So a useful list of what not to do! Click the Subscribe + Notification button to see more tutorials on the Mavic Air, Mavic Pro & Mavic 2 Pro. It's all free 😎 And comment below any other ways you've managed to crash or had a close shave. Cheers, Ian. ru-vid.complaylists
Very nice mate. I am currently flying the typhoon h 480. And yes I have had my problems as well. But I keep learning. Keith Kuhn KK Motion Pictures Also on RU-vid
There is nothing better to exercise your sphincter muscles than a low battery while trying to bring your drone back for a safe landing. Thanks for all the great tips!
As a new Mavic owner, your advice is clearly invaluable. My goal is to not crash or lose my drone - you're videos will go along way towards helping me achieve that end. Thanks. Gregg Arizona, USA
Great video. You're describing a safe mindset. One thing I learned is to watch out for birds. Especially territorial birds or around nests. They will see your drone as an intruder or a threat in their airspace. If you happen to observe eagles or other predatorial birds in the area, avoid them. If you must fly within their territory, don't go to full altitude. Leave some headroom for a quick evasive maneuvre straight up if you see a bird charging the drone. As this is unusual behavior for a prey. Not only will a bird attack lead to an almost certain crash, but your rotors may cause serious injury to the animal.
It's amazing how people can miss these "obvious" dangers, maybe too eager to get flying, cool tips for the beginners out there m8. Keep it safe Drone Bro!
good vid . you can keep orientated with your drone flying back to you if you turn the remote 180 degrees in your hand to where as the antenna is pointing towards you..
Very useful! I’m sure someone has commented by now about these but not having a proper preparation will cause you to crash as well! Not checking the weather, flight restrictions, no preflight checks like checking your props & making sure your battery is situated correctly. Thanks.
My best advice is practice an watch videos like yours that helped myself when I first started an know how to fly in atti mode at a distance just for that o shit moment so practice up an keep droning people good luck 👍🍀
Ian, Thanks for an entertaining and helpful video. I'm quite new at this (11 flying hours under my belt) and I am more than willing to learn from other's mistakes. I will do my best to avoid the ones that you point out here.
I remember when I got my mavic pro, my first flight was indoors, but I had taken the props off!! Didn't fly worth a dang rofl. It did get me to learn a little about the lights, and how to calibrate it etc. Great video, thanks for sharing it! Happy Flying
Very important video, in my opinion. I thought I knew a lot of the pitfalls, but you named some I've never even thought of. Good job, and valuable info. Marc Trainor.
This was a helpful video. Although I’m not doing anything crazy with mine yet as I am new to drone flying this gave me some things to think about! Thanks and subbed.
Great video! I was flying my new mavic 2 zoom in the woods at the cabin. I saw the video with the 6 mile range and figured I could fly it out a mile no problem. Well, what I learned was trees blocked the signal. The drone lost signal and I felt panic creeping in. Fortunately I made sure to follow the dirt road on the property when flying it and was able to walk down the road until I regained connection. Valuable lesson that could have been avoided had I watched this video first.
Perhaps there should be a large sticker like in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe: DON'T PANIC. I've had 3 crashes, simply because I panicked. Instead of correcting with the remote, I reached out & grabbed the drone, or one time I just flew at a wall! Bang!
Mate, exactly! It's too easy to forget that by letting go of the sticks, it comes to a stop and you can gather yourself! But grabbing a drone is never a good move! Ian
BIRDS: some people have managed to get their drone attacked or hassled by birds. some birds are territorial or plain aggressive; like eagles, hawks and other predatory birds. Sea-gulls tend to come near your drone and give hassle. According a youtuber, if/when a bird decides to come to close to your drone, he recommends to fly your drone as height as possible and as fast as possible to discourage the aggressor. If you fly low it can dive in and smash your drone; but if you fly high it will struggle to come up to it and you can a speed advantage which could make a difference.
Mate.......how far you have come. Just stumbled across this video.2017....... What a backdrop .Watched most of your latest videos which are great. Carry on the good work.
Very important lesson I learned...if your drone doesn't have GPS , don't let it get too far so you can't see in which way it's going. You will have a good chance of sending it in the wrong direction even further sway untill it is not recoverable. If in doubt, put it in headless mode immediately and pull back the RH control in the opposite direction from where it's at to return it.
I did this exact thing 2 days ago, my second time out with a new Altair AA300. The first day went fine but on the second day as soon as I lifted off it escaped like a bat out of hell. Watched it fly away with what appeared to be little affect on the controls and an immediate search did not locate it. Come to find out that in my haste to launch I forgot to turn on the GPS. Got some info from Altair about how far the drone will fly under these conditions and drew up a search arc based on where I was and the last position I had visual contact with the drone and will go out and search this morning on last time saw that my previous search was far outside of the drones range so there is hope yet). Fortunately this is a local park area with tons of open fields and very few trees and that this is not what could be considered an expensive drone so if it’s lost it is not a big bite out of the wallet. Lesson learned!
Good tips.. wish I watched this before crashing my drone indoors. Used it outside and got comfortable with small movements and control and thought id be ok to practice inside, until the darn thing decided to fly sideways into the wall for no reason. Your explanation of no GPS makes it all make sense now
When you take off go up 40 feet , straight up, use a landing pad, the drone can see it better and makes return home work perfectly and you wont hit trees . Then continue straight up over the trees , fly high , height is your friend.
To be clear the height is so that the radio link is never lost due to foliage and other obstructions. We have a three story estate and fly from the roof top deck with the drone taking off from ground level using a spotter in the topiary gardens, using two way radio communications. He switches batteries as needed and retrieves the drone after flight time is over. Like having a second during jousts of old!
Thank you for sharing your experience. Even though consumer drone tech has advanced since this video was posted, these are still the most common crash scenarios. Good stuff!
Excellent list. As expected, all common sense stuff but common sense seems to disappear sometimes. At the moment I don’t have a drone but am seriously considering starting a drone business. I am coming at it from a sales/work point of view. The flying, to me is the fun part. The sales part is the necessary part that it seems a lot of drone people are afraid of. Cold calling is scary in any business. If I have one piece of advice regarding a drone business, it’s get out there and speak to business owners face to face and/or on the phone. The rejection is never personal. It’s merely a stepping stone to a new customer.
Great video thank you. How about a similar video explaining "emergency procedures "? No one seems to do those. For example what the hell is ATTI mode? What do I do if I get that in flight? What if the app crashes mid flight? Then what do I do? An emergency procedure video would be excellent!
What about the one that for me that would be number 1 on why a drone does a flyaway.....Not calibrated properly. Always double check this and then always make sure the drone is responding to the joysticks ( left right, forward, backwards, yar, up and down) before flying at any height.
I’m a professional drone and USAF pilot. You can configure your remote to reverse controls when returning home then assign it to C1. When you’re returning just tap c1 and forward remains forward, etc..
Yes, the apps let you change the stick modes; although personally I think just remembering left is right when facing you is better as that works for the drone facing all directions and circular flights that arent' just straight out an straight back.... but I guess it's personal choice...
@@IaninLondon I fly rc helicopters and its the same problem. The best way i learned is imagine you are in the pilots seat coming towards you then left is right and right is left. Easy to get used to.
I've done my fair share of RC flying, and can say it's best learn the reversal, even if it means using a simulator to practice first to iron out your brains desire to remember single orientation, it's all fine and dandy to say use C1 for a custom "reverse" switch but in a panic you are going to be wanting to control it "professionally", not fumbling for the C1 switch option. And what happens when your drone desides to side orientate on when things go wrong? C1 ain't gonna help you.
John Stanley I agree with your statement try sitting in a storage container in Nevada flying and landing a drone via camera feed in Afghanistan. The pilot uses the POV camera which is always facing forward. Some more expensive drones like the inspire 2 have 2 Cameras. One POV for the pilot and one omnidirectional for the camera operator. With “real drones” You don’t fly left or right you fly via compass heading but obviously my comment was directed toward rookie drone pilot but in retrospect I did not mean to imply that you should learn to fly that way just stating that the drone controller has that option. You should always learn to fly manually and correctly once you master that then you can use the auto pilots, etc...because when they fail.... not if but when...you need to regain complete control quickly.
I'm thinking about getting my first drone and I just know that forgetting about reversed controls coming back will probably be my biggest thing to conquer in the beginning. Especially if I'm in a panic situation, I can see mixing up LR RL.
Thanks for the video. Very useful tips to keep in mind. I am a new mavic 2 user and so far I have not crashed mine. Before i have flown RC helicopter and it seems to have same principles without the safety net of course. I have used both Tripod and P.mode mostly on visual line of sight for now but then again where I live rules are strict and line of sight should be maintained at all times.
Excellent video Ian, I think the biggest problem is newbies buying $1000+ drones and start flying without any experience. My advice is buy a cheapy or second hand drone to start with and practice with that. People might think it’s false economy, but losing a $200 drone doesn’t hurt as much as losing $1000 drone on its maiden flight.
We fly drones upwards of £30,000-£50,000 and they still crash. Mostly not our fault as controlling FOD Ona film set etc isn’t very easy. I stick to helicopters. Having flown drones long enough over many years to get bored with them.
xray364. I think I misled there. I don’t fly my electric Jet Ranger for filming. I fly it for leisure. The helicopter used for filming is as in my avatar for RU-vid. It’s a full size helicopter with a 200kg heavy camera systemthat we use for feature films and some TV. Our heavy lift drones are mainly for TV work. I don’t fly those though as I no longer enjoy flying drones.
grate vid i was flying buck up and away and was low and not watching the drone and just looking at my phone and was looking on my camera and then crashed into a tree
I flew my new mini se , in my 10 by 8 kitchen first flight , didn’t hit anything needed to do it ,, itchy finger cheers buddy thanks for the tips shane uk 🇬🇧
My first flight was nearly a 'fly-away'. I thought I'd done everything correct and checked twice. I took off in the middle of a field and she rose to about 6ft. I then sent her up and she went high and flew out of sight not under my control. It was about 30 seconds in and lost when I realised I'd NOT unfolded the antennas. I quickly unfolded them and hit the RTH button. I was relieved when the controller told me that she was coming back. I didn't even hit the record button so I have no idea where or how high she went. A good 30 seconds passed before I heard her coming back. That was close.
Lucky end result. I'm just editing a vid on stuff to remember with the Air and unfolding the legs was one of the points as they contain the antennae. But yeah, gotta remember those antennae on the remote too fella 😀. Ian
I can add one to the list: Flying low over a leafy crop. I flew about a foot above the leaves of a crop on level ground, then the drone passed over a barren patch which was out of sight. When it got to the other side, the crop triggered the ground sensor, the drone thought it was in the final stage of landing and it dumped itself in the middle of the field. There is nothing like the feel of the dew on your jeans on a cold morning to make you note that low flight over dead ground is to be eschewed.
I had it on VLOS, but it was over 300 metres away, so I couldn't judge the exact range by eye. Find My Drone activated instantly and took me right to it. I still needed to the bleep because the leaves had closed over it - I could so easily have trod on it.
Ian, YT just suggested this to me, i know the video is 4 yrs old but absolute common sense. I love how you describe in relatable terms. This is really helps me to understand how to operate better as I am still very new to flying Thank you for the video 😎
Around the 5:45mark on this video, a person gets into the water to try catch the drone before it could sink. Your edit left me wondering: “Did that drone sink?”
Tripod mode in dense areas, great tip! I hadn’t thought about using it in that situation. Crashed mane in a dense waterfall area, just when I thought I was finally getting the hang of basic flying.
mavic p2 here ,,,i was saved from power lines,at the time I could not see them ,it stalled i hit rth and later saw it on video review,thanks for the list ,you added a few to my list ,thanks again
Thanks for confirming, why I should be nervous when flying my Spark. And even more thanks for telling me how to avoid losing it. At least now I wouldn't have anybody else to blame. Just wondering... what would you think about attaching a fine and lightweight fishing line to the drone. That should be helpful in finding it, shouldn't it? ;-)
Oh wow...your very first crash scenario is EXACTLY what I did. I thought taking off in the house would be no big deal. Wrong! Luckily, I was removing the popcorn ceiling the following week and the drone started the task for me. I was frantically Googling “how to turn off DJI Mavic.” Luckily, the drone survived, and I’m pretty decent at flying it now. Great video...thank you for sharing!
Rak Sasa also don't get to low to the water, your signal is going to reflect off of the water and with it's rough texture waves etc.. you'll lose that much more ending up in a fly away and a bath. That's why in the instructions they say don't fly over water.(no I don't read instructions but I stumbled across this lol) Think about the sine wave. If part hits and reflects off the water your gonna get a strange half assed signal to and from. Just keep it above at a safe distance what that might be idk. Good luck though those are always killer shots...and sometimes drone killers
*Aren't you the same bloke that lost your mavic on the seaside cliff when they first came out? If so id you ever find it in the revine you thought it was in or not* ?
Yep, I lost my Mavic Pro over Dover 3 years ago... went back to look with another drone too but never found it..... But all good now.2 Pro, Air and Mini....
Lessons I learned. 1- don't fly through tight spaces 2- drone flips on the back side kill the motors. Don't try picking up the Drone while motors are running. 3- put a linear on the remote in case it gets knocked out of your hands.
Here's a big one... caused me one crash and one near landing in water: mistaking the "LAND" button on the smartphone screen from the "RTH" button. Happened to me twice already. Very easy to do when you are slightly panicked. My advice: Always use the physical RTH button on the remote controller, never the one on the smartphone screen. Another big one... when flying behind an obstacle so that the drone is out of sight, not realizing that there is a time lag of at least a few seconds for the live video on your controller. The video display is NOT REAL TIME and so should NOT BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.
When you want to come back with the drone with rth, use the controllers physical button. When you land, i dont recommend the landing button, i dont really like it, i recommend getting the drone low then just left stick down gently and it will land.
Excellant video Ian!! Totally agree...... Don't panic. Let go of the sticks or tap pause if in a situation and collect your thoughts and continue on. In regards to Tripod mode, it's awesome. Only problem I've encountered in this mode is if it's windy, it slowed my Mavic Air down to a crawl, very close to hovering. When I encounter this, I simply tap the big red X in the DJI Go app which puts me back in Normal mode. Thanks again for the great video pointing out potential crashes. I'm always learning from your advise. Happy Flying..... Ray 👍😊
Thanks Ray!! On the Air and wind, have a watch of this video. It normally handles wind fine, unlike the Pro..... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3hgddTpTuUo.html
Hi Ian, I know you have some knowledge of the Mavic mini my new mini will only go max 50m distance an 30m high I’m in a field away from things in wales. Very frustrating when this thing can go 2 miles. Is it because I am close to houses? Thanks Leigh
Any extra weight, such as the guards, puts it in a safe mode, so you have to cancel that in the app - but it's better to take them off because they make the max take-off weight more than 250g (the legal limit). Or you may be trying to fly in a restricted flying zone, such as near a school, airfield. Modern drones are no good for flying crystal meth into Her Majesty's Prisons. Google dronesafe and do the quiz on the regs, then download the NATS app to choose a safe launch site. Especially in Wales... low flying helicopters and things there.
well you have a charm and refreshing to see someone that can make sense and not trying to add a whole lot of extra rubbish and funnies into the vid...just got a spark after about 20 toy ones and took me a lot of time getting airborne..so just trolling youtube to make sure im ready thanks welldone and thanks
Don’t forget about birds. Lots of them here in California. They are curious when they hear the buzzing of a drone. Pigeons are the worst, they fly fast and in groups. I posted a video of some coming way too close to my drone last month. I’ve only been flying for a few months but have had close calls with pigeons, seagulls, and even a pair of red tailed hawks. Always yield to birds.
In a campsite in the forest. The drone hit an unknown "No Fly Zone" at 160 ft. It started to go to home and I realized I didn't change the home point when I left my car to the camp. I got it stopped, but it started landing and wound up 65 ft up in a tree top. It took me two weeks to get it down! It started up but wouldn't connect to the remote. It's still being fixed. Poor Mavic Pro!
This is one of my favorite videos for drones. I love your style, and it's really convincing and to the point. The only other thing I might mention, although it is kind of a different area, is the compass and IMU. I'm also looking into these areas to learn everything I can to avoid a crash. Of course I'm mainly talking about having the compass calibrated but also keeping it from any interference that might throw it off and lose control. Thanks again, for the terrific video. Marc.
Thanks Marc. I try and keep things clear and concise. I don't cover compass calibration in this video, but do cover some useful settings to smooth things out.... If you've not already seen it, here it is: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fRS0nXMaW9o.html Cheers ian
I lost a drone about a year ago, i didn't really familiarise myself with the controller, the wind got up, i started pressing a few buttons and that was the end of that one. Never was able to find it.
Hi Ian. Just ordered my first drone, a Mavic Pro 2. Wish me luck. Love your videos and it’s you that’s persuaded me to actually buy one. Thanks. Keep them coming.
Drones have the ability to ascend and descend vertically and quickly faster than the birds. Yes you should avoid birds and any other wildlife (depending on your altitude) as much as possible. IN the case of birds, in an open area, ascend or descend as fast as safely possible. to birds it looks like you just magically vanished. I know this from experience.
Hi Ian, great bit of info. Think I'll be leaving my Mavic Air in beginners mode for quite a while as that is basically what I am. Bought one second hand in order to learn to fly it and as such reduce the wallet shock of crashing or losing it. Sticking to the local football fields and 100% line of sight flying for the foreseeable future.
Beginners mode is fine, as you can do everything except fly far away, and the controls are slowed down a little. So you're spot on... stay in it for some time... Glad this helped you out fella! Ian
Im a new bee and this might be a stupid question. If im flying the drone standing on a cliff at maybe 50 m high, and ride it over the cliff which has a 1000m drop, will distance from ground be a problem ?since its now 1050m from the ground level? I dont know if im making sense
Drone height rules are relative to the drone, not the take off point. So yes, technically, when you fly over a high cliff your height is between the drone and the ground.
@@ShashankD137 You would only get an altitude warning from the software based on your height relative to the take off point, not the actual ground to drone height. So are you flying up high from your take off point? Either way, wind is the most likely thing to cause you to crash; an altitude message will not affect your flight.
@@IaninLondon thanks again. Subbed :) i see my setting for max altitude on the macic mini is set to a minimum. Will try flying over a cliff this month :) will keep a check on the wind
@@ShashankD137 Thanks for subbing; just be REALLY careful with the wind; cliffs have very strong winds whipping over the top;fly out into the wind so if it gets blown away, it's blown back towards you. The mini is very easily affected by medium to strong winds... Be careful. 👍🏻👍🏻
Great stuff Ian. I’ve just bought one the other day to use for video for my Bushcraft channel, but I’m practicing with it first, and watching your tips has been helpful, thanks mate.
Good stuff fella...You have a really interesting channel; hope you get some decent aerial shots with your new Mavic to go along with it... Have fun man. Ian
I have a feeling the possibilities for crashing are endless. Crossing the controller knobs was one I’ve read about but couldn’t believe DJI made this possible. You hit the real thing to keep in mind us stay calm. Panic makes your hands do things your brain hasn’t had time to work out completely. Big plus for clipping in some phenomenal crashes. I watched an Eagle take out a Phantom from about 100m. Luckily it carried it to the ground so only claw damage. I’m still flying my MA with prop guards and did manage to brush up on some branches without any consequences. Looking forward to more of your entertaining vlogs Ian. 🍻
I did something very stupid with my Mavic Pro 2 a few days ago. I purchased mine not too long ago so I'm still new to it but on this day I was cocky. I had it on the ground, ready to take off. I had it on sport mode too so no sensors at all and full speed activated. I hovered it about 3 to 4 feet in front of me while I was talking to my brother. Thinking I had my thumb on the up stick like a total moron I hit the forward stick instead and that fucking thing literally almost tore my face off if I hadn't move quick enough. Lesson learned. Always know what your thumbs or fingers are about to do with those control sticks. Make sure your Mavic is on at least the sensor mode and do NOT stand next to it when taking off or when landing!!! I'm telling you those blades can literally rip your face apart if it hits you.
Well Steve, we've all made mistakes and as long as no one got hurt and no damage, then just learn from them, never repeat, and move on. Sports Mode is really for when you're up high or when you need to switch the sensors off quickly like flying very low over crops. But man, treat it with care fella.... Tiny touches.on the sticks. And finally, Item 14 at 6:10. That's why it went wrong :) Cheers, Ian
I broke all propellers on my Mavic 2 zoom when it went into critical battery warning and automatically tried to rise while under tree branches, I could have caught it, but I didn’t want to loose my fingers lol
I crashed mine on an early flight because I lost sight of it.Because I couldn't see or hear it I guessed where it was and brought it down low where it flew into an embankment some distance from me. Luckily I used "find my drone" to lead me to where it was lying upside down, but unharmed. All I really had to do was bring up the map view in the first place and I would have known how to bring it back.
Hello all, my Mavic Pro lost signal after I flew it in a breeze, the the breeze at 10m turned into a hurricane! I could not bring the drone back even with home return. My drone landed about 500m away in the middle of a country lane. A very nasty old man picked up my drone before I got there and Ripped off the camera! He also demanded £30 before he handed over the drone, battery and sim card! Has anyone encouted this? Thanks
@@IaninLondon My fault.... but he took the sim card out and watched the video footage..... Then threatened me that he new where I lived! Drone repaired today all fixed, but I may press charges on the loony. Your videos are very informative thanks
@@markwhittaker5082 Are you serious? I am angry just reading that. People need to understand that these are expensive pieces of personal property. What that bastard did was akin to destruction of a car.
