Advice for visualising orientation (nose in hovering, etc)

[quaddy]

Hi,

Just wondering if you guys had any tips or advice as to how to know which way, left or right, etc when in orientations other than tail-in ?

I'm trying to see myself as the pilot of the quadcopter and his left and right.. ?

 

[glowingturnip]

comes naturally after a while, and you won't need to think about it, but sometimes I find myself imagining as though each corner of the right stick pulls on a string to that same corner of the quad - eg if I pull the stick down and left, then it will brake the quad as though pulling on a string from its rear-left, and so on.

Strangely enough, I find nose-in hovering slightly easier than nose-out (see avatar pic !)

 

[quaddy]

oh that's an interesting approach, thanks

 

[RGJameson]

Yea you just got to keep at it . One thing though, just random flying around isn't much help, you need a plan. Practice one maneuver at a time.

 

[Gramps]

I am working on being able to hover nose in. I have tried to just lift off and fly that way but it doesn't last long and I crash. So here's how I'm doing it now, from a tail in hover I practiced with the nose between 10-11 o'clock and 1-2 o'clock. Worked on one the the other. When I got comfortable with that I would switch back in forth staying each direction 15 secs or so. Then I moved to 9 & 3 o'clock and did the samething. My next step is 7-8 & 4-5 o'clock. Then nose in.

To help with orientation I tell my self to move blue or red which for me is forward or backward. Haven't figured out any real trick for alerion so I just tap the stick a hair to see which way it goes. Like RGJ said the more you do it the more natural it becomes.

I'm doing this 95% of the time inside using my X11 & QX 3D.

 

[Jackson]

FWIW I started with the typical nano/micro inside and in my small back yard (with too many trees). But it wasn't until I got this larger mini and flew in a larger, open area that things finally clicked.

Also added electrical tape around the front arms and a horizontal stripe from motor to motor, for orientation. Though it sounds odd, doing funnels early on really helps you to get feel for the controls, especially the throttle. Good throttle management is the key to good flying. If you baby your quad so as not to crash it it will take a lot longer to develop the muscle memory. Best to start cheap and not worry about crashing.

Good Luck.

 

[quaddy]

thanks for the tips, practicing a lot

 

[Twainhearts]

When I first started flying I found this video from the guy on the Quadcopter 101 YouTube channel to be useful -

Hope it helps you too.