i didnt get a pilot license, insurance etc yet. I did flew my drone through small bridges, between trees etc after i got more and more skilled. Then i wanted to fly through the cathedral cove stone arch. I did it once and wanted to repeat it sideways. Since i was starting my drone from a boat i had to turn off the sensors and then cause i didnt know the area that well and couldnt see my drone i crashed it in the arch. Had to get a waterproof bag and swim over there to retrieve it. I was lucky and it was lowtide so i obly had tl replace 2 rotors
@@seitenname3531 I've been flying RC fixed wing for 30 years, so drones were an easy conversion, in fact MUCH easier. I have been a Part 107 professional pilot for 7 years now, and had zero crashes. Playing Mozart on the piano takes years of practice and learning to become proficient, same with drones.
@@57JackCaptainSparrow no crashes? Even with the fixed wing drones? I couldnt get much more training in since we were there on vacation but i deffinetely am planning on getting the necessary papers to fly in germany. That way i can practice flying and also get better at the technical camera stuff. I want to order some nd filters and learn the settings, as well as color grading the raw footage. What kind of drones are you flying?
@@seitenname3531 I fly DJI now, mostly Matrice 350. I went to Europe last year for a couple months, got my EASA Training and UAS Operator Registration and my Flyer ID for the UK. BTW, my "no crashes" comment was intended for my drone flying... I've crashed a few fixed wing RC planes in my day!
Actual pilot here, getting into dones. One trick to know the height of the highest obstacle is to get next to it and note where it falls behind the horizon. When you can't see the treetop above the horizon, you're pretty close to the altitude at which that tree actually is. Add yourself a little buffer, like 10 or 20 more feet, and that is a good base altitude for not hitting anything. That's my minimum safe altitude. Personally, for return to field, I add 50 more to that.
I did not know that I could see the obstacle cams. Thanks for that.
It's a really handy feature!
Great video, tips and tricks! thank you very much!
Quick note on the flight distance restriction option. I set that up on an older drone I had and flew it off of a slow moving boat. As the boat moved away from the home point, it reached that pre-set limit and stopped even though the boat and the controller was less than 30 feet away and kept moving forward. I had set that geo fence weeks before so it took a bit for me to figure out what was going on. It was easy enough to swing back around the grab the drone but this was the last time I used that feature.
Great useful video.Thank you!
Some good things i didnt think about as a newbie, thank you!
One thing to mention about RTH altitude. Check not just the height of obstacles, but also the wind speed at different altitudes.
Apps such as UAV forecast let you do that, or just fly to the set height, and check for yourself if your drone struggles.
It's tempting to set it really high to avoid crashes, but on the other hand, the wind at 100m can be twice as strong as on 30m, resulting in a flyaway, as the motors struggle to cope.
Find a happy medium above obstacles, but not too high either.
Brilliant video, thanks for the quality information! 👍
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Excellent tips. Thank you very much.
Thanks a lot for this! Very usefull for a beginner like me!
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!
A printed checklist ! It reminds one to check the menu settings, which have mysteriously been different than how I thought they were set.
Thanks for the advices, just got a DJI Mini Pro 4 weeks ago.
Many thanks!!!
Really helpful tips and tricks (as always). There is however one more limitation on the DJI mini 4 pro obstacle avoidance that I learned the hard way.
The obstacle avoidance does NOT work in dimmed light or at night.
Thanks for the great content. These type of videos have helped me avoid some of these common mistakes. I don't have all the obstacle avoidance on my Mini 2 SE and I am kind of glad that I don't have it as I don't rely on it.
As a newbee, I find your tips very helpful. I didin't know those drone "eyes" could really see. Thank you, TDC
Wow! A lot of info in this, i have just ordered the M4P, so thanks for this. I will have to do this in bite size chunks though.
This is why I LOVE the head tracking of the DJI Avata 2 PFV drone even though it has no obstacle avoidance! I can quickly look in any direction while the drone is flying and the camera\drone turns to show where I am looking while it continues flying in its current direction. It's like vision assist but full and instant view...Just don't stare in another direction than it is travelling for too long! It's like watching a cute girl go by while you walk ahead and smack into a wall!
Thanks for great tips. I'm a newbie.
My new drone (1st) arrives Tuesday. I got a DJI. After searching Amazon and seeing mixed to poor reviews on nearly everything, the light came on and I started searching UA-cam. It soon became apparent that DJI was a highly respected drone. Since I did those searches, this video came up. Glad for that. I became pretty good at digital photography with a little Nikon Cool pix while I was Geocaching. Subject matter, framing, that kind of thing. That little camera has a crazy good macro lens well suited for nature pix. I am looking forward to a new photography past time when this arrives and keeping the drone alive will be a good thing.
Thank you so much. I just got the mini 4pro but haven't Glenn it yet.
I learned some things. I didn't know about vision assist. I have an Air 3, so it has it. And I didn't know about the optimum signal indication. I'm going to have to try those out today. Thanks.
I wondered if expensive sensors in all directions can detect in time power lines and avoid them. Now, I know!
A trick: To install very small lights of different colors on each forearm of your drone and to paint 2 spot of the same colors on left and right of your stick. Rather than going right or left, when your drone camera is facing you, it's faster and fool proof to go "green" or "red".
When rotating your drone, think of clockwise and anti-clockwise.
I learned of the lack of sideways obstacle avoidance when my Mavic Air 2 crashed into a tree. I had no idea how I would get it down but it was sitting directly on a branch upright. I was able to try and take off again and it fell down far enough that I was able to reach it with a long pole. Just had to replace all the props and it is flying again.
Hey, I love your content. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Excellent, thank you! Immediately subscribed.
Thank you! Welcome along!
I learned the hard way while using Lychi that one particular tree get much larger in the 10 years since the satellite photos were updated. Epoxy and 45 minutes holding the arm in place, I was flying again!
I laughed given my channel name when you mentioned waterfalls…another thing I would say is, flying a drone in an open area like the coast is EASY!!!! Get into a forest or canyon, GPS signal will be weak or absent completely, this causes the drone to drift sometimes quite dramatically!!! It’s really annoying to fly in these conditions but sometimes the scenery is worth the risk. FYI I have used DJI care 4 times lol😂
Great advice my friend and info. Thank you!👌
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
Very helpful. Learned a lot. Thanks for sharing all the lessions you learned the hard way.
Flown drones for some time and found this video helpful, learnt a few new things!
Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Fantastic tips, i'l be watching this again and taking notes
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
I also fly the drone on a similar path to what I was thinking but at a much higher altitude looking around for potential shots. Thanks for the advisory.
Excellent tips, thank you!
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
Good tips, thanks. Didn't realize vision assist could go full screen!
Yeah, it's much more useful in full screen mode!
Thanks so much, great tips!
I would recommend turn off downward vision sensors, when close to water, plus not sitting on that part of the rock, you were on, as it looks like it could fall off! 😊❤
Thank you. Yeah, having the downward sensors on over water does cause the drone to 'bob' up and down. You do get smoother footage with them off over water.
@@TheDroneCreative you're welcome anytime ☺️
So true ❤️
@@TheDroneCreative Can specific sensors be turned on/off?
Excellent content! Well done and keep it up.
Thank you!
Unfortunately, for beginners, having obstacle avoidance sensors can be the last thing they need because it can give a false sense of security. I learned on the very simple drones of 8-9 years ago where you had to be aware of everything the drone was doing, no gps, not even any altitude hold and no video to your cell phone. It was a struggle learning to fly it at first but was well worth it.
I've had a mini 2 now for 2 years, flown it nearly 250km over 30 hours, never crashed it once. At the time I bought it, the mini 3 was available but I felt spending extra money for the sensors wasn't worth it. The mini 4 though, with the way points and other features are something I'm looking into now, but again, these features must be used very carefully. An analysis of the environment in which you are using them must be done first!
Great advice here in this video Brendan!
This is so helpful. I enjoyed listening and watching your video
Thank you!
Love your videos mate, should be required viewing for drone pilots regardless of how long they’ve been flying 👍
Thank you!
head wind situation happened to my 2 days ago and I didn't have enough battery to return so my mini 4k drone landed in an empty field near me but then I tracked it and recovered it with no damage so my advice is if you don't have enough battery to get home then you should find a good safe and accessible spot to land and avoid landing in fields with high grass
Thank you all your videos. Appreciate your time and help. I always pass your name to people I meet that are just starting out.
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
Very valuable info, thanks!🎉🎉🎉🎉
Picked up an Avata 2. Power lines. And slim branches are a lesson. Barely missed a few power lines. A long super thin almost vine like took my Avata 2 out while it was going over 40 mph. Crushed the frame on ground impact. I ordered a whole new housing assembly and replaced it. Works fine, but needs just a couple screws, some too bad of shape to put back in I reached out to DJI, shipped it to them. Don't get carried away, Avata 2 has no obstacle avoidance at all, be careful that you the pilot be the cause of the drones destruction.😅
Excellent advice 👍
Thanks for sharing great info
Thank you for very useful advices! I'm beginner and need to learn
thank you for all the tips. I think that you could summarize this video after all is said and done is don't trust obstacle avoidance be your own obstacle avoidance by previewing and knowing what's out there.
20:36 clever trick to glue those 2 clips together 😉
As a standard Rule - here in the States anything above 100ft should have a red blinking light on top .
Trees - I keep a 80 ft guess on trees.
So when I fly longer distance, my hight is 100 ft plus. Easy fix.
50 feet above the highest obstacle in the area, so 150 for you, doesn't cost much more energy, and is cheap insurance. Just in case GPS altitude loses accuracy.
Thank you! Got used Air 2 recently and hust starting iut
Nice and interesting videos. And also I already knew most of it, i really like to watch your drone videos because of the beautiful landscape.
This is a good video.
3:46 tip was the best. reverse thinking made me crash my DJI mini 4 Pro today! :(
I was just landing it and it got caught in the branches, and hit every ugly stick on its way down.
The error was that I flew left to avoid the branch, but because the drone was reversed, I flew right in to the thing I was trying to avoid.
Thank you very informative video for beginners like myself
Happy to help!
Outstanding as always, thanks!!!
Thank you!
Thank goodness I flew RC airplanes all through the 90'sI learned to imagine myself in the cockpit at all times. Especially helpful when doing low Inverted full speed fly-bys. I seen many plane pilot's pull up for a straight up climb out only to turn a very nice plane into instant garbage.
Main issue I had after flying fixed wing aircraft models was the drone elevator stick is reversed. Aircraft upwards is elevator stick downwards. On a drone, stick up, is fly upwards... apart from that drones are easy to fly...
Thank you so much for this informative video. Just bought my first drone dji mini 3. Defo gunna find a massive field to practice without obstacles 😂
Good tips, I would add one more: remember the video feed has a delay, in proximity flying it's enough to get you closer than you ought to be.