DJI Phantom Christmas? Awesome! Now READ THIS!

If you received a DJI Phantom for Christmas, then you are a lucky man…or woman, but I’m betting you’re a man.  

The Phantom’s are amazing machines.  They are great fun, produce really cool video footage and are super easy to fly as long as you have a good GPS signal.

But, before you fly, there are a few things you need to do, and a few things you need to know.  

Not following this advice is, in the opinion of many, the #1 cause of “flyaways”, which is when the thing takes off and is never seen again.  This is usually followed by people blasting DJI on Facebook and then deleting their post when people ask them about home lock.

Most of the details below are from my experience with an FC40.  You may be lucky enough to have a more advanced unit, but the information should be mostly the same.

First – DON’T PANIC!!!   

Second – RTFM!! (look it up)   Twice!  You can download it here.

Now watch these videos.  I spent a lot of time finding these and they helped me A LOT.

Assemble your FC40 

(but don’t fly it just yet!)

NAZA software setup

Enable IOC

Some say this is for advanced users.  I say if you are smart enough to remember to keep both small switches in the top position until you want to use IOC, then why wait.

Calibrating the IMU 

First Flight

Ignore the advice to go up slowly – GIVE IT THE BEANS!  Slow lift offs can cause tip overs.

Exploring Flight Modes

Introduction to IOC

Remove your camera for the first few flights

(and other good advice)

And finally – some basic rules you should be aware of BEFORE you fly

Now that you have done that you might be ready to fly.  But if you are smart you will read this collection of wisdom courtesy of James Nevins.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3279&extra=page%3D1&lang=en

Finally, put your name and phone number on there somewhere.  If you do lose it one day, you’ll be glad you did.

Now GO FLY!!

Keep practicing.  It takes time to get used to it so that you do the right thing when things go wrong.