Learn to FLY a Drone – Beginners Level on How to Fly Drone

It is best to have your own quadcopter model so you that take some time getting to know various things that are to be set in play.

You are going to have the following requirement for the sake of this: Quadcopter model, A wide area or space to practice on, Excess Practice, Patience

It is supposed you have made plans regarding when and where you’re going to have your first drone lesson.

Ensure the space you’ll use is safe for you to fly the quadcopter. Places with high traffic or other people around may not be the best option, especially for beginners who want to get into the basic maneuvering.

Another thing you should consider is checking if space is allowed to be used for flying drones.

There are many new laws already in place to make sure that nobody is endangered by this activity, so make sure to check carefully out what is and what isn’t possible in your environment.

Having a Free time is important to develop any skill. Flying drones are no exception.

A lot of free time is required to ensure you are handling of the quadcopter becomes fluid. Small steps are the key here.

If for example, you want to get better at landing, you’d be advised to spend a few sessions only on that.

Patience remains the way to real success. If you get frustrated in the beginning because the quadcopter didn’t go the way you expected, do not let impatient get Over you.

The first thing to encounter with multirotors is the transmitter. Having a knowledge what the different buttons and sticks represent is the key to knowing how to fly a drone.

We will concentrate in this section on the functions of the left and right stick.

Depending on the model you’re using, quadcopter transmitters can have many buttons for various functions.

More professional models can be rather overwhelming at first, but in time, you will get a feeling on how to embrace all of the options you’ve been given with your particular model.

The common thing for every drone model we’re going to talk about here is the left and right sticks.

These sticks control almost 90% of the basic maneuvers you can do with your quadcopter, so it would be wise to read carefully what their functions are and how to get the most out of these basic functions.

LEFT STICK (yaw/throttle)

The left stick controls two aspects of flying a quadcopter: the yaw and the throttle. Getting familiar with the terminology used here is imperative.

RIGHT STICK (roll/pitch)

The right stick controls the movement of the quadcopter on the x-axis, that is to say, it controls the roll and the pitch.

ROLL

The Roll is the moving of the quadcopter to the sides. If you move the right stick to the left or to the right, the drone will respectively “roll” in that particular direction. This movement doesn’t change the quadcopters altitude (the position on the y-axis) but only the position on the x-axis.

PITCH

The Pitch is the moving of the quadcopter forward and back. If you push the right stick up or down, the quadcopter will respond by moving forward and back. To make sense of the right sticks movements, you have to know the orientation of the drone, that is to say, knowing what the front and back of the model is.

Now that we’ve seen what the basic commands for flying a drone, let’s take a look at how to actually use this knowledge in order to fly it.

In this step-by-step guide I will assume that you’ve made yourself familiar with the particular model you have at your disposal.

Furthermore, I will not get into the location you picked for your first flying test, as I think we’ve made it clear what to consider when choosing that.

• Read the instructions first

The first thing you should do is carefully read the instructions provided with your drone.

The manufacturer is responsible for providing you with all the aspects you need to know regarding the features. Don’t take this part too lightly, as it may come in handy if any problems occur.

•  Charge your quadcopter battery

•  Quadcopter Positioning

You have to ensure that the space you’re using is clear from any danger, as we have stated before.

Furthermore, be sure that the quadcopter is positioned according to the manual.

You have to know where the front and the back of the model are. Position yourself behind the drone before taking off.

• Push the quadcopter throttle down

Remember the throttle command on the left stick? Yeah, that one. Before you switch on your transmitter, push the throttle way down. Only then turn the transmitter on. After that, connect the quadcopters battery.

This sequence is very important. When you are finished with your flying session, first, disconnect your drone battery, and then turn off the transmitter. Basically, the same thing in reverse order. Remember it.

How to FLY a Drone – Beginners Level on How to Fly Drone

• Take off and land

The first flight maneuvering you’re going to do is taking off and landing. When you did all the previous steps, you may slowly push the throttle (left stick) upwards.

The quadcopter will start to take off of the ground. If the quadcopter starts leaning forward or backward, compensate this by using the pitch command (right stick up and down).

The same goes for the roll control (right stick left and right). If you see that the drone is leaning to either side, compensate and hold it in balance for now

After taking off, keep the drone in balance and try to land it as smooth as possible. This is done by pushing the throttle command (left stick) down. Attempt to land it on the same spot from where you’ve taken off.

• Take off and hold quadcopter position

The next thing you’re going to do is taking off with your quadcopter and holding it in position a few feet above the landing spot. It is imperative to remember that this step requires concentration in holding the position.

Keep the drone steady and hold it as still as possible over the spot you took off of. This may seem tedious at first, but learning this technique will get you a long way in getting a hang on how to start and finish your flying session. Furthermore, it will make you a safe “pilot” and will ensure a long lifespan for your device.

Without learning how to execute these basic maneuvers of taking off, landing and balancing, you’ll have a hard time later when we get to the more complicated stuff. So practice this for a while first.

• Rotate the quadcopter

One of the most important things with quadcopters is learning how to execute the rotating commands adequately.

Remember, the yaw control (left and right stick) controls the rotating of your multirotor drone.

If you followed all the instructions above, you would be standing behind the quadcopter for the most of the time you learned how to take off.

Now, we’re going a bit more complex with our lessons. You have to take off and rotate your drone in regards to where you’re standing.

Now, this might sound easy enough, but as soon as you try it you will see the problem here.

You see, the quadcopter, when rotating it, will change the position in the frame of reference towards where you’re standing.

If you’re just rotating it, the drone will not amend its position, but it will leave you wondering where its back and front are if you don’t pay attention.

• Generate a mental image

Even professionals don’t always have it easy in determining how the quadcopter is oriented in reference to them. But, they still have a slight advantage over the rest of us who might just begin to learn how to fly a drone. They have experience.

But, how do they do that? Simple, they create a mental image of themselves being in the drone. This way, they stay on course, regardless of how many times the quadcopter may turn and spin.

Of course, you won’t be able to do this instantaneously on your first try. Maybe not even on your tenth one either.

But, the more comfortable you get with the controls, the more you will get a feeling on how the drone behaves. This brings us to…

• Having Knownlege of quadcopter controls

Here, you will have to know the concepts of quadcopter controls. If you’ve ever played a video game in the past 25 years, you might be familiar with the concepts of gamepads.

When we’re playing an action game, we often forget that we’re holding a gaming pad in our hands, but we still manage to control the character on our screen without the need for looking down on it every two seconds.

It is also applicable here. It is necessary to transmitter as soon as possible, and then totally forget about it.

If we do that, we’ll have more time to concentrate on the mental image we talked earlier.

You’ll have a clearer understanding of how the drone behaves, once the controls on the transmitter become as plausible to you as controlling the movement of your limbs.

• Join quadcopter controls

Now that I’ve pushed you in the right direction regarding the things you have to learn in order to become a competent pilot, it is time to combine these lessons into one coherent session.

After taking off, try moving the quadcopter forward and backward (until now, we’ve only used these commands to stay in balance).

Don’t use the yaw control for now, just fly forward and backward a few times, to get a feeling of how fast your drone is.

Now, do the same thing with the roll control. Fly your drone to the sides left and right  while keeping the same altitude and orientation.

Good! Now, these are the first two commands we want to combine. Try moving your drone forward and to the left to see if you’re going to get a parallel flying path.

Repeat this for all the directions and combination on your right stick.

OK. It’s time for the tricky part. You have to rotate your drone a tiny bit with the left stick and leave it like that.

Now, by only using the right stick, try to control the drone forward and backwards, while you remain in the same position.

In the beginning it will feel a bit weird, but eventually, you’ll get used to it. Repeat this a few times, and then rotate the drone a tiny bit more.

Do the same until you arrive at 180 degrees. The drone is now turned in the opposite direction than in the beginning.

Practice this and get a feeling on how to position the drone to your liking.

•  Keep the drone close

One of the greatest mistakes that happen, not only to beginners but professionals too, is not getting their close enough to yourself.

Of course, we all want to fly our drones through the air and not be bound by borders.

That’s why we bought the thing in the first place. However, we need to know what our drone limits are.

The first thing we have to know before flying off into the sky is the range of our transmitter.

Here comes the manufacturer’s manual into play. We have to look up the recommended range and the maximum limits for the specific model we’re flying.

Newer models have an integrated landing mechanism that lands the drone safely as soon as it gets out of range.

However, the machine cannot control the drone from being damaged due to landing on an inappropriate landing site.

The other important aspect regarding range is our capability of having an overview of our flying.

The drone can stay in the range of our transmitter, but this means nothing if we can’t make out the drone’s orientation in reference to ourselves.

My first encounter with this problem happened as I first tried flying my new drone in the woods.

The weather was perfect, the range of the transmitter was OK, but after only a few minutes, I couldn’t make out how the drone was positioned above me.

My view was blocked and I just couldn’t position myself. Needless to say, I had to do a couple more practice rounds in an open field, before I was ready to go to the more difficult terrains.

• Always Maintain your quadcopter

A thing many of us forget, so remember to take good care of your drone! We often forget how sensitive this technology still is, so be sure to clean it after every use and take good care of your device as well as the transmitter.

Its now time to exercise your skills. Take off and climb a couple of meters, hovering, then fly from one point to another and land the drone get easy as you practice.