6 Common Mistakes New Drone Pilots Make + Bonus Money Saving Tip!

One of the rules I made for myself when preparing to land my drone is to be certain it's facing away from me so I can land it intuitively rather than having to remember that the left and right controls are reversed. Fortunately I only had to replace one propeller before I made that rule.

"I always carry a screwdriver, a spare prop blades, Battery, Charger, SDcard" My pre-flight check: A. on the ground: Props (Blades and Screws) / Battery (Voltage, Capacity, Temp) / Weather App. (UAV forecast, Google Maps) / SDcard B. in flight (hovering): Establish a good RTH point and GPS lock / Drone (Vibration and Sound) -check for abnormalities / Determining the RTH altitude by climbing slowly and doing a full 360 to set a proper RTH altitude. My post-flight check: Props (blade and screws) / Batt (temp and Capacity / Remove SDcard

When I got my first drone, I was so excited, that's why I flew indoors.

Good one Russ. I’ve found that seagulls hate drones and will attack

Great tips, Russ. I have been flying drones for 13 months and my cautious nature has kept me out of trouble. I am sharing this video with a friend of mine who just purchased a Mini 3 Pro. Cheers from Wisconsin where the weather is not much better than your own.

1. Yep 2. Yep 3. No 4. No 5. Yep 6. Yep Another mistake I still make is forgetting to turn on "Record" when flying. One more is forgetting to check to see if my SD card is inserted (not preflight checking) I am getting better, tho' Great video! Thank you. 🙏

New flyer here and really appreciate this information!! Have followed you since receiving my Mini 3 Pro. Thanks much!

Thanks for this great video Russ. I have been flying for 4 years, and still make some of those mistakes, yet seeing this video made me realize it now. One other thing, besides power lines, trees are my achilles. I have only ever had one bad crash, and it was into a branch of a tree, while flying backwards. Making my pre, and post flight check list right now.

1 - Flying indoor on the first day? Done it and crashed it. 2 - Flying over water? Done it and crashed twice (First time half submerged second time all submerged for around 10 minutes. Still working, thank god) 3 - Trusting intelligent flight? Done it. First time I made a auto fly up and away crashed into a tree... survived. 4 - Power lines? Haven't done this one... yet. 5 - Check list. Working on one. 6 - Flying in VLOS. I try to folow it. Watching your video just made me think that I should have seen it long ago, when I bought my c-fly faith 2. Keep up the good work. Love your videos.

As always, excellent tips! One of the most important skills I learned from pilot training is developing a logical sense of self awareness over my thought processes. If I ever think, don’t worry I’ve got this, or watch this, those are usually famous last words 😅😁❤

Great tips as always. Good job.

Well explained....thank you....

You’re My #1 source of Drone Flying Common Sense! THANK YOU! As a retired C-5 Flight Engineer who can’t fly anything anymore, this is my new revelation return! I miss the flying that much! I now have more than a few friends who are interested in flying too, and you’re my referral for everything from pre-purchase to after. What to learn FIRST which ultimately helps determine the drone they buy. THANK YOU!

Wouldn't it be great if the Dji app or 3rd party app can mark power wires in red color to see on the display and avoid-

Great tips! Thank you for sharing.

Good ones Russ 👍

Thx again, great meanwhile making pre flight checklist tips

Great advice, thanks!!

I've always done the bonus tip. Same for recording other videos from my phones. I do have a pre-flight checklist....kinda. It's not on paper or my phone. I'll say that I've missed a couple things here and there, really just camera settings, but I see it immediately. The one that almost ended in disaster was power lines. I was flying over a lake, ok a really wide river, at an altitude of 200 feet or maybe even higher. I could see these power lines over the river. I though I had flown just before them, but when I looked at the footage, I had actually flown over them at maybe 5 feet above them. It was definitely a close call.

Love your channel. Learning a lot