Good day folks, Shawn here from Air Photography. There’s going to be a lot of people waking up this year to a brand new drone under the Christmas tree. They’re going to be people getting their very first drone and going for their very first flight. In this video, I’m going to go over a few things that you should do first before you take that first flight.

Understanding Drone Laws

The most important thing you should do before you go for your first flight is get to know the laws and regulations in which the country you live in. Every country has different drone regulations, even a small inexpensive drone like the Neo here. In some Страны, they are heavily regulated, sometimes they need to be registered, there’s different locations that you can’t fly in. It’s a good idea to make sure you’re well aware of all these regulations. For example, here in Canada, sub-250g drones such as the Neo or the Mini series, you can just fly as is – you don’t need any type of registration, whereas something like the Air3 here in Canada, in order to fly it, you will have to get a basic pilot certificate and you will need to register it with Transport Canada.

Getting Familiar with Your Drone

Another thing you should do before you head out to take your first flight is get familiarized with the hardware. Most drones come with a basic quick start guide, but if you go to the manufacturer’s website, including DJI, they have a more thorough detailed user manual right on the DJI website. You can go right to the drones page, they have a download section, and there you can download the user manual. It’s a good idea to read through that to learn how the drone behaves in certain scenarios and go over some of the safety features.

I have several beginner guides for all the major DJI drones. They’re designed for people who have never flown a drone. We go over all the equipment, the hardware, and basic functionality of all the drones to help you prepare for your very first flight. I’ll include links to some of the beginner guides that I’ve made down in the description of this video.

Pre-Flight Preparations

Another thing you need to do before you take your first flight is make sure that the firmware for these drones is updated. When you purchase them brand new, there’s going to be firmware that needs to be installed. This firmware can correct problems, fix issues, and it adds more functionality.

It might seem like a given, but it’s a good idea to always double-check to make sure your batteries are charged, and that includes the battery for the remote. Nothing worse than getting out to location to have all your drone batteries charged but you forgot to charge the remote and you’re down to like 10%. If you’re using a controller that you have to use a smartphone with, again, make sure you have enough power in your phone.

It’s also a good idea to check the weather before you head out. There are apps designed specifically for that for drone flyers. The one I use is UAV Forecast. It’ll tell you whether it’s a good day to fly based on different criteria such as wind speed, satellites, and a few other factors.

Another thing you should do before you take your first flight is make sure there’s no calibration or compass errors with the drone. Usually, you will get a message on the screen before you take a flight if something needs to be calibrated. You can also double-check by tapping that little bar at the top, and if there’s any errors, it will be listed there. It’s a good idea to check your safety settings at this time as well – you can set your return to home altitude, your max altitude, and your max distance.

First Flight Tips

When you are ready to go out and take your first flight, it’s a good idea to pick a location that doesn’t have a lot of obstacles or not a lot of people. Most of these modern drones such as the Mini series or the Air series have obstacle avoidance, but that’s one less thing you do have to worry about. Spend some time on the sticks getting to know how the drone reacts to your input and really get a good feel of how the drone behaves up in the air. Once you’ve mastered that, then you can get into some more complex environments.

One last tip here for new pilots is not to panic when you’re up in the air. There can be a lot of anxiety associated with taking your first flight. Just keep in mind there’s a lot of fail-safes and safety features built into these drones. If you get out too far and you get disconnected, the drone is always going to come back to you. If you get into a situation where you’re getting too close to a tree, that’s where it’s important not to panic. These drones are all held in place by GPS, so if you get into a situation you’re not quite sure if you’re going to hit something, just let go of the sticks. The drone is going to stop right in place, it’s not going to drift around. That allows you to regain your composure, assess the situation, figure out the orientation of the drone, and decide what you should do to get it out of that situation. Sometimes when you get into those situations, we over-correct or we panic, and that can cause the drone to collide with the obstacle if you’re not quite sure of the orientation.

Well folks, those are a few things you should consider if you got a brand new drone this holiday season. You’re going to have a lot of fun with it as long as you take some precautions and really get to know the drone before you take your first flight. I want to thank you for taking the time to watch this video. Hopefully you found it had value – give it a thumbs up if you did, it’s always greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot for watching and we’ll see you in the next one.