Drones - How Difficult to Learn to Fly?

[Chuck Spaulding]

That's an important point, its not enough to be able to do aerial cinematography, you have to be able to do it well and efficiently.

But if you can use the 4K footage from the P3Pro, they are very easy to take out of the case, and be in the air in less than ten minutes. Again, it really depends on what kind of aerial you need.

Its very difficult to be profitable with the larger drones required to carry a GH4 or bigger. Takes much more expensive equipment, longer to setup and the people who use those tend to expect more complicated shots which are not easy to replicate from take to take.

That's the challenge of taking hobby grade drones and trying to apply them professionally. Things are getting better and I think you'll start seeing aerial platforms that can carry larger sensors and camera's with more accurate control and much easier to deploy in the coming year.

[Wendell Adkins]

Lots of good advice and Chuck is always spot on. As a veteran of drone filming, I wondered what else of value I might add and only had a couple of other views.

Flying anything is pretty unforgiving of even the smallest mistakes but mistakes are usually the best teachers (if you survive it). At first it's really easy to make simple mistakes at all phases of the process, not just the flying part. It can be as simple as not recognizing something is acting abnormal due to having no experience or frame of reference to compare to. Like when is it really too windy to give it a go? Also, some people have a systematic, double-checking mindset and others don't. The latter usually have more problems with mistakes/crashing.

I joke that given a P3 and 5 minutes I could teach a monkey to do drone aerial filming. All the technology seems to be headed in that direction. Even with all the idiot proofing, there are still countless ways to do this badly. On almost a weekly basis I get asked to pull off really technical shots that only years of experience allow me to do safely. The difference is, through experience I know what the equipment (and I) can do in a specific setting. A novice doesn't have this benefit and can get over their head before they realize it with no bail out plan.

Most people find it fun to fly drones and when something is fun it is usually easier to learn. I taught my wife to fly and she really enjoys it. Getting some basic instruction is perhaps the best advice given here.

[Jim Martin]

I've posted this before....you can get this mini quadcopter and practice:
Amazon.com: Hubsan X4 H107L 2.4GHz 4CH RC Quadcopter with LED Lights RTF, Black/White: Toys & Games
It behaves like the big ones, lets you practice your orientation, and it does not cost a bunch of money..

Jim Martin
EVSonline.com

[Chris Barcellos]

Then there are those of us who just never will be able to manually fly these things. I have built 5 to 6 of these things in the last year or so, and disaster always stuck when the automatic flight controls did not deploy properly. I've bult small x's setups, and H setups, and hex copters. They all have certain advantages, but they all require experienced flyers.

I was never good at video games where you have to react calmly to the situations faced. When quick action is required, I tend to lose perspective quickly, and panic. I suppose a lot of practice would help, but the gear never seemed to last long enough for me to get the practice I needed. Frustrated, I finally realized that I should leave it to others, and draft one of the many flyers out there now if I need that kind of footage. .

[Gabe Strong]

I have a Solo 3DR and it is the first time I have ever flown anything.
Like others have said....start out VERY simple and don't take on
too much at once. First, I just practiced takeoff and landing.
With the Solo, it's easy, you just press a button to take off
and it hovers in one place, about 15 feet in the air. I practiced
manually landing without using the return to home button.
Don't get impatient and try to do too much. Nice open
places, fly at fairly slow speeds, stay away from objects.
Next, I got down to 4 or 5 feet off the ground and flew over
the ground in one direction. You can start adding gradual climbs
and turns, but don't get into anything that requires major 'stick skills'
right away. Be patient and learn the basics, don't get overconfident
by how easy it seems. Be overly safety conscious, The reckless
guys make the news, and I have received several compliments from
bystanders about how careful I was. People WILL want to watch and talk to you,
these quads are all the rage right now, so be a good ambassador for all
of us and show everyone that it is possible to be a responsible operator.

[Mike Watson]

Originally Posted by Gabe Strong

People WILL want to watch and talk to you, these quads are all the rage right now, so be a good ambassador for all of us and show everyone that it is possible to be a responsible operator.

This. A thousand times this.

The word on the street about drones is that ISIS wants to bomb Iowa with them and that they are also useful for pedophiles to peek in your windows with. You, the quad operator, are a one-man PR campaign for drones. Be the good PR campaign, not the reckless PR campaign.