How to Fly a Drone: A Beginner’s Guide
Drones have become a development and videography. In fact, they’ve essentially become standard production equipment for skilled photographers and filmmakers.
Still, there are many drone users who invest in these expensive devices just for recreational reasons. And if you’re one of persons who are hoping to get in on this cool new hobby.
In this guide we will discourse how to fly a drone as a novice. At the end you will have an understanding of your drone controller, a pre-flight specification and a few methods to practice.
How to control the drone
Drones are normally operated with a remote controller or a transmitter. This accessible device somewhat looks like gaming or toy remote controllers with buttons and joysticks that serve numerous functions. More professional models can be quite overwhelming and may take more time for a user to utilize its full functionality.
Regardless of how complex a drone is, the pilot works the left and right sticks with their thumbs, and most models have roughly the same selection of features and functions. The drone operator can push or pull the sticks to make the drone go up, down, left, right, and sometimes diagonally.
The four main purposes and most important aspects of any drone’s controller are:
- Yaw
- Throttle
- Roll
- Pitch
Left Stick: Yaw & Throttle
The left stick controls two features: the yaw (rotation) and throttle (altitude).
What is Yaw?
Yaw refers to a clockwise or counterclockwise rotation of the drone. Pushing the left stick along the x-axis (left and right) triggers the drone’s rotation clockwise or counterclockwise. This aids the user position the drone to face other directions without making the drone leave its current spot.
Throttle
Throttle adjusts how much power you give the drone’s motors, resulting in faster or slower flight speeds. Pushing the left stick along the y-axis (up and down) changes the drone’s altitude accordingly. Users often control the throttle when flying, usually in conjunction with the functions of the right stick, so it’s significant to get comfortable with this particular function.
Right Stick: Roll & Pitch
The right stick controls actual movements of the drone along the x-axis: the roll (side to side) and the pitch (forward and backward).
Understanding Roll
Roll refers to a left or right movement of your drone. Pushing the right stick along the x-axis (left and right) makes the quadcopter fly and “roll” along the left and right sides. This is particularly helpful for avoiding objects and other obstacles without changing the drone’s altitude or position on the y-axis.
What is Pitch
Pitch refers is the tilt of your drone either forward or backward. Pushing the right stick along the y-axis (up and down) moves the drone forward and backward consequently. It may seem extremely easy, but using this with the throttle and with the drone facing you instead of the other way about makes it more challenging.
Steps on how to fly a drone as a beginner
After informing and training yourself with your drone and its elementary instructions, it’s time for you to put them to good use by actually flying the drone. Here’s a step-by-step guide that you can follow for a fun—and safe—drone flying experience that will help lead you to successful drone photography.
- Find an Open Space
- Place the drone
- Connect the transmitter
- Takeoff
- Hovering
- Rotating
- Practice Techniques
- Secure an open space for practice
If you already have a drone you possibly already have a place in mind for practice. It can be any open outside area, as long as it’s safe and free from obstacles so you don’t end up crashing the drone into a tree, wall, or possibly even other people. Also, make sure that the place authorities the usage of drones so as not to break any laws.
- Position the drone
Firstly, find a good launch spot. Make sure the drone is placed according to the instruction manual—preferably in front of you and on a flat surface, with you and the drone facing the same direction. Do this before every flight and don’t attempt to do otherwise unless you’ve gained enough self-confidence and skill in flying your drone.
- Connect the transmitter to the drone
There’s one thing that you will need to remember before takeoff Here, we start with the stages that will require practice.
Before you switch on the remote, push the throttle way down. Turn the remote on, and then connect the drone’s battery. This is a very important order that you will have to follow both before taking off and after landing. After your flying session, follow the steps in reverse order: disconnect your drone’s battery and then turn off the remote.
| Before Takeoff | After Landing |
| · Push throttle way down · Turn transmitter ON · Connect drone’s battery |
· Disconnect drone’s battery
· Turn transmitter OFF |
- Practice launch and landing
After following the earlier steps for preparation before takeoff, you may slowly push the throttle (left stick) upwards and watch the drone lift off. Keep it in place without moving forward or to the sides with the help of the roll and pitch commands (right stick).
Once you’ve effectively launched the drone a few feet above ground, try to land it as well as you can. Keep it steady and slowly push the throttle (left stick) down this time until it reaches the same spot on the ground.
- Practice hovering
The next thing you will be practicing is hovering. Lift off (step 5) a few feet above ground and hold the drone as gradually as you can. It will seem pretty tedious for first-timers as it requires concentration, but practicing this will help improve your flying skills (especially at the start and end of your flying sessions) and keep your drone safe.
Focus on mastering these basic maneuvers (take off, balancing, and landing) first as it will help you have an easier time executing more complicated flying procedures later on.
- Practice rotating
Another important operation you will need to be comfortable with is the rotation of the drone using the left stick’s yaw control. Now launch the drone, hover, and then slowly push the left stick right or left until the drone rotates to face you.
Many find it difficult at first since you’ll have to pay close attention to the drone’s orientation, particularly where its front and back are, but experience definitely makes it easier.
To aid you in flying the drone no matter where it’s facing, create a mental image of you being inside the drone and flying it. This is how experienced professionals stay on course no matter how much the drone spins and turns, and helps them envision how they should fly the drone to achieve winning aerial photographs.
If you still don’t get it on your fifth try, don’t fret. Many don’t get it even on their tenth. What’s important is that you are slowly (but surely!) becoming more used to controlling how the drone behaves.
- Practice These Beginner Drone Techniques
Now that you’ve learned all of the basic controls and maneuvers, it’s time to combine all of your acquired knowledge and experience into one session. This is also where you’ll finally get to use the right stick to actually move the quadcopter. Here are a few sample controls and movements that you can try out once the drone is in the air:
- Travel in parallel paths by moving the drone forward and backward using the pitch control (right stick) and then left and right using the roll control (right stick)
- Draw a square using the pitch and roll controls (right stick)
- Fly forwards and backwards in a parallel path with the drone facing the direction of the flight by moving the drone forward with the pitch control (right stick), stopping, rotating the drone 180 degrees until it is facing you, and moving the drone forward again until it reaches its original position
- Draw a square by moving the drone forward with the pitch control (right stick), stopping, rotating the drone 90 degrees to the left or right using the yaw control (left stick), and repeating all three steps until the drone returns to its original position
- Draw a circle using the yaw control (left stick) and pitch control (right stick)
- Draw a figure 8 using the yaw control (left stick) and pitch control (right stick)
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