Where to fly fpv
How to Fly an FPV Quad - First Flight Tutorial and Beginner's Guide
how's it going everybody ed Ricker here
I'm with my buddy Seth and we're gonna
teach you how to get off the ground for
the first time with your fpv quad we're
at this wide-open field at Dorothea Dix
Park away from trees power lines other
people we're trying to make this as safe
and effective as possible Seth so what
where we at with our quad right now so
to get to this point we've programmed
everything a bit of flight we've tested
our video signal make sure that works
we've tested it on the bench make sure
our motor spin up we've tested our
failsafe on the bench to make sure the
quad does stop and we lose signal before
you jump into this you might want to
check out a simulator spend a couple
hours flying around even after you watch
this video go back in the simulator and
try all the stuff you learn today so
today we're gonna be flying in mode 2
which means your throttles gonna be on
your left stick up and down your y'all's
gonna be on your left stick left and
right on the right stick we're gonna
have pitch forward and back and we're
gonna have roll left and right MOTU is
going to be the most standard way you're
gonna get a controller so there's really
no need to worry about mode one we're
gonna focus on mode 2 for right now now
for this quad that I'm using I have two
cameras one is a GoPro for HD quality
footage that I can post on YouTube but
here is the camera that we're going to
be actually looking through for our fpv
feed and we're going to be adjusting its
pitch to change the way that it flies or
rather how the pilot flies the quad as
we fly and we try to maintain a level
horizon while we fly to maintain
orientation this camera angle pitch will
determine how we fly the quad so a
higher-pitched fpv camera will cause us
to tilt our drone forward more and
increase speed whereas a lower camera
pitch will see the horizon when the quad
is not quite pitched so much forward and
we won't be moving around at breakneck
speed so keep that in mind
alright so Seth is going to show us how
to do a line of sight hover as our first
maiden flight with this but what we're
going to do is use a crow mode to do
that a crow mode is a unstabilized mode
for flying these quads
you also have modes like angle mode
which allows the accelerometer in your
quad to maintain a bit of
stabilization and it won't allow you to
maybe do flips or rolls or you know
nosedive in the ground to a certain
degree but we're gonna be using a crow
mode which is a completely manual mode
and it's really the mode that we suggest
you start out with and practice with now
if you're scared of putting in accra
mode you're scared you might not have
full control over it's okay it is kind
of scary at first but trust me if you
start an acro remote
let's going to teach you really good
habits and you're gonna be a lot better
off in the long run today we're gonna be
using a free well gear landing pad
takeoff pad basically what this does it
gives us a nice flat surface to take off
from a lot of times when you're out in
the field you might have Hills you might
have tall grass that can get your
propellers it's always good to have a
nice flat surface to take off from okay
so now that we have our quad on the
ground the most important thing to do is
always have your kill switch or arm
switch I have mine set on the very back
switch I'll have to do is flip it down
the arm it flip it up the disarm it this
is very important because you don't want
to get out of control and not know how
to shut your quad down and up hurting
somebody you're losing your quad alright
so we've got our quad on the ground
facing away from us you don't want to
put your quad down facing towards you
because if you take off it's going to
come right towards you and that's gonna
be a bad day for everybody so quad
always faces away from you in take off
nobody's around it we're gonna flip our
arm switch on the back the motors will
start spinning you're gonna give it a
little bit of throttle you're gonna get
the motors get layout it's okay you're
gonna get a little more throttle
so you're just barely off the ground and
I want you to cut it and your quads
should fall down to the ground that's
okay because it's on grass it's not
gonna get hurt and we're gonna do that
step one more time we're gonna arm it
again and we're gonna kill it one more
time just to make sure you guys
understand how to kill your quad in case
you're getting any types of sticky
situations we're gonna arm it raise the
throttle you're gonna get the motors get
louder and you're gonna get a little bit
of power off the ground and cut it and
that's it now that we've learned how to
arm our quad and disarm in case anything
goes wrong we're gonna arm our quad and
try to hover now one of the main things
you got to remember is you do not want
to make drastic movements with your
stick while you're trying to hover if
you go full right
roll or fool left roll or any of these
directions full all the way to the
corner to the sides you're gonna spiral
out of control or flip really quick and
you're gonna crash so we're gonna take a
nice and easy we're gonna arm our quad
with our switch we're gonna give a
little bit of throttle and once we hover
we're gonna make really small movements
now at any point you get uncomfortable
or you lose control there's always a
kill switch so here we go armed it a
little bit of throttle a little bit more
we're off the ground and now my throttle
is staying the same and I'm making very
small micro Corrections with my right
stick this text a little bit practice so
if you get if you start going too much
one way other just kill it I'll give you
a quick example what happens when you do
a really sharp movement so right now I'm
gonna give a real sharp movement to the
right and it's gonna roll out of control
and that's what's gonna happen all right
so while it's getting ready he is uh
getting the GoPro hooked up he's getting
the goggles on to make sure he is gonna
be on the right channel again guys were
flying
with more than one person it's always a
good idea to have a spotter to make sure
the area is clear you know a lot of
these parks we fly at sometimes there's
people walking through with dogs whatnot
the last thing you want to do is injure
somebody injure yourself injured an
animal also when you come up to a new
group of guys if you've never flown with
anybody the first thing you want to do
is ask what channel everybody is on what
channel do I need to be on if you're not
sure people be more than glad to help
you out cuz I know you're trying to do
the right thing now I'm all geared up
what I'm gonna do now is take off with
my quad in accra mode with the goggles
down okay we're looking through the
GoPro footage of this quad right now and
you'll see on the upper right of my
controller I'm using this switch as my
arm switch so I press that and the
spinner the spin is the quad starts to
spin up with the motors and we
take off so I'm going to swaddle up with
my left thumbstick
up very slowly here those motors start
to spin up and we have liftoff
now right now I'm basically just kind of
going forward a little bit which means
I'm pitched forward just a hair and I'm
maintaining that throttle value that
took me off the landing pad in the first
place I'm turning right
very slowly by incorporating a little
bit of yaw and a little bit of roll and
maintaining my throttle value so that I
don't go into those trees
I'm turning very slowly and you can see
that we're actually heading back to
where we first started take it off now
we're coming back to where we started to
take off I'm going to roll to the right
just a hair with a little bit of yaw and
maintaining Waddle value and I'm turning
away from us and continuing to make this
lap around this field now I'm going to
continue to move around in just a circle
a controlled circle making sure that I
maintain altitude as well as make sure
that I'm not moving the sticks
too hard in any one direction one thing
to kind of keep in mind is kind of
driving if you're going along the
highway you don't necessarily make
really hard turns with the steering
wheel they'll just you know cause you to
spin out of control
rather you're going to make small
adjustments with your steering though so
same type of thing with the quad so
we've always been rolling to the right
with our quad we're going to now roll
left and a little bit of yaw to the left
and that's going to cause us to go left
now you see the trees and you see a lost
little bit of altitude so I've pushed up
with the altitude just a hair and we're
going to maintain this out to that we've
been working with this entire time
I'm going to press a little harder on
yah and roll to get us back to a home
trajectory here and I'm gonna stop
moving that direction in order to bounce
back out and have us go straight here we
are heading back and I'm going to make
one more turn to the right a little bit
of yaw a little bit of roll the reason
we incorporate yaw is to level us out if
I'm just rolling to the right then I'll
continue to roll and spoil it spiral
into the ground but adding a little bit
of yaw in the same direction as your
role will allow your quads maintain a
level horizon as you turn now I'm gonna
get a little bit of height here so that
means I'm going to pitch up and I'm
going to throttle up and I'm gonna get
to about 30 feet or so now this is going
to be around the tops of the trees and
you can see that because of my camera
angle and how high I'm pointed up a
simple hover kind of makes me lose view
of the ground I don't see what's
directly below me or even what's in
front of my quad a couple dozen feet I
only see the very far horizon so if I
want to see what's below me I'm gonna
have to pitch down and that's pitching
down with my right stick and now I'm
going to turn to come back some get a
little far away from us but you can see
that if I want to actually see what's
below me I have to pitch down it's also
going to cause me to lose altitude a
little bit and subsequently it's going
to think we speed us you have to be
aware of that and if you want to slow
down you're gonna have to pitch back up
or do a turn with their role in yaw in
order to cut some of that horizontal and
vertical speed that you picked up by
pitching down while maintaining a
throttle so I'm going to come over here
in the land because we do have some
people coming by and I'm not gonna try
and land on a landing pad that's that's
gonna be a tall order for us but what
I'm gonna do is turn toward us I can see
my myself right there I'm going to inch
my way over here very slowly very
controlled if I'm heading toward me too
quickly I
my finger on my arm switch lucky cut it
and land safely but since I'm right here
hovering what I can do is lower my
throttle I don't want to lower all the
way down without disarming because then
I'll start to chew up grass I might
start bouncing the quad might bounce up
and down so I really don't want to
disarm while touching the ground I
wanted to SARM slightly before touching
the ground so here we go I'm going to
lower the quad and disarm now and there
we go I landed but I didn't cut up any
of the grass I didn't bounce around I
props didn't get all cut up in the
ground and cause a bunch of dust and
dirt to kick up okay guys I just show
you how to land properly I'm gonna give
you a prime example of why it's always
good to have a spotter and it was up in
the air flying around I was watching the
field we had a group of people walk up
behind us soccer balls dogs probably
worst case scenario you can get when
you're trying to fly quads
that's why it's important to always have
a spotter you just never know you know
they came around the corner luckily I
saw it wasn't close to them totally had
to go ahead and land and that's what you
want to do you may have noticed edy
standing up when he flies I prefer
sitting down it's really preference to
me I feel more grounded when I'm sitting
down I just feel like I'm in more
control but try both
some people get dizzy when they stand up
if you do just sit down and everything
should be all right before we get
started we are watching my actual fpv
camera feed through OSD and it's being
recorded on DVR through the goggle so
you see the label in the middle of the
screen JSP H that's the quad name on the
left you have our battery voltage which
is sixteen point five it should be
sixteen point eight but we hovered it a
little bit I do always have a timer
going in the bottom left usually you get
about two minutes two and a half minutes
maybe mean three three and a half but do
not want to push it these batteries we
fly aren't meant for very long flights I
just wanted to make sure everybody was
aware of that all right so what we're
gonna do we're gonna arm our switch
we're gonna hover
get off the ground more throttle hover
and we're off now what I'm doing I'm
pressing forward on the pitch I'm going
forward I want to turn right I'm going
and rolling to the right a little bit
nice and smooth
again you don't want to make drastic
movements that's going to send you
flying all over the place real smooth
real casual turns we're going to the
left we're going left and rolling left
and one of the things I wanted to point
out about Accra mode if I push to the
left on roll I keep going to the left
until I correct myself you're gonna have
to get used to that aspect also the same
thing as pitch if I pitch forward I keep
going forward even if you know if I
don't touch anything I just keep going
that way so most of the flying we do is
correcting not actually kind of turning
I'm turning this way and I keep it I
keep going into the ground
okay now punch out to get a little
height so you just want always want to
be aware of the fact that you are gonna
have to correct whatever moves you make
you've got to counter that to get going
back the right way
okay I've spotted the landing area I'm
straightening out and when I come in
I'm gonna easy speed and kind of low to
the ground and right before I hit I'm
gonna barely pull back on the pitch and
cut it that's kind of how you want to
land like I said you're not gonna land
on the battery right side up every time
so this is a four cell battery which it
top power is 4.20 bolts each that gets a
sixteen point eight bolts so you don't
want to drop below I believe three point
five volts on your battery which would
give you right around 14 volts
altogether so I can still fly this
battery saw I'm not going through at the
moment but I want you to be aware that
you do not want to drain your battery
past a certain point will explode on you
probably not but it'll definitely ruin
your battery in the long run and you
could potentially drop out of the sky
and during yourself somebody else we're
breaking a quad if you alright guys so
we have accomplished our maiden voyage
with our fpv quad on the open with a
spotter all safety precautions
taken and it was a pretty successful run
one of the biggest hurdles is finding
people to fly with go on Facebook look
for FB B groups don't be scared to put
yourself out there and go out there and
find a group of guys don't be scared to
take it slow for the first couple months
I see a lot of guys get into the sport
they want to go fast they want to do all
the cold tricks but I'm telling you take
it slow work your way up to that your
life's gonna be a lot easier you won't
be spending money on parts you won't be
constantly fixing your quad it's just
gonna be a lot better for you in the
long run
definitely so check out Seth on his
YouTube channel and also if you're
interested in some of the equipment that
we use some of the gear the video
descriptions that have links to most of
those so thank you so much for watching
and until next time happy flying
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