Replies

  • T3
    Richard Boyhan January 11, 2013 at 1:10pm
    I also second Tom's recommendation on using a flight simulator. It saves tons on crashes. The only down side is, its just not same as actually flying and crashing. LOL. As I always say there are only 2 types of pilots, those that have crashed and those yet to crash. Happy flying.
    Richard
  • Tom Rearick January 11, 2013 at 12:40pm

    Two years ago, I had never successfully flown an RC aircraft. Today I am really enjoying my APM1 quad and KK quad. I have re-built a few frames and replaced a lot of propellers (hint: stock up). I've flown my arducopter in nearly all flight modes. I have done this almost entirely on my own and with the help of this amazing forum. So know that you can too.

    Here are a few of my tips to add to Richard's suggestions:

    Arducopters fly themselves and hexes are very stable. But at some point you should learn to fly a quad yourself - if only to be competent enough to maybe save your expensive hex some day when everything else goes to shit. However arducopters are expensive to learn in acro mode if they crash often so build a cheap multiwii or KK copter and learn to fly that in acro mode.

    If you have never flown RC aircraft, get a simulator. AeroSim RC is inexpensive, the graphics are 10 years behind but the physics are pretty good. You will use your transmitter as the game console. The simulator will more than pay for itself in the cost of repairs and time spent re-building. My 17 year old son was blown away that his old man got as competent as he did on a simulator.

    My biggest mistake is being impatient with my own progress. Take your time, progress slowly, and you will crash less often. Don't fly above 8 feet for the first week or two. You will actually progress faster in your skills if you are not always waiting for parts to arrive in the mail to rebuild crashed quads.

  • T3
    Richard Boyhan January 11, 2013 at 8:42am
    Follow the online instruction and complete installation of legs, don't add the props yet. Follow the online instruction on configuring APM and ESC. Follow the instruction on attaching you props and getting the correct rotation. You will need a battery, RC receiver and transmitter. Once ready to fly, go to nice open field with no people around. I like grass fields better the parking lots, since the grass and dirt is more forgiving. Make sure the grass is short, tall grass will trip up your quad. When you first take off keep your flight really low to start with, maybe a foot or 2. Just so you get a feel of the controls and the direction on how the controls work. Do this a few times then take it up to about 6 or 10 feet and try and hold altitude. I recommend fly in stabilize mode. I also like simple mode since then i don't have to worry which way is forward or backwards. In simple mode all away flying is away and all flying to me is to me, regardless of the direction of the quad. Just don't fly over yourself, if you do then everything is backwards. Super simple mode fixes this issue, but there are some downsides to super simple mode. After a few flights try using ALT HOLD flight mode. ALT HOLD takes the trouble of ha ing to work the throttle all the time, just to hold altitude.
This reply was deleted.