THE BASICS OF FLYING

YOU’RE THE PILOT OF AN AIRCRAFT NOW

HOVER YOUR DRONE

When your drone is close to the ground, the downdraft from the rotors is reflected up, and makes it hard to keep the UAV steady. Raise it to 1.5m and then practise holding it still. This is known as hovering and you won’t manage it at first.

You may not manage it for a long time, but practise from the start because when you do get it, it is supremely useful. As difficult as hovering is to do, it means your UAV can get steady video shots and is totally under your control.

TAKE SHORT HOPS

You’ll become VERY weary if you spend all your time learning to hover, so make sure you alternate that with learning short hops.

If you’re in a garden, try to fly the UAV to a bench or a particular open patch of ground. You’ll be learning the core controls of turning left and right, moving up and down, forward and back. They’re essentials to learn and practise, and if you do them in short hops, the worst that can happen is that you have to walk over and pick it up.

CRASH

It’s going to happen, so learn how to get it right by letting the drone crash from a small height. You’ve got to learn how to quickly recognise when a crash is going to happen, then switch off the throttle straight away.

The blades will still spin for a while, but they will do less damage to themselves and other people if their power has been cut.

This is so important that lesson seven of learning how to fly a full-size helicopter is about doing exactly this.

ROLL, PITCH, YAW

Flying comes with different axes of movement. If you get your UAV to tilt up and down, that’s its pitch. Slightly turning it toward the left and right is called controlling its yaw. Then, imagine wiggling your quadcopter; that’s its roll.

These movements are significant both for what they are able to do and how you need to control them. Pitch the UAV forward and it will go faster, for instance, because the rotors are pushing it along, but you could also pitch it into the ground if you get it wrong.

BEAT THE WIND

The wind will always win, but you can make it work for that victory by learning how to counteract sudden gusts. Gusts come from one direction at a time, so if you are buffeted from the right, then you should fly to the right; fly into the wind that’s moving the drone.

You’ll know when this is necessary, as you’ll feel your loss of control even quicker than you can see the effect on your quadcopter. Just also be very aware that your best option may be to land the UAV.

KNOW YOUR GEAR

The way you control your UAV is not as black and white as you might imagine. Check whether the drone that you have bought comes with auto-levelling controls. If it does, then as soon as you have tilted the UAV in any direction in order to change course or pick up speed, the drone itself will tilt back and get on the level.

You are able to switch off autolevelling when you want greater precision controls. However, it also handles one of the hardest jobs in flying, so it is advisable to keep it on if possible.