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    • About 30 seconds.

    • Good ones.

      How much time all those checks take you in the beginning of every flight? (the ones after taking off)

      • Moderator

        People who speed through checks often have enough money to make many mistakes.

        • Yes, I'm loaded, thanks :)

  • Don't ever compromise the arming checks, if it won't arm find out why. Learn to take off only in stabilise, and land in stabilise, do this as a matter of coarse use the land and takeoff function only out of curiosity not as a bypass for not being able to land and takeoff in all conditions calm and wind.

    When airborne before engaging auto mission, place the copter in loiter or Poshold, for 30 sec's or so to insure GPS and the F/C are working. Constantly monitor your G/S so that if you receive a failsafe message you both know what it is, and what the F/C is going to do, as well as your orientation so that you can fly it home. Learn to fly in at least alt hold or preferably stabilise in all directions, away and towards you and practise.

    1. Use due diligence and learn about your aircraft and it's control systems before you fly it. Learn how to fly your aircraft in non-GPS flight modes like stabilize and alt hold before using GPS modes.
    2. Make sure your aircraft is sitting level and still after plugging in the battery. Wait for calibrations to finish before moving the aircraft.
    3. It is very important to wait for the GPS to get a good lock and hdp at or below 2, 8+ satellites usually.
    4. Always be ready to switch back to a non-GPS mode such as stabilize mode. Have your switches setup so you can do it blindfolded.
    5. Don't fly in GPS modes around tall structures that can block and bounce GPS signals around.
    6. NEVER depend on the GPS to get you out of a jam. Don't depend on RTL, it is a nice feature but if you are already having flight/control problems it's  probably not going to help.
    •  "Have your switches setup so you can do it blindfolded."

      Best advice there.  Having 6 modes on 2 switches is not easy to navigate.  Label your Rx, and practice moving through the modes.

      I've got 3 non-GPS modes (Stab, Land, AltHold) on one 3 position set, and 3 GPS modes (Loiter, Auto, RTL) on the other.

      Practice with your eyes closed.

      • JoeBob,

        This is fantastic advise and something I am going to follow. Making sense out of the flight modes on a 6 position was/is hard. However having GPS and Non-GPS as the 2 position makes this much easier to remember and practice.

        cheers!

        Mike

    • very handy list, thank you Russell

      2. To admit, i had cases when i was plugging the battery while it's upside down (easier for my build) I had no idea that would mess the calibrations, honestly. I suppose calibrations finish when we hear THE melody?

      6. I'm thinking to switch the RTL for Land, good idea?

      • I believe the calibration/initialization is finished after the LED quits flashing red-blue. Once I plug my power in I leave the aircraft set until I get my GPS lock.

        RTL is fine to use just be ready to switch to a non GPS mode should your aircraft not be doing what you think it should. This also goes back to point 1 in that you should look to find out what RTL altitude to expect when a RTL event occurs. 

        I guess 7. should be Practice, Practice, Practice. Imagine what failure events are possible and what you would do to recover if needed. 

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