Training tips

[AJan]

Buy an MJX Bugs 3, $75 new in box, a few extra batteries and go out to the field with your hiking shoes on, cause you're gonna be !

No GPS, no altitude hold, no return home, you're on both sticks from the instant it leaves the ground, paint it orange cause that's easy to spot from a distance and hike too.
20 min. flight time, batteries are cheap, props are almost free and come in 6 packs,,,,,
They can crash a lot and keep on flyin'

I've got several small drones, favorite is the HolyStone HS200, it has altitude hold but at any distance you can't tell front from rear, I installed a super bright LED in the nose and that helps a bit at 200ft.
6min flight time per battery, I've got like 16 batteries for that one due to some confusion on Amazon,,,,,,,

Another one that's kind of fun and not too expensive, has a camera, the other two I just mentioned don't, but one that's not too bad at around $100 is the Hubsan 501, has Altitude hold, not too bad of a flyer, 15min flight time on a battery and brushless motors.

All three of these use common and easy to find Lipo's, so you'll also benefit from learning how Lipo's react to different charging scenarios without busting your wallet, you'll learn about cell resistance, balance charging.

Oh and before I forget, if you decide on the HolyStone HS200 never touch the return home button, it won't.
The brilliant engineer made that a dual purpous button, a short q"Quick" press ia return home, a slightly longer press is "Re-calibrate Controller" and when it goes into that mode it's sending all kinds of signals to the bird,,,,,,,,

A good recommendation. I fly both a DJI Phantom 4 and a Yuneec Typhoon H and find both easy to maneuver. But the Estes mini-drone (cheap on Amazon & other sites) requires constant flying on both sticks! As a drone instructor emphasizing video production, my students do not receive their drone orientation certificate until they can fly while smoothly moving the camera and staying focused on a single point of interest while doing a series of fly overs, then circles (in both directions), and lastly, figure 8's (this is the tough one.) A bonus maneuver I've recently added to my drone training is having the student fly vertically keeping the camera focused on a single point of interest, then descend. One final suggestion: fly/practice at least 1-hour weekly. Hope this helps.

 

[rchrdbarnard2]

I like using Yuneec's simulator. Software is free from Yuneec, and you can get the dongle from Amazon for about $50 US. You use your own controler, which helps you get use to it. The software has a couple of challenging senarios(hoover in abox/angle mode no GPS), but the scenery is limited to one. Use your immagination and there are several thins you can practice with.