First Flights

Pre-flight checklist:

• Make sure you have MissionPlanner pulled up
• Ensure you have flight mode 6 as LAND, and test that turning the knob actually puts the drone in LAND mode
• Turn back to STABILIZE mode
• Perform a ARMING test, to ensure ArduPilot is good to go

On your first flight, don’t get crazy with the altitude. Keep it high enough to where you have some margin between the drone and the ground, but not high enough to where if the drone dropped it would be toast.

Flying a drone comes natural to some, and can be hard for others. For me personally, flying a drone is very hard. That is because the orientation (the front of the drone) always changes. So if the front of the drone is facing you and you hit up on the pitch stick, it will fly closer to you.

Remember, the flight channels on the RC are relative to the drone, not the pilot. This is what makes it difficult.

I like to position the drone so that the front of the drone is pointing in the direction I am looking. Then, I really only control pitch and roll and throttle, because the front of the drone is still pointed away from me. But that’s just a personal preference.

Start in STABILIZE mode and get a feel for it.

Once you’re confident, try out LOITER mode. It’s a cool feeling after STABILIZE to be able to just command the drone to a position and letting ArduPilot lock the drone in place.