Drone - The Ultimate Guide with everything you need to know
If after waking up this morning the first thing you did was go outdoors because it is probably among the gifts was a drone. You have done well, but after the excitement, make sure you know what you're facing.
If you're new to the world of the flight of drones you probably have a few questions about how to fly a drone, where you can do, how to improve your technique or what possibilities offered by your new gift and maintenance issues or where to find spare parts. We have the complete guide to start the drones.
Where I can fly my new drone
Being relatively new equipment on the market, drones or unmanned aerial vehicles in Spain only have a national regulation specifies if use is to be professional and commercial. If we assume that your new drone, more or less complete, it will use only for your leisure, would actually talking about a recreational purpose for now only has a number of recommendations but also of a general law that we must follow if we want to face penalties or fines by the authorities.
With the current legislation the use of drones recreationally must comply with legislation and follow its recommendations EASA
For the Aviation Safety Authority (EFSA), an agency under the Ministry of Development, the drones (even when used recreationally) legally aircraft and its case indicate a series of recommendations to follow to avoid sanctions but also drone to fly safely without risk of accidents.
The main considerations to follow when flying a drone are:
Always have it in sight and no more than 120 meters high during the flight even though our model allows a flight of more height.
No fly the drone when weather conditions are unfavorable, such as windy that hinders handling safely.
Flight is prohibited in areas near airports or places that have the reserved airspace.
Your flight must use appropriate areas, preferably those reserved for testing model airplanes. It is very convenient to check the local or regional regulations about or better, contact a nearby model airplane club that will have all the information for a safe flight.
Unable to fly the drone of crowds of people, including parks, beaches and other outdoor sites. Should never be a risk for people. And we must bear in mind that the damage caused by the drone are direct responsibility of whoever handles, so if you're going to perform flights is often advisable to have a liability insurance.
If our drone has a camera capable of taking photos or recording video, more legislation to comply. If we make use of the ability of our drone to take pictures, you have to respect the Data Protection Act as it is likely that during our flight with a camera drone is to perform imaging of individuals identified or identifiable .
If those third parties are involved directly or indirectly have an obligation to inform them (inside we can do so directly or through information boards) as well as the Data Protection Agency.
Preparations before flying a drone
Once we have clear what level must meet safety and legislation to start flying your brand new drone, it's time to turn it on and start fly. Although your expertise and technology associated with your particular model will mark agile and durable than your first flight, there are a number of tips, advice and tricks that you can begin to implement the drone straight out of the box.
It may seem truism but agrees that hold back the emotion of the moment and you stand a while before flying drone your device to read the manual. But perhaps not all pages that talk about their chances, options, modes but especially of controls and physical buttons on the remote. I assure you will not want to play trial and error with the options and capabilities of your drone in flight.
Most immediately before flying your drone it is that you learn and you are clear about what is and makes each element of the command. The control knob can look at your console, remote control car to your child or being a touchscreen ... But perhaps it has nothing to do. In some models you can set these controls or contain some specific you've never seen. Learn them.
Before each flight necessary to ensure that each element of the drone, notably drums and propellers, is in perfect condition and working as they should
Once you have a complete understanding of the options of the drone and control, we must check that all items are in perfect condition. This step is not necessary to give only the first time you fly a drone but before each flight. Bumps, intensive or that have parts that require oneself to exchange some routine checks.
The main deal with that there, missing screws or fasteners that the protections (if we decide to put them) are secure and do not interfere with the movement of the blades, and they rotate in the sense that they must loose items. Made this check can turn the drone and confirm that all engines are in excellent condition with no take flight yet.
If it were not so, we will change it before I fly. In fact, if we do not do anything it's probably just a broken engine or about to do so, and the control system does not let the flight begins.
If your drone is handled with a smartphone, it is likely to include some form of initial calibration. The routine flight calibrate your system when you start flying drone it is also convenient and help make the flight more true to what you want.
Typically associated applications indicating the drone will go step by step what you must do before starting the flight. Obvies it not aids the manufacturer offers you.
Finally you should not forget the batteries. Since fly a drone will not be something you do regularly and load times will tend to be large, more than once may find that you want to make a flight, but the batteries are discharged. A routine that can incorporate after each flight is in addition to cleaning the drone, put charging the batteries before storing your computer again.
In any event, before leaving to a flying session make sure both the remote control battery as each element to use a drone are properly installed at full capacity without visible damage. You should pay special attention to the Outer Banks, you can exchange yourself or if you've included some more capacity on your own. You can do it but you must make sure they are not swollen or have openings that can cause a fire or malfunction during the flight.
How to fly a drone first
Once you've got the drone ready, if it's your first flight, you will need some kind of baptism flight ought to be as safe as possible for your drone, for you and for anyone who can be close if we so decided . The time required to take over the controls, the so-called learning curve varies with the size of the drone, sensors and our skill.
If your first flight will be on location we highly recommend it in a wide area without obstacles on the ground or in the highest, and with nobody around. It is also better if you choose a day with good visibility and above all, no wind. There are drones that can easily handle windy but is not recommended for starters.
The first flight with your new drone should try to do it alone and secure wide area, either indoors or outdoors
If, however, your drone is for indoor flight (usually smaller in size), do not be tempted to make a quick and acrobatic flight for any room in the house because it is likely to end up in an accident. Uses a stay as free as possible of obstacles, wide and where one is not. A garage would be ideal, but if you're not, choose the room if the larger room in your house.
The first steps with a drone should be to get used to the controls and calibrate, as well as knowing the sensitivity of them. The beginning of every flight is to make the drone off, either manually or through a specific function. This puts the drone at a sufficient height, about one meter high. If we let up would suffer unless called ground effect and becomes unstable, so it is important to always start flying from a sufficient distance.
Before accelerating to elevate the drone should leave him a safe distance to avoid that if you have not calibrated controls or wrong control, have an accident. It is also important that we have direct view of the drone.
If your drone has no automatic off, be sure to do it manually height is sufficient to prevent ground effect or will become unstable
And at a height of security we will trying different controls one by one. Climb and descend controlling the height, and it's time to locate the front of the drone (it is usual to include some sort of indication or light). Once properly oriented with respect to the drone, you can launch the lateral maneuvers (slide), gains or losses (head) ... At this stage it is important to see if it is necessary to calibrate our remote controls and permits. If so, we must adjust the levers to make movement called TRIM not not accurately correspond with which we are conducting in command.
Once we have the leadership we have internalized calibrated and controls, we can combine some simple movement and get down to work with the landing phase. Carefully at first because a hard landing can end our brand new drone.
The first few times we land we go down up slowly, even below that meter we have indicated as security to avoid ground effect. When there are a few centimeters, the first few times it is advisable to reduce the speed of the propellers slowly at this point to bring down a drone lead the field. I If we tried to land it "by hand" without the necessary looseness could cause a portion of the drone before another landfall and caused an accident. Do not hurry. When we caught more smoothly we can look to end a controlled landing.
If your drone supports it, try also to start some flights with the so-called assisted mode. It's a good way to gain the control of safely.
After a few test flights, we are ready to go a little further with our drone flight. But perhaps before testing you want to check what can your drone in standalone mode. If the model you purchased includes GPS and that functionality is interesting that some basic programes out to cheer.
Fly a drone: tips, tricks and recommendations
If you've done the odd flight initiation, you have calibrated and known in detail the controls on the back and you have the batteries charged, we can try to do some flight level and complex routes.
Something to keep in mind is that you can not perform complex movements overnight. You should gradually increase the difficulty of the movements gradually and flight height.
To start should you make flights using only two controls (speed / advance or accelerate / slide) and stick with them a simple diagram or predefined pattern. When you feel comfortable and confident you can start testing with three controls and perform stunts, spins and circular flights gradually increasing the height thereof.
First flight controls only two and then three, gradually increasing the height of all of them is a good way to go taking confidence with your new drone
In these early flights more complex and always you already have control of the situation, which can be of help FPV mode using your drone if available. Whether on their own or remote screen on a smartphone, put ourselves in the place of the camera drone will help us assimilate the movements we do with physical checks or using sensors of smartphones in your case.
Once we taking ease with flying drone we can be tempted to make a descent to land at the same rate we've lifted off the ground. It is an error that should not commit to avoid almost certain uncontrolled fall. Stay calm and secure in your routine that declines at a slower rate than the increase to be made.
Regarding the flying height, very attentive to the figure given by the manufacturer and never get to overcome. Typically even keep a ceiling a few meters below as the weather conditions and can affect different aspects that range. Do not obsess over this issue because if you apply common sense will understand that it costs you little good look at the drone is likely to go out of the range area. Remember the case of many cheap drones, leaving the drone reach these stop working, and will plummet without control.
In the case of longer range sure to be very skillful driving because the more height control more difficult because of the distance and the strongest winds. In such cases, if we lose communication it is usual that the drone remain static waiting recover or determined to be performed an emergency landing.
Knowing the maximum range, where we want to land it or emergency systems in case of losing control or communication is key to safe flight under the drone
In such cases of high altitude flights or complex sites where we can not move at the pace of drone, do not let go of options that require the drone back to the tee (thanks to GPS) or a controlled and automatic landing should you've made sure to try and get to know.
Uses GPS or not to schedule automatic flight, we recommend that before starting the flight and you are clear what you want to do, how and especially where you plan to land the drone so it is a safe, comprehensive and no one site that can It is damaged nearby.
Another important tip when you're flying a drone is that if we can not help but see that our drone will drop or worse, hit a tree, for example, avoid greater evils if we withdraw the acceleration and the propellers stop working. If you continue to rotate when impact is likely to external damage affecting more key elements of the drone.
Something you should never forget about a drone is the maximum flight time. The average in affordable drones is 5-8 minutes, but it is possible to acquire models of less than 1,000 euros with over 15 minutes of battery life. This must be taken into account to not rush too flights and that some element is left without autonomy.
You can use replacement batteries to enhance the autonomy of your drone but very careful because you might end up straining elements such as engines that are not prepared for much longer flight followed the "official"
Typically, you receive a warning on the smartphone low batteries or the drone itself, by detecting the low load, return safely to where you started or stopped in a controlled manner.
A good idea to improve 5-8 minutes of autonomy is to have spare batteries. They are affordable, usually easy to remove and put again and in most commercial drones, and you can even use some support from more than official capacity. In this regard we must be very careful because in cheaper drones if chained several flights with extra batteries some components may end up failing by stress due to a higher purpose for which it was intended. This is the case of the engines.
Maintenance and repair drone
The task does not end with a drone when the battery runs out or have decided to stop flying it. If we extend life should we make maintenance and cleaning and routine conscientiously. It will depend on each drone and manufacturer, but there are some tips and tricks that we can use.
Cleanliness is essential and inevitable after flight in some situations like when we flew in dusty grounds or places like beaches. In such cases we can use compressed air cleaners that do not cost more than 10 euros, and that will leave us without dust areas inaccessible to other cleaning elements. We can also spray some engine oil that also protects against corrosion.
Where necessary and only for certain models and with a high level of mechanical knowledge, we can do a more thorough cleaning of each motor.
In addition to the compressed air to the plastic parts we can use different cleaning products to remove dirt as with any product of this material. And do not forget to perform from time to time cleaning and maintenance further, eg engines, although this is already a certain mechanical skill and knowledge is required.
Besides cleaning, which often have to make your drone especially when you're starting to try it is to replace or repair damaged or broken parts. A simple propeller with any damage can ruin a flight easily.
The main parts of a drone that will require action on your part are the propellers, engines or even protection. They are not complicated to replace or check for yourself and actually are quite affordable and easy to get parts if our model is well known. An example will sound to many: Syma X5c, one of the most popular affordable drones, and for which it is very easy to buy almost any type of parts, whether propellers, motherboard, motors, camera or carcasses.
In such a set of four drones around 5 euros propellers and engines cost no more than 10. Mainly the former should always carry with us some spare parts not ruin a field trip to fly a small incident with those parts of the drone.
In different stores or model airplane is no problem to buy parts of models known as the CX-20 models JJRC, the Hubsan ... even if you're up there curious accessories to add functionality to some drones. If it is well-known brands like Parrot, there are even kits compatible tools.
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