Most common Drone Pilot mistakes

Henrik Olsen · Oct 9, 2017

This is our countdown of the most common drone pilot mistakes. If you as a new pilot avoid these, you have a good chance of saving your bird

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Have you crashed your Phantom and why?

Meta4 · Oct 9, 2017

Henrik Olsen said:
This is our countdown of the most common drone pilot mistakes. If you as a new pilot avoid these, you have a good chance of saving your bird

These are very good except for a misunderstanding in #6 which says: The homepoint needs to be set correctly. If not, the drone will go to the previous homepoint.
In DJI drones, the homepoint is only stored for the duration of your flight.
Once the Phantom is powered down, the old homepoint is lost.
If you launch before getting GPS reception, your Phantom has no homepoint.
It will record a home point where and when it gets GPS reception.
In most situations, that is going to be very close to where you launch.

Henrik Olsen · Oct 10, 2017

@Meta4 thank you for point this out. I'll make sure to include it if I do a follow up

Phil Derrick · Oct 11, 2017

Meta4 said:
These are very good except for a misunderstanding in #6 which says: The homepoint needs to be set correctly. If not, the drone will go to the previous homepoint.
In DJI drones, the homepoint is only stored for the duration of your flight.
Once the Phantom is powered down, the old homepoint is lost.
If you launch before getting GPS reception, your Phantom has no homepoint.
It will record a home point where and when it gets GPS reception.
In most situations, that is going to be very close to where you launch.

Yet again another good point, my research and talking to experienced pilots is proving very very helpful indeed.

Leadfootlambert · Oct 14, 2017

Do you get an award if you own up to doing ALL of them?

Clockman · Oct 14, 2017

I sometimes calibrate the IMU and the camera gimbal inside in my workshop. The drone sets it's home point there. I then take it outside, STILL POWERED ON, to launch it. You can guess what could happen if I don't reset the home point to the take off point and RTH is initiated for what ever reason. A crashed drone and possible damage to the outside of my shop. Something to be careful of.

3putts · Oct 14, 2017

Leadfootlambert said:
Do you get an award if you own up to doing ALL of them?

Probably rewarded with a crashed or missing drone.

DD-Drones · Oct 14, 2017

Meta4 made very good points, especially regarding the need to reset the home point if the drone is powered down. To add something to that comment, remember, even if you change batteries and immediately fly again, first calibrate the compass and set the home point before taking off again. Finally, after changing batteries, calibrating the compass and setting the RTH, after I take off I always fly out 10 yards and up 20 feet and do a RTH to make sure it is set correctly before I fly further and higher.

skeptic49 · Oct 14, 2017

Good video...thanks!

Phil Derrick · Oct 14, 2017

Leadfootlambert said:
Do you get an award if you own up to doing ALL of them?

Lol you won't win any award but you will earn respect for being honest and learning the hard way.

Respect man

DanMan32 · Oct 14, 2017

No need to do any calibrations for each flight. As a matter of fact, that could cause issues. If you locked into a good calibration evident by a great flight, stick with it.
Home point is set at engine start, not on power up. I wouldn't advise carrying the AC outside from inside a building while props are spinning.

Meta4 · Oct 14, 2017

DD-Drones said:
Meta4 made very good points, especially regarding the need to reset the home point if the drone is powered down. To add something to that comment, remember, even if you change batteries and immediately fly again, first calibrate the compass and set the home point before taking off again. Finally, after changing batteries, calibrating the compass and setting the RTH, after I take off I always fly out 10 yards and up 20 feet and do a RTH to make sure it is set correctly before I fly further and higher.

No need to calibrate your compass. The up-to-date manuals don't advise you to.
I got a P4 pro late last year and still haven't calibrated anything on it.

You can simply tell if the homepoint is set correctly by looking at the distance the Phantom is reporting at the bottom of the screen.
The distance is how far the Phantom is from .... the homepoint.
If you fly out 5 metres and the telemetry is saying D=5 metres, that's all you need to know.