Lessons

Lesson Info

Q&A

I'll start with Peter Dunfy online who says, "Any estimate of flying time "to get comfortable with flying?" Ooh, that's really good. So it's so interesting. People that are, having a gaming background, I literally will, I'll be like, forward, I hand 'em the control and they're, like, doing, trying to do figure eights. They literally skip over the box. They skip over, they're just, like, going to figure eights. And it's something about that hand-eye coordination where you can look and you can just do this. And then other people who are more nervous, you know, they take the 180, you know? It's very slow, right? And then the yaw comes. And that's totally cool, everyone's different. So I'm gonna say it just depends, like, how are you with maybe games or some video games? Do you feel really good, you're the person that, you know, in Super Mario World, you can do, like, ABAB, you know, and jump around all crazy. And, but, you know, what I would say is, I can get people up to speed on this ...

in just an afternoon. If I had one, if I had a session with one of you, you'd be up to speed really quickly. So the learning curve is easy. I think the way that we broke it down where we talked about the sticks, the right one does this, the left one does that, and then we gave you some exercises to try to focus on, that's really where the key is, because it's not just like you're flying around willy-nilly. I mean, you would actually pick that up pretty quick. But to really have control of it, though, where you're drawing something, that's really where it comes in. So again, I've literally handed someone the remote and they're already trying to do figure eights, and then I've had someone just do it in an afternoon setting. So a couple hours. Great. Questions in the studio? Yeah, great. Just wonder if you could talk to, as far as learning to pilot your drone, at what point, I guess it might not be standard for everybody, but at what point do you start to focus less on controlling your aircraft and more on, let's say tracking an object? At what point do you introduce, you know, motion video to your regimen here? Yeah. I think the key is, like, for me, I think I really felt comfortable is when I completely face the opposite direction and I'm just looking at my monitor, so I'm focused on my monitor, and I'm trying to do all those moves, and where I'm like, yeah, I could do it. 'Cause everything's flipped, right? That's the key is it all flips. So when I felt comfortable being able to do those things, I felt like, yeah, I can, I'm ready. The other thing that I wanted to mention with regards to that is even though I feel really comfortable flying, and I just encourage you, like, face the other way and try it. I am comfortable with that and I can do that. But if I can tell which way my drone is, I always try to face it. And so I'll do this, and it's not because I don't know what I'm doing. It's because I don't have to do any, there's no extra thinking. There's no flipping, there's nothing. It's just, so I'll just kind of, like, even if it's really far away, if I know it's pointed that way, I'll just, I'll rest this way. And when it's over there, I'll just, I'm just kinda pivoting back. And it's not a huge deal 'cause I can still do it, but it's helpful. And you guys saw one of the images I shot was on the boat. I shot a whale, right? So to be comfortable in a situation like that means you have to be really good at flying, right? You have this moving boat, and it's rocking, and in some cases it's moving 'cause we're chasing a whale, right? And it's really easy to get disoriented. I actually, you know, I would be staring at my screen and doing this, you know, and I had to take a little break, you know? I was not feeling good. But even as experienced as I am, I have to be extra on it, and I would never have attempted that if I didn't feel comfortable with flying. But I had to be extra on it because we could start going in the boat that way and then my drone is way over there, and because I wasn't necessarily paying attention to it, I'm not sure which way it's facing, and then I'm like, okay, look at the radar, and then we're even further, and it gets messy fast, right? So I think the flipped is the answer to your question, and you're gonna be looking good, yeah. Any other questions in here with any other exercises, the left stick, the right stick? We've got some more questions... Yes. ...from the folks online. So the question, and I think you talked about this, but Brooke Spollen had asked, "Can the sticks be adjusted to make slower moves "better for video shoots." Yeah. And how do you approach differently if it's still images that you're creating versus video. Oh, such a good question. I mean, I guess it's a great time to kinda introduce this idea. I mentioned to you guys that when I was showing you guys the DGI screen and I pointed out that it was in GPS mode and said that's the mode that you'll probably mostly be flying in, That's represented on the controller with this P, and the reason why it's a P is 'cause that stands for positioning. You're relying on the positioning. And that means that the drone's connected to the two satellites and knows where it is and it's gonna keep it in place when you let go of the sticks. To counter that real quick, I'm gonna tell you that we have ATTI mode, and on here it's an A, and that stands for ATTI mode, and what that means is no longer is GPS holding it in place. If some wind comes by, remember I mentioned that, the drone will start drifting with the wind. It doesn't care about holding it in place. So with that being said, it's the same thing on the Mavic. It's our switches here, P, actually, the Mavic doesn't have that ATTI Mode. Only the Phantom does. But the setting I skipped over on purpose is the S mode, and that is sport mode, and what that basically means is the drone has, like, an extra added boost. When you go forward, it goes vroom! It goes, it takes off. Everything's extra aggressive. It's fast. I remember the first time when I was flying my Phantom 4, it has obstacle avoidance on the front, the back, the sides. I was like, sweet. Kicked it into sport mode, you know, it's going 45 miles an hour. I'm just like, this is so fun. Let's try the obstacle avoidance. I start heading for a hill, and next thing I know my screen's crumbling like, what? Oh, it crashed. I hit the hill. Why? Because obstacle avoidance doesn't work at full speed. It's like, read the manual. Like, don't be like me. You just take it out and you're like, I know how to fly a drone. It doesn't work at full speed, okay? Now I know. That's the thing I can preach to you. But I'm getting to the answer. It's a long way of getting there. Things are extra aggressive in S mode, sport mode. So that's awesome because, to answer her question, if I'm flying here and getting my shot and then I see, like, a train coming, I'm gonna switch it to sport mode, fly over to get that shot, to make sure I get it, and then kick it back to positioning so it holds in place and it's not so squirmy. Because in sport mode, if you just barely tap on it, it wants to go quick. So when I'm trying to get a shot, I'm usually in P mode, if that's for a photo or a video. If I'm racing against something, it's in sport mode. If I'm chasing a car, I'm probably in sport mode 'cause it's going fast. And then one other thing, then, kinda to answer that question, inside the DGI GO app, there is a setting that you can play with called the expo settings. E-X-P-O, exponential. And what that means is you can adjust the exponential curves of your remote controller. I actually have a newer tutorial on my website that shows you exactly how to do this and what it means. But here's the gist. If I go forward on my sticks, you guys saw, like, the drone would go forward and kinda match that. You can change the expo settings within the DGI GO app to make it really, really sensitive or really dulled down. So some people, maybe they have twitches, or maybe they just get really nervous so they apply too much pressure. You could dull down the stick so much that to get any movement, there's no movement, no movement, no movement, and then this starts to lunge you into the shot. So, okay then, that's a couple ways how I'd address that question. I do have a tutorial on fromwhereidrone.com that specifically addresses the expo settings and how to adjust the exponential curves, which is probably more specific to answering her question. But when I'm in photo mode, I don't care if I'm squirrely, as long as I got the shot. When I'm in video mode, things need to be smooth and gentle and ease, right? So I actually have, what's cool about the DGI GO app is you can have a couple different settings, and so I can make a setting really dulled down and a setting really aggressive, and I can switch to it if I'm doing photo or video. So I don't have to keep adjusting it every time. It's just one or two. So really, really handy, yeah. What's the ATTI mode and how do you use it? Yeah, so ATTI mode, you can't switch it on this drone, but on this drone and on the Inspire, you can kick it over, and that means now you have to be fully in control of your drone. If you let go of the sticks, it's not gonna hover in place. So, like I said, a gust of wind can come and you'll just see your drone going and you're, like, not doing anything. So you could counter that and bring it back or you could, like, and it stops and it holds. But the reason why some professional filmmakers like to fly in this mode is because you'll, you probably picked it up when I was doing the box. I draw the box and it, I let go of the six and it goes, eh. It brakes, right? I turn, go forward, eh. As soon as I let go of the sticks, it breaks, it holds, 'cause it's like I'm holding your drone in place, which is awesome. But sometimes when you're filming, you wanna ease into that. You wanna ease out of that. So kick it over to ATTI mode, fly forward, and you're flying, you let go of the sticks, and it starts to slow down, and it's just gonna stop whenever it loses momentum, right? Or if you pull back to counter it. So you have to manually provide that braking. So that could be really great for getting smooth, easy shots that are nice and smooth, yeah, is the word. Does that make sense to you? Yeah. So definitely that's an advanced thing, I would say. You're not gonna be busting ATTI mode, like, day one, right? Your first time flying the drone. But maybe something to work towards. You're like, all right, I'm gonna try it. And switch it over, see how it goes, yeah. But you gotta remember, like, you're fully in control, so when your drone's getting close to a tree, you have to counter that to bring it away. It's not just let go of the sticks and it hovers.