The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Drones
Drones, most commonly called quadcopters or quadrones, are a unique and fun way of recording video that can be used for many different occassions. They can be used for anything from a concert or festival to getting arial shots of real estate to put on the market. Best of all, because the cost of drones have lowered in price and become easier to manage over the past few years, they are not exclusively for professionals anymore!
Take paddleboarding to the next level and record the whole adventure Link to drone section
Why Buy a Drone?
Drones Have Many Uses:
Drones are a multifaceted tool that can be used for a variety of things, both professionally and socially. They can be used for: real estate mapping, parades and concerts, sports like snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, and so much more.
Drones are Affordable:
Drones are also a more affordable option to the mini airplanes and helicopters that preceded it. These other technologies were not built for hard landings or general rough adn tumble and often break, with repalcement parts and the cost of repair being very expensive. Because of a drones extremely simple and light engineering, there are very few parts that can break, and if any do, the costs are usually a fraction of the cost of fixing an airplane or helicopter.
Vocabulary and Basic Controls
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how to fly a quadcopter, the first thing to learn are the terms. Below is a quick list of terms and definitions usually used with flying a quadcoptor:
- Throttle: controls up and down
- Yaw/Rudder: rotates left or right
- Pitch/Elevator: titls backwards or forwards
- GPS Hold: (a feature on some of the pro controllers)
- Roll/Aileron: moves side to side
- Bank Turn:
- Hovering: maintaining specific corrdinates without dropping or turning
- Trim:
For a more visual reference, take a look at the below image of a basic quadcoptor controller:
How to Control and Fly a Quadcoptor
*Note: when the quadcoptor is facing you, all of the controls are opposite.
How to get the quadcoptor off the ground safely:
Before trying to elevate the quadcoptor high in the air, start by trying to hover it just a few inches off the ground. This way if the quadcoptor gets out of control, it is easy to land without crashing. You can elevate the quadcoptor by using the left-hand toggle. These toggles tend to be sensative so when increasing the throttle, do so slowly. Once it is a few inches off of the ground, start familiarizing yourself with the controls.
How to move backwards, forwards, left, and right:
To control the pitch of the quadcoptor, push the right-hand toggle forward to make it push forwards and backward to go in reverse while keeping the quadcoptor elevated with the right toggle. Use the same right-hand toggle to move the quadcoptor left and right by moving the toffle in the correlating direction.
How to rotate the quadcoptor:
To control the yaw of the quadcoptor, first you must understand how the propellors work. To keep it stabilized in one direction, two of its four rotors (diagonal from eachother) are spinning clockwise while the other two are spinning counterclockwise. So for example, if the quadcoptor needs to face you in the air rather than away from you, two of its rotors will spin faster in one direction than the others.
The yaw controll is generally on the left-hand side of the controller and may be found as a slider either below the toggleor ont he bottom of the controller.
How to land safely:
Manuver the quadcoptor to a flat and open space and slowly bring the throttle toggle down until both legs are on the ground.
How to do a barrel roll:
Uhmmm...best to leave this to the pros for now :)