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I SAID "FARK" - A Journey in Learning to Fly!
#1
So our journey began long ago, so I should back way up a bit, because I want to give you the full picture. We are a family of rocketeers, RC Car fans and we own drones.  We have a DJI Inspire and a Mavic Pro and the kids even started a small business providing Drone Photography and Videography for area businesses.  They actually did and do all the leg work – they got the LLC, created the website, worked on business cards, developing the marketing, handle Quickbooks, they do the sales pitches and we have a fairly good resume.  We’ve done golf courses, real estate, sporting events, marching bands and more.  We feel comfortable with drones.  I even got my Part 107 license in January of this year.  We know drones…………or at least I thought we knew drones.  So we’ve always been fascinated with going fast and things that fly.  But our journey into FPV is a little different.
 
Our FPV journey began after going to the Toledo RC Air Show in Toledo, OH in April.  I decided after flying our Dromida last Fall that we needed something that didn't fly away every time we tried to fly it.  And by “we”, I really mean “me”.  Man that thing was awful in any slight breeze or for that matter, any thought of a breeze or sneeze or cough.  So tough to maneuver and not responsive at all.  I thought it was the quad.  Toy grade must not be for me.  It’s not really up to my mad flying skills, I thought.  But we wanted to go fast and flip around.  The drones we have are lame in comparison.  But even that little experience with the Dromida, sparked something so natural in my body.  It was like a dormant animal waiting to be let out of its cave.  I had to fly fast!  I wanted to sit in those goggles and experience flight.  I wanted to rip through the air…..so we will!  We know drones.  We got this.  Now everything else I’ve set my mind to, I’ve pretty much accomplished.  I have a ton of stick-to-it-ness. So it’s time to take the plunge.  And plunge I did.., I mean “we” did. 
 
I thought that the best thing to do was to go talk to everyone we could and see what direction we should head into.  We meandered the entire drone show in search of the valuable nuggets of information one could obtain at such a show.  So many experts.  We had to be well on our way to flying FPV.  In the end, we found Excel Drones, 2DogsRC and FatShark and they talked us through build versus buy, different models, goggles, frames and more.  Excel is relatively local to us and they really took the time to explain all the “in’s and out’s” of FPV.  We learned about PDB’s, ESC’s, VTX’s and TX’s.  We spent 2 days there.  Yup, I said two days.  We looked, we learned, we awed, we watched.  JefFPV showed us some TinyWhoop racing.  It was so cool.  While at the time, I thought, man those things are too little.  We need “big boy” toys, not these little dinky things.  Oh, how I will learn…..silly me.   It was just me and my 7 year old son.  He was even interviewed for the Toldeo Gazette - https://dronetests.com/drone-races-take-...t-seagate/ and he really wanted to learn to fly FPV and race.  So Easy!  With all our newly learned information, we’ll just buy one and fly it.  We’ll get really good and then we will tear up the sky.  JeffPV will soon be eating our LED’s.  After all, we know drones, right?  Hours and hours and hours of talking and researching, we ended up with the Eachine Wizard X220 ATF.  We now needed a transmitter and receiver, so we went with the Turnigy Evolution (his hands are small and I like Xbox – **stop laughing now**).  O.k…  so on to Goggles.  We met the greatest guy from Fat Shark named David French.  He even let Tyler use his antenna so he could watch the Tiny Whoop Races on his new Fat Shark Transformer Goggles.  We also got some new Fat Shark underwear – doesn’t everyone need this?  And, we got some cool T-shirts.  We were rocking all the gear.  It was such a great experience and I was so happy that we took the time to learn so much.  I was proud of “doing this the right way”.  So that was on April 7th and 8th.  I know the exact day because as I write this, I can see the massive pile of drone related receipts on my desk and that one is right on top.  I can remember the feeling I had leaving the convention center and dreaming of all of fun Tyler and I (I mean “me”) will have working on drones, racing drones and just paling around with this newly found sport.  Oh the great times we will have!  I just couldn’t wait…..
 
Fast forward to June…….2 months later!  I’m still messing with Betaflight and trying to get the thing to connect.  These drivers are a pain in the arse.  It must be the fact I’m on a Mac.  I endured daily interrogation from my son and other 3 children, "Dad, when can we fly it?", and me responding with, "as soon as I figure out what the heck a SubTrim is!”.  Dad was a failure, but I wasn’t letting them see me sweat.  I can fix anything, but this little piece of *&#% was baffling me!   SBUS, IBUS, PID's, VTX, OSD, End Points, Failsafe, ARM, Horizon, Angle, Acro, Binding, Switches, ESC calibration, drivers, ARGH!!!!!!!!!  I know it's much too late to say long story short, but to make a long story shorter, after about a total of 3 months, I didn't lose any fingers and we were ready to fly.  By the way, when it says take propellers off to calibrate the ESC’s – DO  THAT!  I once forgot and it shredded my desk like a rabies ravaged wolverine on coke.  What a mess!  Remember----- disarm, disarm, disarm!  I even took a label maker and put it on the controller.  DISARM! 
 
So, we were ready.  All the dreams of flying gracefully over the grass at speeds so fast you might break the sound barrier were finally coming true.  I could almost smell the grass.  It would be a Thursday night, at the local park.  I couldn’t wait until after work.  This. Would. Be. The. Day.
 
So we packed up all our “gear” and headed off to the field.  We had everyone in tow for our maiden voyage.  It was truly a family affair and they were about to witness Dad’s greatest feat.  I’ve fixed doll houses, complicated lego sets, every electronic item you could think of and I’ve changed over 27,000 diapers (yup!  Do the math)…..  I couldn’t wait to prove to them, that Dad could truly DO ANYTHING!  The anticipation was overwhelming.  I took the beautiful, purple and black racing machine to the center of the field.  I placed it gently down on the grass.  I stepped the family way back.  (I still did know from experience that after trying hundreds of times to get it to hover in our front yard, that thing could go anywhere when I hit those sticks).  I was confident this time, but just in case.  I flicked up the main switch on my transmitter.  The gentle whirr of the props excited me like my first kiss.  I was thinking this day would never come.   We have achieved the unachievable.  It armed and we were ready to go.  I had video on the goggles, the GoPro Session was ready, the transmitter worked and we had a nice, large, green field with no one around for miles.  So here it goes.  Now I know that we needed to learn on LOS first, so we decided to have Tyler wear the goggles and I would fly the drone for now.  I needed to make sure it was stable, right?  I gently lifted the right stick and the quad shot up like up like a rocket!  Holy crap!  I'm a genius.  It works!  I gently eased the throttle and pushed the pitch forward.  “I got this!”, I thought to myself.  I’m finally flying.  Well, the next 10 seconds of me trying to coax it forward resulted in the horrific sound of the blades ripping through the battery leads as it lurched forward into the ground from a very high altitude and ended our fun for the day.  It was crushing.  My son and other members of our brood were laughing but trying to look sad (I think they were genuinely empathetic to my plight, but really enjoyed laughing at Dad)  3 months, countless hours, a maniacal animal attacking my office, hurt hands, knuckles and fingers, nearly burning the house down learning to solder, hundreds and hundreds of dollars and many sleepless nights resulted in about 10 seconds of fun!  Well, not fun!  &*^%$#@!  I don't think the kids knew all the words that came out of my mouth on that day standing in the middle of that field of dreams, but they knew it wasn't good.  I overheard my youngest whisper to one of them, "Man, Dad's mad.  I think he said the FARK word." All that work.....  down the drain.  Why?  What went wrong?  All of the countless hours rushed through my head like I was dying and seeing my life flash before my eyes.  The agony!  It was devastating.
 
The drone shall sit for at least another 2 weeks, like a scolded child in the corner of my office.  
 
So it called to me all week.  I would glance over at the box holding the uncooperating beast and a heap of spare drone parts and peeking up from way underneath, the Foxeer Camera was just staring at me.  Laughing at me.  But I left it alone.   At one point, I put the lens cap on and threw the heat gun box over it.  I would not be tempted.  It was probably somehow recording me at this very minute.  I hate that thing!  I just chalked it up as a loss - a learning experience.   Drone Racing was not for us.  It takes some superhuman people to build and fly these things and while I'm a superhuman Dad of 4 kids ages 11, 8, 7 and 5, I am NOT A SUPERHUMAN DRONE PILOT.  I know my limitations.  Well, maybe I don't know my limitations - I have 4 kids after all.  That's final... I'll sell it on ebay!  We'll get some of our money back and invest in a trampoline.  I can jump after all.  I can't fail at that.  
 
So, we were heading into vacation mode.  Schools out and it’s time for our annual pilgrimage to somewhere other than here and far away from that Black and Purple pain making machine.  We were heading to the western part of the state and then up north to travel the Great State of Michigan.  Holland, Traverse City and then Mackinac Island for 7 days of glorious fun….without “the drone”.  After landing in Holland at our hotel we decided to just order pizza to the hotel for a late dinner.  We settled into the hotel lobby at this long table with a nice big screen TV at the end.  We could just relax, watch some TV and eat some pizza and look forward to the next day of swimming and having fun.  I switched on the TV before the kids came down while waiting for the pizza delivery guy and low and behold….DRL was on ESPN.  All I did was turn on the TV and BAM!  What?  I just wanted to be away from this crap.  I hate drone racing.  I hate drones!  I don’t want to see anything related to drones.  And for the next hour, we all watched intently as ANUB, JET and NURK elegantly piloted these crafts at breakneck speeds through these little tiny holes.  We all had our favorites.  Blaise loved the "green guy", Cameron thought JET was cool, Reagan rooted for ANUB, Tyler loved them all and I just sat there……….staring........ contemplating my next move.  I am addicted.  I want to fly.  But why can't I do this?  I nearly cried.  O.k., I did.
 
Not to brag, but I'm a successful guy, I have a good education, athletically talented to some degree and I can't even fly a little toy plane around.  I silently screamed “the FARK” word in my head.  I right then and there, resolved myself to figuring this out.  I WILL LEARN TO FLY!  I didn't tell my family this renewed vow, but for the rest of the entire vacation I secretly scoured websites, thought about the rebuild and learned what I needed to do to get in the air and hear the scream of those little motors violently ripping through the air like Anakin in the Phantom Menace.  I want that LED blur!  I want to "punch out"!  I want it all!  It was the longest 6 days of my life.  Every quiet moment was consumed by thoughts of what I did wrong and how I can become “a pilot”. 
 
The minute we got back from vacation…the Mini-Van wasn’t even unpacked, I rushed to my office and stood at the door and looked intently at the little box in the corner.  I left it in the box all that time.  How could I!?  I ran over to the box, lifted the Heat Gun and there sat the Foxeer Camera, with the lens cap on, looking up at me.  I quickly took off the lens cap and placed it gently on the desk.  I stood there.  Looking.  We would become one I vowed. 
 
That night, I loaded up FPVFreerider.  I read something about it when I was scouring websites on vacation.  I was sitting in our bathroom after a long day in Mackinac Island for about an hour reading and hiding from my family.  It was the way to go, I thought.  I grabbed the Turnigy Evolution and found a USB cable laying around.  I plugged it in, loaded up the simulator and sat there for the next 4 hours.  Well into the night I tried over and over to hover, go straight and turn.  Hover, go straight and turn.  Hover, go straight and turn.  All of this in acro mode with high rates.   I went to bed that night with a newly found confidence that alluded me for so long.  I was convinced this was the way to go. I was so excited.
 
The next day was a work day, so I woke up early – 5:45am to be exact – and proceeded to my office to get back on the simulator.  I also logged into Youtube and found some training classes by Joshua Bardwell on turns.  I spent another 3 hours on the simulator mastering the turns and keeping the horizon level.  By the way, all of this is still a secret to my family at this point.  I wasn’t letting them know I was back on the horse, so to speak.  I didn’t want to see the disappointment in their face again.   They would probably just laugh anyway.  So there it was.  I dedicated myself to the simulator for the next 5 days.  Every minute I could spare.  Often times, well into the evening/morning.  It was so fulfilling.  I was mastering it.  I could go forward, stay low, go through a gate or two and make nice smooth turns.  Well, smooth in comparison to the thousands of times I drove that puppy into the ground.  Over and over and over I made turns and tried figure eights.  I grew to love the Playground, the Meadow and The Desert.  The Garage wasn’t even on my radar, but I knew it was there.  I would stay in my safe zones of open areas working on my craft -  becoming one with my Turnigy Evolution.  All the while, my black and purple beast at my side watching me, seemingly cheering me on with every turn and dive.  I like to think it was pleased with my dedication and we were quickly becoming friends again.
 
After 5 days on the simulator, I decided we would start the process on the quad from scratch.  I reached over and grabbed the beast and plugged it into my laptop. I gave it a little pep talk before I plugged it in and told it this was all for the best.   I reflashed to the latest Betaflight, after trying for hours to get it connected – ARGH!  That shit never ceases to amaze me.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Anyway….  I got her back to brand new.  A new start.  I also upgraded the firmware on the Evolution, set the IBUS, Failsafe and MODES in Betaflight, set up my SUBTRIMS, calibrated the ESC’s and ensured everything was up to snuff.  I re-ziptied, I re-taped, cleaned the props, I charged all the batteries, I was ready.  I was so comfortable now with all these settings, the quad and my simulator work was going so well. I was gaining so much confidence by the minute.  It was a new start with my new quad.  After all the hours on the simulator, I was sure I was ready to go fly.  This time, we would do it in private. 
 
After work on Wednesday, I loaded up all of the gear in my truck. I even brought the goggles just in case I was “really” ready.  I had 5 batteries all charged and ready for my long session of hovering, turns and dives.  I couldn’t wait.  I got to the park and no one was around.  Not a soul.  A massive open field just awaiting my prowess.  I gently placed the beast on the grass, plugged the battery in, turned on my transmitter and was overcome by joy!  I was going to fly this thing.  The goggles just sat in the grass waiting…..maybe I would even try FPV.  I gently eased up on the throttle and hovered effortlessly for about 20 seconds.  I moved it back and forth in a circle about 8 ft. x 8 ft.  I went up and down, back and forth.  I was ready to head out.  I pushed on the throttle and pitched forward.  I WAS FLYING!  No horrific sounds.  No lurching.  No uncontrolled dives.  Just sweet, plain, flying…..  back and forth, up and down.  It was exhilarating.  Of course, with any new found confidence and the fact that I’m an addict and a guy, I punched it.  I went screaming across the field.  Now, on the simulator I’m flying FPV, NOT LOS.  There is a huge difference I’m realizing.  I quickly felt a pang in my stomach, as I realized that this is the same feeling I had last time.  My confidence was gone.  I had no idea what direction my quad was flying.  I punched it again to see if I could figure out the direction and it just quickly drifted and drifted and drifted.  Over the Road, over the construction trucks and into a large embankment on the other side of the road about 500 yards away.  I ran as fast as I could to where I thought the crash occurred.  As I came across the road and over the embankment, there it was.  I picked it up and watched the VTX, bottom plate, side plate of the camera mount and the battery fall to the ground in a heaping mess.  It died.  I killed it.  I literally snapped everything that I could off of the very thing that was giving me so much joy.  How could this have happened?  I was so prepared.  Where did I go wrong?
 
This was yesterday.  I immediately went home and ordered a new bottom plate, reattached the VTX, tested out everything else and moved on.  I crashed.  So what.  I was overconfident.  I need more practice.  I need more simulator time.  I need to be committed.  It’s not a big deal.  This time it didn’t crush me.  I felt something during that flight for the few minutes I was up.  I was flying.  I was doing it.  I was a pilot!  I still haven’t let my family know of my mishap or of my new commitment to mastering this.  That very night, I plugged back in my Transmitter and also learned that I could start using my goggles with the HDMI out of the laptop into the Transformers.  So there you have it.  I fly racing quads.  I don’t fly them well, but I do fly.  Something seems to click here and there.  I will be flying on the simulator and something just hits me.  I know what this feels like.  I know what to do.  In the short period between last night and today, I’ve logged about 4 more hours on the simulator with my goggles.  I can feel it.  I now know what people mean when they say it will one day “click”.  It’s clicking.  It’s not perfect, I’m not fast, but I can now, in 4 short hours, make it through 5 or 6 gates on Meadow and Desert.  I can make a pretty good figure eight and I’m getting used the goggles.  I’m happy.  I’m quite happy!
 
Now many of you who have read this, are probably thinking, big deal.  Well, I write this for the ones that are struggling.  The ones who want to give up.  The ones who feel like this is not meant to be.  It is meant to be.  I can do this.  Where I’ve come from in such a short amount of time is incomprehensible when you look at where I was.  I thought I could do this without all the practice.  This is a tough sport.  It’s a tough learning curve, but it will click.  It’s amazing how it does.  I’m not sure how, but the feeling is AMAZING!  I read a post from someone, I wish I could remember his name, but it taught me so much.  It taught me to persevere.  To not give up.  To practice.  To love it.  To take every gain with a grain of salt.  To continue to learn.  To continue to WANT TO FLY!  and I will…..  I so will. 
 
After this post, I will go back on the simulator and log some more hours making turns.  Then I will continue to progress and hopefully, I will try later this week to go out the field.  If it works – great!  If I crash, then I will pick it up and fly again.  I will fix it, I will rebuild it, I will tweak it, I will master it.  I will go on the simulator every chance I get.  I can’t wait to see what tonight and tomorrow brings.  One day at a time!
 
Hope to see all of you out there on the track someday.  I’ll be the guy with the Black and Purple beast yelling "what the FARK".  For now, I need to go tell my family, I’m a pilot!  Can’t wait to show Tyler how to “learn to fly”!
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  • kaitylynn, E.L.K., Grisha0, Daniel45, Oscar, fftunes, Carl.Vegas, sloscotty, rapidsh0t, Tom BD Bad, RENOV8R, sirdude, Snuffypot11, unseen
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#2
I don't normally give people reputation for their first post, but that was epic!

Your description of overestimating your skill, reality making you humble again and the itch that has to be scratched that keeps on drawing you back is perfect. We've all been there.

Welcome to the FPV addiction and to the forum!
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#3
This was a great read. I'm still pretty new myself and I haven't got all the bugs worked out yet but I think I'm fixing my last issue when parts come in tomorrow. Such a fun hobby loving every minute of it. Plus I love building and rebuilding so that's a plus too haha. Good luck and keep flying!
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#4
My journey has been similar...If unseen hadn't given you a +1, I would have. Well written entertaining and informative! Thank you and welcome to the forum!!
"Damn the torpedoes!!!  Full speed ahead!!!"
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#5
I really enjoyed reading this!
It's the sort of hobby you need to go into with the correct mindset. You WILL crash and break stuff, but you have to pick things up, repair/rebuild and get back out to the field!
I'm still pretty new to FPV flying, but I actually enjoy when I crash, because it gives me a chance to know my limit, then do everything I can to smash past it and get better.
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#6
(14-Jul-2017, 12:21 AM)unseen Wrote: I don't normally give people reputation for their first post, but that was epic!

Your description of overestimating your skill, reality making you humble again and the itch that has to be scratched that keeps on drawing you back is perfect. We've all been there.

Welcome to the FPV addiction and to the forum!

Thanks unseen!  I truly hope that this post helps people press on.  It's so frustrating, but so rewarding.  Now back to my simulator.
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#7
(14-Jul-2017, 12:48 AM)Phoenix132 Wrote: This was a great read. I'm still pretty new myself and I haven't got all the bugs worked out yet but I think I'm fixing my last issue when parts come in tomorrow. Such a fun hobby loving every minute of it. Plus I love building and rebuilding so that's a plus too haha. Good luck and keep flying!

Thanks so much Phoenix!  Just logged another hour or so on the simulator.  Got through 6 gates pretty smoothly in The Meadow on FPVFreerider.  Felling so much better!  Gets frustrating after crashing nearly every 10 or 11 seconds, but this time it was 6 gates in 25 seconds.  Getting better each time.
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#8
(14-Jul-2017, 02:22 AM)Snuffypot11 Wrote: I really enjoyed reading this!
It's the sort of hobby you need to go into with the correct mindset. You WILL crash and break stuff, but you have to pick things up, repair/rebuild and get back out to the field!
I'm still pretty new to FPV flying, but I actually enjoy when I crash, because it gives me a chance to know my limit, then do everything I can to smash past it and get better.

Thanks for the feedback Snuffypot11.  I'm gald you enjoyed it.  I hope I can write more on our (I mean "my") journey.  You know I'm really doing this for my son.   Wink  I really can't wait to fly.  I fell asleep last night dreaming of putting on those goggles.  Stay tuned.
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#9
(14-Jul-2017, 02:16 AM)sirdude Wrote: My journey has been similar...If unseen hadn't given you a +1, I would have.  Well written entertaining and informative!  Thank you and welcome to the forum!!

 Thanks sirdude!  I appreciate the encouragement and kind words.  I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that has taken this journey this way.  I'm sure I'll have many, many more questions, but for now, I feel like I can least keep it up the air.  The gates though.... oh those gates!  I did my first turn around and back through the gate after over shooting gate 5 on The Meadow about 5 minutes ago on FPVFreerider.  That was cool.  Really cool.  I just can't tell if it's my bad piloting or am I not anticipating the next gate enough.  Without the anticipation of the next gate, I seem to just not be able to get through them smoothly.  

I'm going to bed now on a high note.  I really need that bottom plate I snapped to come in.  Hopefully Saturday, then we can try to go outside again.

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#10
Welcome to the forum, I really appreciate the effort you put into your intro!
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#11
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!  What a first post, what a guy, and what a cool dad! As a suggestion for the kids, the Eachine (or many others) H8 mini, can be flashed with acro firmware created by Silverxxx. This I'm pretty sure is the cheapest way to fly acro ($13 for the quad and $5 for the ST-Link which allows you to flash the firmware,) and the H8 really is bullet proof! I wrote a 'how to' a few month ago here, and Drone of Prey and QuadStyles have just been through the process and DOP added a vid to the thread...
Windless fields and smokeless builds
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#12
Hey!

Great story!

When I first started (~3 months ago), I also flew about 2 weeks in Freerider simulator (with the real transmitter!) before I took the quad out.

The first flight was in LOS and I crashed it under a minute - that was mainly because I was amazed by the sound it made, when I punched the throttle and I wanted to do that over and over again Tongue. After that crash (I also had my family watching and I didn't want to disappoint them anymore) I took it very slowly - at first I did some simple moves, but as I got the feel of it, I started doing some large circles. 

At one point I was far enough that I couldn't see the orientation and I almost lost the quad. I was very lucky - by slowly turning the quad (well... I just moved the sticks, I couldn't really see if or how much it was actually turning), the tiny black dot started to get bigger and eventually I got it close to me again. I managed to finish the pack without any other crashes.

Couple of days later I put on the goggles and flew FPV. 

It was surprisingly easy!! For me at least, it was far easier than LOS! I flew couple of packs without any crashes. The landings were a bit rough, but that was it. So, I believe that the simulator experience helped here A LOT!

As you said, you have been practicing in simulator for some time now - I encourage you to try the FPV! It might be much easier to get more air time. It will be intimidating the first time you do it, but after that it is actually quite easy.

Only condition is, that it should be done on large open field (just in case). Take it slow and try to avoid the punch-outs at first. 

I have never owned, built or flew any plane/quadcopter before this. If I can do it, then anyone can!

PS
I was able to make 3 full laps at relatively fast speed in the FPV Freerider garage lot map, when I thought it was time to fly the real thing...
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#13
Awesome "farking" tale Dude! Thumbs Up
Welome to the forum!!
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#14
(14-Jul-2017, 06:25 AM)Tom BD Bad Wrote: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!  What a first post, what a guy, and what a cool dad! As a suggestion for the kids, the Eachine (or many others) H8 mini, can be flashed with acro firmware created by Silverxxx. This I'm pretty sure is the cheapest way to fly acro ($13 for the quad and $5 for the ST-Link which allows you to flash the firmware,) and the H8 really is bullet proof! I wrote a 'how to' a few month ago here, and Drone of Prey and QuadStyles have just been through the process and DOP added a vid to the thread...

Thanks Tom.  Great tip on the H8.  I just read the post and saw the vid.  Since all of them want to "learn to fly", I'm going to go down this path.  We also just picked up a Vusion House Racer.  I really like that thing - though my wife seems annoyed by it.  It's crashing into things all day long.  :-)  Thanks again.
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#15
(14-Jul-2017, 08:54 AM)rapidsh0t Wrote: Hey!

Great story!

When I first started (~3 months ago), I also flew about 2 weeks in Freerider simulator (with the real transmitter!) before I took the quad out.

The first flight was in LOS and I crashed it under a minute - that was mainly because I was amazed by the sound it made, when I punched the throttle and I wanted to do that over and over again Tongue. After that crash (I also had my family watching and I didn't want to disappoint them anymore) I took it very slowly - at first I did some simple moves, but as I got the feel of it, I started doing some large circles. 

At one point I was far enough that I couldn't see the orientation and I almost lost the quad. I was very lucky - by slowly turning the quad (well... I just moved the sticks, I couldn't really see if or how much it was actually turning), the tiny black dot started to get bigger and eventually I got it close to me again. I managed to finish the pack without any other crashes.

Couple of days later I put on the goggles and flew FPV. 

It was surprisingly easy!! For me at least, it was far easier than LOS! I flew couple of packs without any crashes. The landings were a bit rough, but that was it. So, I believe that the simulator experience helped here A LOT!

As you said, you have been practicing in simulator for some time now - I encourage you to try the FPV! It might be much easier to get more air time. It will be intimidating the first time you do it, but after that it is actually quite easy.

Only condition is, that it should be done on large open field (just in case). Take it slow and try to avoid the punch-outs at first. 

I have never owned, built or flew any plane/quadcopter before this. If I can do it, then anyone can!

PS
I was able to make 3 full laps at relatively fast speed in the FPV Freerider garage lot map, when I thought it was time to fly the real thing...

Thanks rapidsh0t for the feedback.  OMG!  3 laps in the Garage?  That thing just taunts me...  I haven't even tried The Garage yet.  Two towers is definitely growing on me though.  :-)  I like open spaces.  That Garage just scares me.  :-)  At the 3 laps lithmus test, I'll be here for another 3 years.
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