Flying tips for the beginner

CrashRecovery

I'm a care bear...Really?
Mentor
Ok, you old salty dogs this is where you get to offer suggestions on how to fly these things. This is after the programming of the flight boards.
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
I like to practice my hover at or below eye level.


DO NOT do this close to your face! Just the fact that you're beginning will lend itself to crash induced damage. You might not know you've weakened a prop, but it could let go just as you're admiring your new skills flying at eye level a few feet from your head. One of those props lets go and smacks into you, or the aircraft flips over into your head/body, you won't be happy.


Then the transition into forward flight and back to hover. I find it's easier when starting to just go away from yourself, then back up towards yourself.

When you're more comfortable with that, bring it to a hover, turn it 90 degrees, and then go perpendicular to yourself. Turn 180 degrees, and bring it back in front of you. As you get more comfortable with that, then go straight out, turn 180, come back, turn 180 again, and land.

One of the more difficult things is maintaining the same altitude throughout a circuit. You'll be constantly on the throttle.

Then keeping it level.

Then I'd do all of this higher. Unlike an airplane, being two mistakes high can actually be worse.

Once you're comfortable with that, I'd work on fast transitions from forward flight to hover. Then putting yourself in awkward flight conditions, and recovering.

Then if you're feeling stunty.... get some altitude, and do what you want to do.
 

CrashRecovery

I'm a care bear...Really?
Mentor
See that's what I'm looking for. Does the auto level on the kk2 help with the forward motion or do I need to still work on the throttle management
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
Autolevel, set up correctly, will do only that, keep it level. It will help A LOT!!! You can still fly the aircraft but at the stock settings I had, it felt like you had to "push" it out of level some. Once I got used to the extra resistance, I was flying much more comfortably.

That being said, removing it from autolevel mode, you will likely over compensate, and flip. So be very careful.

Back to autolevel, while it will keep it mostly level, you'll find it has some drift. Some of it will be because you didn't have it perfectly level when you set it up, or just because it's not perfect and it will allow some slight shift. Also, wind will push it around.


All the while, it will not hold altitude for you. This will be something fun to practice. I take a bit of pleasure in trying to maintain a steady height.
 

Cyberdactyl

Misfit Multirotor Monkey
The other huge advantage is flying at night. I have had my quad three or four hundred feet when all the LEDs are merged into a single multicolored speck, no chance of flying anything other than a general direction.
 

IBeHoey

The Warranty Voider
Apart from doing it in real life, using a simulator is another great tool to use as well. The level I fly at today, which is fairly competent I'd say, is greatly due to the several hours of time I've put in on a sim. Using the Phoenix RC sim, I started off on the T-rex 450. It was nearly impossible to fly at first, and quite the challenge, but eventually I learned to hover from all orientations. By this time, I had built my first multirotor, and wow, even with no auto-level (old KKboard), it was really easy to fly in contrast to the 450 on the sim. The only trouble I had with transitioning from the sim was re-learning the visual orientation of seeing the aircraft in real life. I'm approaching the 1 year anniversary of flying/building multirotors (had previous experience with glow planes) and I know for a fact, if not for the sim, I wouldn't have progressed nearly as much as I have. :D


The other huge advantage is flying at night. I have had my quad three or four hundred feet when all the LEDs are merged into a single multicolored speck, no chance of flying anything other than a general direction.

I LOVE night flying my multirotors, they just look so cool, glowing, up in the air. Do you have any pics of your glowing quad?

Here's a pic of my old quad and t-copter. The t-copter wasn't very bright, so I couldn't take it too high up, but that quad was awesome. As yourself, I could take it up until it was a spec in the nights sky.
Glow!.jpg Glow2.jpg
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
aiidenwings is right. Rudder will be the big difference. I've tried flying "yank and bank", it doesn't work.
 
My advice, being a noob myself, three words come to mind. Practice practice practice, get yourself several spare props and lots of glue, for the inevitable repairs and get out and fly. Trust me your gonna wreck and you may even think you cant do this but its all worth it. As to using the SL on the KK2 I myself use it alot but dont rely on it, I set it up on my gear swith and therefore can turn it on and off during flight, if I get into truoble feeling cocky them I can kick it on and hopefully bail myself out before the ground catches up. I have flown fixed wing for years and never really used much rudder, more bank and yank, and never did much with throttle adjustment just set a speed and left it but this is a whole new ballgame and I have to break some old bad habits but I am getting there so will you just stay with it. Well thast my 2 cents worth.