I did something....

[ARD]

@Jim No photo of you with your goggles? Come On! Share! That is pretty awesome. Can't wait to see your next flight.

 

[Jim]

@Jim No photo of you with your goggles? Come On! Share! That is pretty awesome. Can't wait to see your next flight.

Well, OK, lol. Did the best I could to grab this out of the original video..

 

[ARD]

Well, OK, lol. Did the best I could to grab this out of the original video..

Excellent! Great grab!

 

[Jim]

Clearly I dressed for the occasion. . .

 

[Neal]

About an hour ago I took the new drone out for a spin. There isn’t anywhere here on the property that is really wide open, but there is a fairly open area across from my cabin rental. So that’s where we went.

I used the motion controller for the first time. The motion controller allows you to fly the drone by leaning the controller left/right/up or down. There are some other buttons that allow you to do other things like operate the gimble and bring the drone home.

I didn’t go very high, very far, or very fast, but given the obstacles I had to contend with, and the fact that the drone made it out alive, I consider this a good first flight. No video from the drone (long story, lol) but I had trish on the handheld camera for backup.

So here is a one minute video of my drone dodging trees.

Very cool and brave @Jim. Looks like when you get proficient you have a nice FPV course to run down those trails and maybe through some of the tree areas. Take it slow is key. Nice work!

 

[Jim]

Flew around the same area again today. Getting more comfortable but the whole FPV deal has a bit of a learning curve.

I used the normal controller this time and have to say, I like it a whole lot better than the motion controller. Probably because it's what I've used for the last couple of years. But to be honest, I think the money would have been better spent on another battery than on the motion controller. Really doesn't take long to burn through a battery.

Found myself having to kneel down as I was getting a bit dizzy. You know your standing on the ground, but your brain is telling your equilibrium that your floating around the top of a tree and that the ground is 50 feet below. lol, it's a mess. I think I'll start including a folding chair with my equipment.

 

[Neal]

When I first saw someone fly a FPV drone he was sitting in a lawn chair. Now I know why. Haven't flown mine yet, have more training to do tomorrow as today I flew the real FPV thing...

 

[Jim]

Haven't flown mine yet, have more training to do tomorrow as today I flew the real FPV thing...

Yeah, we all envy you. Well, I sure do anyway.

 

[Neal]

@Jim just did another sim session, crashed a few times, gonna need to get this up/down figured out on the left as flying real things confuses me as that's the right stick forward/aft. Never really had an issue with this on the Mavic. But something I learned, the freezing in the sim is only the goggles. If you remove those and just look at your phone or iPad you can continue to fly, the phone itself (the app) is not freezing. I've been using my phone and now that I see that the app is working fine I'll try it next time on the iPad. That will give a bigger screen to fly off of. And yes, the goggles were giving me a little of the wobblies so a chair is probably a great idea.

 

[Jim]

@Jim just did another sim session, crashed a few times, gonna need to get this up/down figured out on the left as flying real things confuses me as that's the right stick forward/aft. Never really had an issue with this on the Mavic.

All the drones I've ever flown use the left stick for up/down. The right is forward/backward. But you can go into the goggles, under settings, and then under controller, and adjust what the sticks do. You may find the solution there. I didn't change mine, because they work the way I expected. (I've never flown a real airplane, lol.)

Toss the simulator and just go outside and fly. The simulator only makes you feel like flying this thing is harder than it is. Start without the goggles and fly it like any other drone. You only need the goggles when the drone gets too far away to see.

I've leaned more in my 2 short flights around the field than anything the simulator taught me.

Edit: I will say that the goggles are part of the challenge. Learning to remember what's coming up, and keeping it in the back of your mind, can be a bit challenging. And then perspective is also a challenge. But so far so good! I'm flying around a very busy/congested area and I've managed to keep my drone out of the trees.

 

[Neal]

Seems like the best video is by using a GoPro. I have 3 of those for the plane so I'll take the GoPro Hero 10 with me which I planned to do anyways as it can go on the bike, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091KJ7QG4/?tag=rvf01-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QD75B95/?tag=rvf01-20

GoPro Hero 10 takes amazing videos. Love using it for my plane to capture the flying.

 

[Neal]

Weather has cleared. Props on. Hope to fly this evening if not sooner.

Let me know when you get yours up to 86 mph

 

[Jim]

Weather has cleared. Props on. Hope to fly this evening if not sooner.

Let me know when you get yours up to 86 mph

lol, that will be a while. Focusing on staying out of the trees for the time being.

 

[Neal]

First flight complete, wasn't hard. Flies like any drone. While I did takeoff with goggles on I did not land with goggles on. When in view you can fly like any drone you may have used in the past. Flies the same. My drone pilot muscle memory instantly returned and flying was not an issue. Under goggles was nice, but range is quite limited, it's not like your typical Mavic / Phantom etc. As @Jim mentioned battery life is limited, I'd say about 10 minutes. I think this drone is a different use case than typical "photographic" experiences, this is more for thrill and some racing and more control over the drone when proficient. My drone is displaying an error about the Country Code not set and it seems from a google search some have this problem. I downloaded DJI Assistant 2 and refreshed the firmware. I'll see if this worked on the next flight.

 

[Jim]

My drone is displaying an error about the Country Code not set and it seems from a google search some have this problem. I downloaded DJI Assistant 2 and refreshed the firmware. I'll see if this worked on the next flight.

Yep, mine does the same thing. Haven't worried too much about it.

OK, not 86mph. Probably more like 15mph, lol, but it was a successful flight. I cut it down to about 45 seconds to upload to Youtube.

 

[Neal]

Looks great. I'm going to fly again this evening. From what I read if you keep your iPhone connected while flying with the DJI Fly app open it will eventually get it's position update and that message will go away. I'm not sure what limits that message is putting on the system. Also, if you have your phone connected and DJI Fly app open Trish can see what you're seeing in the goggles if she wants.

 

[Neal]

Didn't work. Still have the red banner message. Oh well.

 

[osuallen]

 

[Jim]

lol.

 

[Jim]

Received the second round of stuff.

• Hard carry case.
• Fly more kit (i.e. 2 extra batteries).
• Several packages of propellers. Given the number of trees I have to fly around, I figured it's more of a necessity than an option.
• Another 256GB storage card. I have 2 now, one for the drone and one for the goggles.
• Set of drone arm bracers. Probably something I won't use as they would have to be removed every time I fly. I didn't realize this when I made the purchase.