DO'S AND DONT'S

Flyaways. There are 2 kinds of people. Those who have had a flyaway and those who will. A flyaway occurs when the drone:

1) The drone loses radio contact with the transmitter due to: 1) Weak battery in transmitter and/or receiver and/or,  2) too far of a distance away from drone's receiver, or 3) radio frequency interference (RFI) of any kind interference affecting the drone receiving channel frequency and although the drone may or may not be far away, the drone does not respond. 

2) There are other reasons, too. I have had a small drone literally "drop dead" in flight when I pushed the right stick to hard left or right. I've flow other drones without this problem. Could be a manufacturing problem or a part problem. 99% of the time it isn't a problem. But every so often...

3) Then there is the stated "range of the transmitter". 100 meters it says on the literature that came with my UDI 818A. I think the Chinese use the word foot and meters interchangeably because my UDI 818A receiver does a disconnect at about 100 to 150 feet lateral while flying at 25-50 feet altitude. It just falls out of the sky - with NO warning.

4) A sudden gust of wind takes the drone in a direction you don't want to go. You panic and the drone rises too high from the wind and you loose contact. The wind then blows the drone until the battery expires. Then it falls from the sky. You can guess what happens next.

5) You pull the right stick back but the drone goes forward instead. Before you can realize the problem and correct your mistake, the drone disappears or goes out of range or behind trees, or behind other obstructions where you can't see it. Now it is uncontrollable because anything you do or don't do with crash it.

6) Most smaller drones cay fly for about 5-9 minutes. You should always limit you flying to 4-7 minutes or about 80 percent of the maximum stated flying time for a fully charged battery. Remember that when the battery gets low you will need more throttle which means more power draining the battery quicker. You tiny human brain will conveniently forget this fact :) 

7) Remember also that the receiver runs off the very same battery and now the battery voltage is getting lower which may affect reception range. I set the timer on my Apple iPhone to 5 minutes and select the ALARM (klaxon) warning. Land as soon as possible. Change batteries. Resume flying.

8) DO NOT go more than 25 feet or so in altitude while training. The range of the transmitter is limited. Especially on small drones. Worse with weak batteries. The higher the drone flies, the easier it is to loose control.

9) If you loose control, pull the left stick about half way back as soon as possible. At about 20-30 feet of altitude, press the stick full forward, wait until the drone begins to stop falling and move the stick toward the middle. The drone will probably still crash. Hopefully it won't be damaged. Remember, better to have a broken drone than have the drone flyaway. When you do pull the throttle (left stick full or mostly full back, you can expect a "Speed Wobble." 

From Wikipedia:

Wobble, shimmy, tank-slapper, speed wobble, vortex ring state (no really :) and even "death wobble" are all words and phrases used to describe a quick (4–10 Hz) oscillation of primarily just the steerable wheel(s) of a vehicle. Initially, the rest of the vehicle remains mostly unaffected, until translated into a vehicle yaw oscillation of increasing amplitude producing loss of control. Vehicles that can experience this oscillation include motorcycles and bicycles, skateboards, and in theory any vehicle with a single steering pivot point (like a drone - ed.) and a sufficient amount of freedom of the steered wheel, including that which exists on some light aircraft with tricycle gear where instability can occur at speeds of less than 50 mph; this does not include most automobiles..."

Drone speed wobble occurs when the vectored lift from the rotors is disturbed and the drone having less lift from one or more of its four vectors points (rotors) then begins to oscillate back and forth, looses lift, regains and looses again, and again repeatedly, while loosing forward and/or vertical speed and typically results in an uncontrolled crash.

10) Fly in calm wind conditions. Calm means the is NO wind blowing. If you can see leaves rustle, tree branch sway, or hear the wind in you ear, there IS too much wind and you should NOT fly. When you have several hours of practice flying, you'll be able to fly the drone in mild, windy situations. By mild I mean 1-2 MPH wind speed. Small, extremely light drones are easily affected by ANY wind. Couple that with insufficient flying skills and you have a recipe for disaster.