Best time to fly Luke is early morning just at or
slightly before sunrise. It's usually the calmest time of day and no
"looky-loos". In
my area, the wind picks up slightly about 1/2 hour after sunrise.
Read the manual - again. For Chinglish U818A translations the universal translator doesn't work well. Go here:
Read the manual - again. For Chinglish U818A translations the universal translator doesn't work well. Go here:
The 100 meters (suggested) flight range in the manual
has been changed recently. 30 meters is recommended maximum distance. Seems to
be about right. Most likely the drone will be controllable further, but one
should never fly to the limit.
UDI U818A when in the air will drop to the ground when out of range of transmitter. That changes when it's on the ground. More like 30 feet. It's the water in the grass, Luke. Sucks up a lot of the xmtr's 2.4 GHZ signal.
1st maneuver to practice is take/landings. Load a battery into the drone. Some LEDs will flash. Ignore 'em. Turn on the transmitter (xmtr). The xmtr will beep once. Set the drone on the ground facing the prevailing wind (if any). The forward part of the drone has the "Horns" or "Eyebrows". They are your "front reference".
Fly with you looking at back of the drone and front of drone facing away from you. All controls are now "normal". If the wind rotates drone, you can use left stick to YAW the drone so it faces away from you. Left stick pushed left YAWS counter-clockwise.
Stand 10 feet or so behind the drone with the drone facing forward as seen by you and "into the wind". Set your iPhone timer for 6 minutes, but don't start timer yet. Remember Luke: your Hoo-man brain cannot keep track of time while concentrating of flying.
BIND XMTR TO RCVR
UDI U818A when in the air will drop to the ground when out of range of transmitter. That changes when it's on the ground. More like 30 feet. It's the water in the grass, Luke. Sucks up a lot of the xmtr's 2.4 GHZ signal.
1st maneuver to practice is take/landings. Load a battery into the drone. Some LEDs will flash. Ignore 'em. Turn on the transmitter (xmtr). The xmtr will beep once. Set the drone on the ground facing the prevailing wind (if any). The forward part of the drone has the "Horns" or "Eyebrows". They are your "front reference".
Fly with you looking at back of the drone and front of drone facing away from you. All controls are now "normal". If the wind rotates drone, you can use left stick to YAW the drone so it faces away from you. Left stick pushed left YAWS counter-clockwise.
Stand 10 feet or so behind the drone with the drone facing forward as seen by you and "into the wind". Set your iPhone timer for 6 minutes, but don't start timer yet. Remember Luke: your Hoo-man brain cannot keep track of time while concentrating of flying.
BIND XMTR TO RCVR
Push throttle (left stick) rapidly FWD and the
immediately pull back all the way. The drone will beep 3 times. This means the
drone rcvr has "bound" itself to the xmtr. It's ready to go. Start
the iPhone timer. Put it in your pocket. Yer ready to fly...
Push throttle full on and after drone gains at least 10 altitude, back off to about 30-50%. Don't look at xmtr, Luke. Look at the drone. You can't tell when throttle % is correct anyway.
Set the throttle so the Drone will hover or climb slowly. Pull back on right stick, lower throttle slightly and land. Do about 2 dozen or so take/landings. Repetition is how you learn, Luke.
ABOUT HOVERING
Push throttle full on and after drone gains at least 10 altitude, back off to about 30-50%. Don't look at xmtr, Luke. Look at the drone. You can't tell when throttle % is correct anyway.
Set the throttle so the Drone will hover or climb slowly. Pull back on right stick, lower throttle slightly and land. Do about 2 dozen or so take/landings. Repetition is how you learn, Luke.
ABOUT HOVERING
Move on to hovering. Make a takeoff and move the right
stick as necessary to keep drone in one location. Use throttle to set the height.
Try for about 10 feet up. The 818 has a button on the right side of the LCD
area. It's called: "high-low speed mold." I think the Chinese tech
writer meant: mode :)
Press this once to toggle from BEGINNER to ADVANCED mode and again to go back. All it does is to limit the movement of the flight controls. Newbies tend to over control (too much stick movement) and can benefit from the beginner mode. Got wind? Use advanced mode:)
DO THE HOVER
Throttle full for takeoff, then when at about 10-15 feet up or so, reduce to about half throttle. Never look at Xmtr. Do it by feel, Luke - use the force.
Press this once to toggle from BEGINNER to ADVANCED mode and again to go back. All it does is to limit the movement of the flight controls. Newbies tend to over control (too much stick movement) and can benefit from the beginner mode. Got wind? Use advanced mode:)
DO THE HOVER
Throttle full for takeoff, then when at about 10-15 feet up or so, reduce to about half throttle. Never look at Xmtr. Do it by feel, Luke - use the force.
You'll be looking at the drone for reference. It will get smaller is size as it goes away from you. Sometimes it's not easy to tell which way it's headed. Keep in within 25-40 feet or otherwise close to you.
Use the force, Luke. Remember: Your eyes see the drone, your brain figures what's going on, it sends signals to your hands, your hands control the xmtr, the xmtr controls the drones, and so on...
If the wind picks up, press mode button once and use the ADVANCED mode. This mode is about 2x more sensitive and will allow about 2x more flight control ability (all directions). It's also more sensitive. Neither mode is better than the other. Use what works best - experiment.
When you can hover and take off and land reasonably well, try for short flight distances out, then pull the stick back and go for a landing. Try hover, then fly backwards, then landing. Chop power at about 1-2 feet up.
After a couple a dozens of these, you'll be much more prepared if you "get into trouble." Repetition is how you learn.
Use "throttle off" as primary safety
"failsafe". It's your "Help I'm out of control - I'll crash it
rather that loose it" solution. Your are flying on grass, right?
Grass or sand will do none or minimal damages to props. Props go first. Remember: when around the Imperial quad geeks, props are not props but are called rotors :)
SOME RULES:
Grass or sand will do none or minimal damages to props. Props go first. Remember: when around the Imperial quad geeks, props are not props but are called rotors :)
SOME RULES:
1) Nobody flies your drone except you. Not even chewbacca! Not being a
"hard a**" here. These things can be "a liability" if it
crashes into a person, place or thing. And you know Chewie... all thumbs :)
2) When the iPhone alarm sounds, land the quad immediately, change the battery - and fly some more. If you leave the transmitter on, you will NOT have to re-bind. Pay attention if you leave the xmtr on. If you move the throttle fwd, the rotors will spin.
Oh, were your fingers in there, Luke? Ouch! Go home when you are out of batteries. Log the flight time and location in log book. No log book? Use a piece of paper and a pencil.
Then go buy a log book:
2) When the iPhone alarm sounds, land the quad immediately, change the battery - and fly some more. If you leave the transmitter on, you will NOT have to re-bind. Pay attention if you leave the xmtr on. If you move the throttle fwd, the rotors will spin.
Oh, were your fingers in there, Luke? Ouch! Go home when you are out of batteries. Log the flight time and location in log book. No log book? Use a piece of paper and a pencil.
Then go buy a log book:
3) Imperial Law says, NO drone flying
within 5 miles of any and all airports. Say under 400 feet AGL (above ground
level). No problem officer, it won't fly that high :)
4) Fly safe. No "hot-dogging" for the first 10 hours.
5) Be calm when people want to talk to you while you fly. Land the quad. Chat. If kids (under 15 Y.O.) are around, they will gather like a flock of fynocks and gawk at you. You will NOT fly with them around, Luke. If your not sure if to fly or not - DON'T FLY!
6) Safety is ALWAYS job #1. Although it's rule #6 here :)
7) Don't plan on it "being fun". It will be more like, well - work. With some apprehension and a tad bit of fear tossed in. Goes away after a while. Goal is to learn to fly. Have fun later.
4) Fly safe. No "hot-dogging" for the first 10 hours.
5) Be calm when people want to talk to you while you fly. Land the quad. Chat. If kids (under 15 Y.O.) are around, they will gather like a flock of fynocks and gawk at you. You will NOT fly with them around, Luke. If your not sure if to fly or not - DON'T FLY!
6) Safety is ALWAYS job #1. Although it's rule #6 here :)
7) Don't plan on it "being fun". It will be more like, well - work. With some apprehension and a tad bit of fear tossed in. Goes away after a while. Goal is to learn to fly. Have fun later.
8) Don't worry about crashing. You will. Guaranteed. And it will happen often. Try to figure out what you did that caused the crash and learn from it. Know that sometimes the drone will just "drop out of the sky" and for NO apparent reason. It happens. Expect it.
9) The time you spend when arrive at the location to fly until the time you leave said location is the total flight time you will log. Use 5 batteries? Fly for 6 minutes each? 5 x 6 is 30 minutes. That's NOT your total flight time.
Reason: battery changes, xmtr binding, setting/resetting iPhone timer, walking to pick up drone that got out of range and went down, and other stuff. Don't bother writing it all down. You log from "time in" to "time out". That's how ALL pilots do it. Start to stop.
10 ) Stop if it gets windy. How do you know? In advance mode the controls are ineffective. The wind seems to be pushing the drone around the sky, because - it is! Land - go home, Luke.
Repeat the first lesson for several flights. You can add other maneuvers as you feel more comfortable. Flying in light wind can be challenging. Go for it. Make up your own exercises - fly left to right and repeat, foreword to backward and repeat, etc.
Everything you do is training and you will learn. The more you fly, the better you'll get. It's just a matter of time. Repetition is how you learn. And don't forget to use the force, Luke.
Yoda
PS Thank you I do for the droid parts. Get them here on Tatooine, I cannot!
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