Top Six FPV Drone Racing Beginner Mistakes

Here is my list of the top six mistakes that people make when they get into FPV Drone Racing.

Category: Quadcoter Videos, Racing

Tags:beginner, beginner mistakes, drone racing, joshua bardwell, list, mistakes, n00b, Noob, top six

1. Rhino The Awesome
  
  I’m that 1 per-cent that didn’t crash on my first flight!
2. DenisINA FPV
  
  I do agree with you, bought expensive RTF racing drone is one of the
  biggest mistake, just like in my country Indonesia, most of them bought
  $500 only for rtf quad and that stupid :D
3. Les DeFoor
  
  Love the comment about local hobby shops and buying gear. Friend walked in
  and said he wanted to learn multi rotors, they talked him into and sold him
  a Vortex Pro and a DX6
4. Optic
  
  Mistake 7: When something goes wrong with the video feed, taking off your
  goggles, and trying to fly it line of sight back closer to yourself. When
  its far away, its hard to see what the front or back sides are. By the time
  you find out its another hundred meters away and getting harder to get it
  back. In my case i had to search for it, as it got too far out and had to
  drop it. As many people including myself, can’t fly manually line of sight
  its better to take of the goggles, find out were its at and land it, then
  go retreive it.
5. Ed Burnette
  
  Failing to respect your drone is a mistake I made. For example, taking the
  props off when working on it, making extra sure it is disarmed before
  picking it up, and standing well back when launching. I have the scars to
  prove it.
6. Colin Evans
  
  Josh, what simulator do you recommend?
7. CesarSalad
  
  You forgot one…PROPS ARE SHARP lol…or im just clumsy but i sliced my
  finger in my first prop change lol didnt know 5030’s were thin enough to
  cut like knife haha
8. Dale Dyer
  
  Good list. I’ve made all of these mistakes in the past 8 mos. of drone
  flying except for buying too cheap. Budget, but not cheap, lol. I went with
  Bruce’s low cost drone build, Taranis, and Hobby King Quanum goggles
  because $500 for Fat Shark HD was a little steep. They have never been one
  of my many problems. Changing from horizon mode to acro mode has been a
  real challenge. Your videos series has been great! Should of started there
  first.
9. Jack Truong
  
  is taranis q X7 any good for a beginner tx given the low price point?
10. Jack Truong
  
  would anyone recommend taranis q X7 to a beginner?
11. Wayne Kinne
  
  I am new to this sport and luckily have taken his advice before ever seeing
  this video ;-P
  I bought Real Flight Drone simulator and also bought LiftOff, it works with
  the RealFlight controller. I like having lots of different places to fly.
  I purchased four Wizard X220 Eachine drones in their RTF ( ready to fly )
  version for just $196 each from Banggood, what a great deal because it
  includes a controller as well as a very sweet drone.
  I purchased four FatShark goggles, three V3’s and one HD3, the V3’s were
  $349 each.
  So just $545 for everything except receiver and antenna for the Fatsharks.
  I kind of splurged on them buying a LaForge set with Diversity and a short
  range TBS Triumph and a long range TrueRC X2-AIR for all four FatSharks. So
  I have bout $200 in receiver and antenna each but could have gotten away
  with less than $55 easy making the total cost at or below $600.
  One nice plus about the Wizard X220’s is that they come with 5 sets of
  blades each, because like he says you will crash a lot learning.
  I bought 4 complete sets so my sons and grandsons can all have fun together.
  
  Great video, was already subscribed, but I give you a thumbs up! ;-P
12. Tony “Doc” Dallalio
  
  Hi Joshua,Can you give a link to the Taranis USB adapter for using
  sims?Thanks!
13. Tony “Doc” Dallalio
  
  Oh sorry I see it.
14. Aaron Freel
  
  lol i made most of those mistakes. Starting over 1.5 years ago there were
  no real sims. By the time i found one and flew it felt so fake i couldn’t
  do it. i wish we had then what we have now. first quads were micros i built
  and strapped a horizon micro aio on and got started all by myself noone
  here flew that i could find. First brushless was a walkera runner. booooo.
  It was cheap a rtf that was plagued with the flip of death and fragile as
  you can get. i started in self level and stayed there until i found a group
  about an hour away. After i found them my eyes were opened for the first
  time. I learned i wasted a lot of time and effort and money. My “bird”
  crashed and couldnt rise again so a guy let me use his rent a reck on
  horizon with self level turned down as far as it could. For the first time
  i placed in a race. That winter i bought all parts to build my own and a
  Chris built it and i learned everything he did. i have since rebuilt that
  quad twice and built a couple more and helped others get in the air for the
  first time. Helping people realize their dream is the best feeling in the
  world. in short everything he says is true. This is a very insightful man
  that thinks before he speaks. A rare trait in this age.
15. pjviegas
  
  The error ABOVE ALL ERRORS for Pros & Beginners (with horror stories
  bellow) :
  
  Never underestimate your drone (Period)
  
  I learn my lesson on this one !, As we build up confidense that “we know”,
  we start to relax and start to forget that hardware sometimes fails (we
  also do), and that’s when the bullet bites you (drone in this case).
  Usually shee.. hapens on take off, or when we let something that we know
  that’s prone to fail leave it awaiting until it does (usuallly when we most
  need it, like your video feed related hardware).
  
  Let me tell two stories (that happen to me), Horror time, uhahuah:
  
  1st, was on a ZMR250 (my 1st race drone), I was race practicing with a
  buddy and the drone hit a tree, I rush to get it back and then, also in
  rush, took off holding it in my hand (as I usually did)…….(FEAR), the
  drone made an almost full throttle back flip into my face. Fortunatly I had
  my FPV gear on the head, that protected me from major injuries.
  Lesson learned : Stopped doing hand launched take offs
  
  2nd, was with my QAV210, I did a FC firmw upgrade, (all god I’ve done this
  many times), pasted my usual settings in CLI and made a “quick check”
  (after all, I know what I’m doing, right !?), thing is : I use my motors in
  reverse rotation (regarding the common method), i call this the “swimmer
  mode”, but for that I have to set motors reverse yaw on CLI, know for some
  reason that command was not set while pasting, and the end result is a quad
  that will go in Full Throttle just after take off (I can explain this, if
  anyone asks for). End result was a hole in my garage ceilling, look it’s
  not a drone, it’s a rocket !
  Lesson learned : Setup changes !?, Check and double check, don’t assume
  it’s ok.
  
  So, remember Murphy’s law, “If everything seems to be going well, you have
  obviously overlooked something”
16. Ac3inSpac3
  
  I agree that learning in acro is the best idea. I flew for the first month
  in auto level mode it seemed like a good idea at first but then I tried
  acro, it seemed so hard, it took me a while to get used to it but acro is
  worth the time and effort to learn
17. Daniel Knight
  
  Autolevel. Strongly disagree about not starting with it. I started with it,
  learned to fly, and when I was finally doing laps around the local field
  and getting frustrated because my quad kept bringing itself to a stop, I
  knew it was time to switch to rate. By the end of my first battery in rate
  mode, I was used to it and I’ve never looked back. I can’t think of a
  single bad habit I learned in autolevel though, and I’m so glad I started
  off with it. It made learning so much easier. I always recommend new pilots
  start off in autolevel and tell them, “you’ll know when to switch to rate.”
  Otherwise, great video with great suggestions. Thanks for all your hard
  work.
18. Racerflea FPV
  
  hey josh, or anybody rather, do you know if the orange usb dongle for
  spektrum transmitters will work with android devices that have the usb otg
  capabilites??? i have a Samsung Galaxy s7 btw
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