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Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

fpvsim.com

11–20 of 136 posts

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#11

Too bad in most parts of the EU is illegal to fly drones. You can do it if you are far from populated areas but you need to go trough a complicated bureaucracy and obtain a permit before each flight.

This is not true as a blanket statement unless you are talking about commercial flying, large drones or restricted airspace. I'm not sure what country you are referring to but I haven't personally come across one that requires a per flight permit outside of higher risk commercial operations. Most EU countries are pretty harmonised on drone rules at this point.

Sub 250g drones such as the DJI Mini series and the Autel Nano will give you the most flexibility in places you can fly legally.

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#12
post #2

It's quite annoying that every stage of the lesson requires you to recalibrate your controller. When I learned to fly racing drones, I used Velocidrone; I have no experience of FPVSim. Even if you don't plan to eventually fly an acrobatic or racing drone, the sim experience can be a bit relaxing & focused. I used to practice on a 2nd monitor while I was in large mandatory group meetings for work. If you do plan to bu…

> If I were going to get back into the hobby, I'd probably try to do long range fixed wing aircraft with FPV and flight automation.

For me personally that’s too boring.. Long range is illegal in lots of places; in the US you technically need a spotter and the craft needs to be in direct line of sight, and pretty close because it should be visible with unaided eye - so, no binoculars.

3.5" is the sweet spot where you can build a sub 250g (or almost sub 250 - do cops really carry kitchen scales on them?) drone with decent performance that doesn't scare people when you fly around and still has the performance close to a 5" one and you can still do all of the tricks. The only drawback with 3.5" is that they're more susceptible to wind, so if it's always very windy where you fly, maybe consider a 5". Oh, and you also don't need to install a remote ID module on a sub 250g quad.

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#13

Too bad in most parts of the EU is illegal to fly drones. You can do it if you are far from populated areas but you need to go trough a complicated bureaucracy and obtain a permit before each flight.

I am a registered pilot. Had to do an online course and learn about restrictions, took an hour and was free and is valid across most countries in EU. Most stupid restriction is that for FPV, a spotter is required. But if I stay away from people/buildings I am permitted to fly up to IIRC 6kg drones

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#14
post #2

It's quite annoying that every stage of the lesson requires you to recalibrate your controller. When I learned to fly racing drones, I used Velocidrone; I have no experience of FPVSim. Even if you don't plan to eventually fly an acrobatic or racing drone, the sim experience can be a bit relaxing & focused. I used to practice on a 2nd monitor while I was in large mandatory group meetings for work. If you do plan to bu…

I really wanna give this a go. what controller would you recommend?

Radiomaster Boxer is probably the goto one for FPV quadcopters. If you want to fly LoS and autonomous missions then Radiomaster TX16S (large touchscreen, community support, all the LUA tememetry widgets you could ever want). For the link, it's either ELRS for manual flying or mLRS for Mavlink telemetry over LoRa.

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#15
Huh, once I figured out how to switch to first person view and acro mode and hooked up my PlayStation controller this was surprisingly fun – it behaved a little like a more friendly helicopter simulator. The most annoying part was that I couldn't have throttle on a completely separate control from the rotation axes, and the frequent brief freezes I got in Firefox.

If this is an indication of what it is like to fly real FPV drones, I'll have to put a lock on my wallet.

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#17
post #15

Huh, once I figured out how to switch to first person view and acro mode and hooked up my PlayStation controller this was surprisingly fun – it behaved a little like a more friendly helicopter simulator. The most annoying part was that I couldn't have throttle on a completely separate control from the rotation axes, and the frequent brief freezes I got in Firefox. If this is an indication of what it is like to fly re…

> The most annoying part was that I couldn't have throttle on a completely separate control from the rotation axes

You wouldn't want that because throttle is essential for flight control unlike with fixed wing where it's somewhat set and forget in many situations. It's partially alleviated by 'real' radios not having a spring on the throttle axis, so it stays in the position you've put it and part of it is just more practice..

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#18
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wanna give this a go. what controller would you recommend?

Radiomaster Boxer is probably the goto one for FPV quadcopters. If you want to fly LoS and autonomous missions then Radiomaster TX16S (large touchscreen, community support, all the LUA tememetry widgets you could ever want). For the link, it's either ELRS for manual flying or mLRS for Mavlink telemetry over LoRa.

Thank you very much!

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wanna give this a go. what controller would you recommend?

I would recommend one of the radios that run OpenTX or EdgeTX (fork of OpenTX firmware: https://www.open-tx.org . These radios support a wide variaty of RF modules and have good support for simulators. No need to get a too expensive one.

good to know, thanks!

Re: Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners

#20
post #2

It's quite annoying that every stage of the lesson requires you to recalibrate your controller. When I learned to fly racing drones, I used Velocidrone; I have no experience of FPVSim. Even if you don't plan to eventually fly an acrobatic or racing drone, the sim experience can be a bit relaxing & focused. I used to practice on a 2nd monitor while I was in large mandatory group meetings for work. If you do plan to bu…

I really wanna give this a go. what controller would you recommend?

Depending on your personal preference, go with radiomaster pocket/zorro/boxer - ELRS version.
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