First flight, damn near lost a finger

S

skewzme

Member
I bought a Raptor done, also known as a Winsland Minivette in case any of you have one...
https://www.hobbytron.com/RaptorLiveFeedVideoCameraRCDrone.html?gclid=CJnd9qyDu9MCFdmFswod7ZEDoA

Flew ok for a few minutes. Landed and decided to power down the remote. Once remote was off,
two of the four propellers started turning slowly. Picked it and suddenly all 4 propellers start spinning full throttle, with my finger right in the way. Remote was off, I have no control, and I'm hanging on to the bottom leg so the damn thing doesn't just fly away in to a tree or something. Reach down with the other hand to turn the remote back on -- wouldn't come on.!
SO I'm standing there in the middle of a field, holding this thing for dear life with my hands within inches of 4 propellers spinning at 10k RPM. Tried for what seemed like forever to pull the battery out, hands even closer to the spinning propellers. I finally got the battery out, and by this time I have blood stains everywhere. Damn.. Now I know why they call it a Raptor.
 
You and the quad survived sounds like. My little Rottie makes me bleed daily while playing, so no guts no glory hahaha

Good luck!
 
It's cool. I'm new. I read the manual but missed that. Too much data to consume and remember.
The advertisers said this was an "easy" drone to fly.
My question... if it's so damn easy how come I gotta read three books first?
 
skewzme said:
It's cool. I'm new. I read the manual but missed that. Too much data to consume and remember.
The advertisers said this was an "easy" drone to fly.
My question... if it's so damn easy how come I gotta read three books first?
Click to expand...

It is fun for sure. I did a rookie move and flew my New Phantom into a tree back in February. Broke the gimbal.

You learn just like everyone here did.

Hang in there. And you get good help here. Without the "busting" usually ;)

Good luck and have fun!
Bill
 
skewzme said:
It's cool. I'm new. I read the manual but missed that. Too much data to consume and remember.
The advertisers said this was an "easy" drone to fly.
My question... if it's so damn easy how come I gotta read three books first?
Click to expand...

It's easy to fly if you put it in P mode and fly it line of sight. After that, it gets a bit more complicated! And yes, never turn on any RC anything before its transmitter is powered on, and power off the quad before you power off the TX. No need to go into why at this point. ;) Glad you got away without any serious injury or damage.
 
Rick M said:
It's easy to fly if you put it in P mode and fly it line of sight. After that, it gets a bit more complicated! And yes, never turn on any RC anything before its transmitter is powered on, and power off the quad before you power off the TX. No need to go into why at this point. ;) Glad you got away without any serious injury or damage.
Click to expand...
Can you explain "P Mode"? Is that specific to this model? I notice mine has something called "easy" mode, but haven't flowed it again yet.
 
Something ELSE to remember...most RFT quads automatically disarm when they are inverted unless you have it in manual/acro mode. Most new fliers have it in stabilized. If it is in stabilized flight mode, turn it upside down. If in manual mode, invert it and put the props in the grass.

It is a learning curve with no instructions. Enjoy the ride. The better you get, the faster you fly, the more spectacular your crashes, the more time you spend fixing instead of flying.

It is like a drug. You always want more and your wallet pays the price.
 
One of the nuances of flying FPV is not seeing the whole picture when you are airborne. It isn't like being in an airplane with a pilot seeing on a 180 sweep. It isn't like LOS where there again you have a wide area of visual sweep. One scenario: FPVing while side slipping for a horizontal view and slamming into a rock face of a cliff. Uh, did not see that coming...
 
skewzme said:
Can you explain "P Mode"? Is that specific to this model? I notice mine has something called "easy" mode, but haven't flowed it again yet.
Click to expand...
skewzme said:
Can you explain "P Mode"? Is that specific to this model? I notice mine has something called "easy" mode, but haven't flowed it again yet.
Click to expand...

P mode is the standard GPS mode. With sticks at neutral the quad will stay in a stable hover. The "easy" (beginner) mode sets a geofence max height and distance from you. You can enable it in the DJI Go app, but I think it should be enabled by default when the unit ships. I would suggest watching a few YouTube videos on your Phantom - there are a lot of good ones that explain features.
 
skewzme said:
The Raptor has GPS. I have something called Easy Mode. Might that be it?
Click to expand...

Surprise Surprise! Fooled me! I made an assumption... Go figure. Sorry about that.

WOW! a $499 something drone. On sale for $299. Nice!

I think generally speaking GPS capable drones are much easier to fly.

BUTT so much more complicated. So it is a double edge sword.

I am not familiar with it..duh LOL But for that price I may do some research.

My only recommendation is READ READ and ohh read some more.....:)

Maybe one of our learned scholars will jump back in here.

Have fun!
 
skewzme said:
249 to be exact. Yeah I hear it was a pretty good deal 50% off sale. I heard from quite a few people it was a pretty good deal . appreciate the input
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I am seriously considering it now.......Tomorrow the Eagle Craps! That is payday for me LOL

How was the documentation? Manual? How many pages? Can you send a copy??
 
ArmyVet said:
I am seriously considering it now.......Tomorrow the Eagle Craps! That is payday for me LOL

How was the documentation? Manual? How many pages? Can you send a copy??
Click to expand...
I'm not experienced enough to give you a good review, but it's the same as the Wingsland Minivet, just rebadged. There are plenty of reviews of that one on Youtube.
Documentation is hard to follow for me. Just too much to digest all at one time, but probably will be good after the learning curve.
 
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