6 Common Mistakes New Drone Pilots Make + Bonus Money Saving Tip!

"I always carry a screwdriver, a spare prop blades, Battery, Charger, SDcard" My pre-flight check: A. on the ground: Props (Blades and Screws) / Battery (Voltage, Capacity, Temp) / Weather App. (UAV forecast, Google Maps) / SDcard B. in flight (hovering): Establish a good RTH point and GPS lock / Drone (Vibration and Sound) -check for abnormalities / Determining the RTH altitude by climbing slowly and doing a full 360 to set a proper RTH altitude. My post-flight check: Props (blade and screws) / Batt (temp and Capacity / Remove SDcard

One of the rules I made for myself when preparing to land my drone is to be certain it's facing away from me so I can land it intuitively rather than having to remember that the left and right controls are reversed. Fortunately I only had to replace one propeller before I made that rule.

1 - Flying indoor on the first day? Done it and crashed it. 2 - Flying over water? Done it and crashed twice (First time half submerged second time all submerged for around 10 minutes. Still working, thank god) 3 - Trusting intelligent flight? Done it. First time I made a auto fly up and away crashed into a tree... survived. 4 - Power lines? Haven't done this one... yet. 5 - Check list. Working on one. 6 - Flying in VLOS. I try to folow it. Watching your video just made me think that I should have seen it long ago, when I bought my c-fly faith 2. Keep up the good work. Love your videos.

Good one Russ. I’ve found that seagulls hate drones and will attack

1. Yep 2. Yep 3. No 4. No 5. Yep 6. Yep Another mistake I still make is forgetting to turn on "Record" when flying. One more is forgetting to check to see if my SD card is inserted (not preflight checking) I am getting better, tho' Great video! Thank you. 🙏

When I got my first drone, I was so excited, that's why I flew indoors.

New flyer here and really appreciate this information!! Have followed you since receiving my Mini 3 Pro. Thanks much!

You’re My #1 source of Drone Flying Common Sense! THANK YOU! As a retired C-5 Flight Engineer who can’t fly anything anymore, this is my new revelation return! I miss the flying that much! I now have more than a few friends who are interested in flying too, and you’re my referral for everything from pre-purchase to after. What to learn FIRST which ultimately helps determine the drone they buy. THANK YOU!

As always, excellent tips! One of the most important skills I learned from pilot training is developing a logical sense of self awareness over my thought processes. If I ever think, don’t worry I’ve got this, or watch this, those are usually famous last words 😅😁❤

Couple additional mistakes. 1. Never fly with a low battery. I just went for a quick photo on a low battery and the auto lane feature set it down in a tree. 2. Buying the right drone for your use. I like to take still shots, not video, and for me there isn’t much out there with full control of the camera unless you step up to the big drones that hold dslr’s. I know someone that bought a DJI drone but was really more into racing. Do the research and pick the correct drone for your needs.

I feel like I've made most of these mistakes (and a few more) in less than 3 months of flying. It's taken me five attempts to get a video of me cross country skiing at my favourite resort because 1) didn't check if I had enough battery, and didn't check whether the winds aloft at RTH height were too high, 2) gust of wind crashed my drone into a tree while trying to set it up, 3) forgot to start the video, 4) started the video, but then the big video button on the top of the RC controller got pressed while tucking the controller into my jersey. On the fifth try, I finally got everything except I had the drone too high and it tapped a skinny little branch and crashed.

I've always done the bonus tip. Same for recording other videos from my phones. I do have a pre-flight checklist....kinda. It's not on paper or my phone. I'll say that I've missed a couple things here and there, really just camera settings, but I see it immediately. The one that almost ended in disaster was power lines. I was flying over a lake, ok a really wide river, at an altitude of 200 feet or maybe even higher. I could see these power lines over the river. I though I had flown just before them, but when I looked at the footage, I had actually flown over them at maybe 5 feet above them. It was definitely a close call.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents in support of being very careful flying under reflective surfaces. In my case it wasn't over water but on a sunny day over a field of new snow. Keep your drone above 30 feet and you should be fine. I also suggest not tilting the camera downward for a 90 degree look at the snow. The sensors need to see contrasty surfaces.

Great tips, Russ. I have been flying drones for 13 months and my cautious nature has kept me out of trouble. I am sharing this video with a friend of mine who just purchased a Mini 3 Pro. Cheers from Wisconsin where the weather is not much better than your own.

Well done Russ!; great tutorial on what to be aware of!; I would add 1 x extra; practice the orientation / reverse sticks movement when the the Drone is facing you; left is right, right is left!!!; a lot of Pilots over input on the sticks when they realise the Drone is going in the opposite direction and Bam! into the tree, building etc !!!

#1 is not a issue at all if the beginner buys a drone with optical flow and obstacle avoidance. Both features are quite common now, but were not common at all when you began.

Wouldn't it be great if the Dji app or 3rd party app can mark power wires in red color to see on the display and avoid-

This happened to me in Mount Holyoke, and for some reason I was just flying in the screen went sideways as the drone sunk, I went back and tried to get it a few times but I had no luck at I’m picking at the bottom blindly. I’ve even thought about buying a submarine drone but it was the first Mavic mini, so may it rest in peace

the only drawback about the dji mini 3 pro is you cant keep it in line of sight its that small, i cant see my drone when it passes 80 yards.

With reference to the pre-flight checklist, I'll give you another reason. On my previous outdoor flight, I had the RTH altitude set at 100' to avoid the trees in the area. The next weekend, I had family over. It was raining, but they wanted to see the drone. I suspect you know where this is going. I was flying inside, distracted by all the stuff going on around me. Instead of manually piloting the drone to a safe location and landing, I selected RTH. It immediately flew straight up into the ceiling of my living room. No serious damage done, but had I gone through the settings ahead of time, I would have caught that.