Just a poor slob needing help

[alabamas13]

Hey from Alabama,

I'm supposed to say something witty here I presume so here goes. Something witty. Dang that was easier than I thought. I have 30 years in TV news. I decided to try something different and do cheap aerials. But after a long and arduous path I am no further along than I was. I am poorer so there's that. I wanted a custom built Quad with all the bells and whistles that would make it easy for somebody who is clueless to do what I intended to do. But $4500 later all I've learned is, well, not a lot. I have my quad that I cannot fly. I even spent $1100 on the DJI controller and that is not helping. Long story short, I found this guy on YouTube who made some pretty amazing videos and custom built Quads to order. Lesson learned. He was, at best, unreliable. Feel free to PM me if you want to know his name. Needless to say dealing with him was a waste. He sent me the Quad with no programming of the DJI controller. Shorted me 4 batteries. Admitted to me he must have been drunk when he shipped certain things. Omg I wanted to strangle him.

But be that as it may I need help. I paid someone else to program the controller and he got it running ok. But he also said I should invest in decent simulator software which I did to teach me about yaw and trim, etc. Another $200. But my problem is my quad will not take off vertically. Everytime I try to fly it it starts to lean to one side. I have gone through numerous propellers flipping the damn thing over. The software was useless because it always takes off perfectly vertical so I learn nothing.

So here I am, hat in hand so to speak, hoping some valiant soul would be willing to offer me help to make my dream a reality.

 

[Roger Ramjet]

Hi!

Wow, that is quite the story you got there... I have many questions I would like to ask you but one thing seems clear to me: You are not very happy, and I can understand this!!!

The first thing I want to tell you is hang on to your dream, It can absolutely become reality, if you really want it! Guarantee!

There is certainly more than enough expertise amongs all of us to make your dream come true. You will have to put some efforts in the learning curve process and, please note that efforts doesn't mean money. You mentionned that one ladd suggested to invest in a flight sim to learn how to fly and that cost you 200.00. That is a very wise investment, it sure will save you thousands and bring you closer to your dream. Anything you want to do with a multirotor is possible but, as you find out, it doesn`t come automatically. Even money can not buy the result you want to accomplish unless you are paying someone skilled to fly for you. I do not think this is your dream....

There are no machines that just take off and fly without any human inputs for the price range a normal person is welling to pay for. Besides, the fun and challenge factor is pretty much gone when all is done automatically.

Having said that, a multirotor is inherently very unstable and very few people can fly them on full manual mode, far away, shooting video in the process. The very few that can must not be very relaxed in the process.... and these guys are professionnals. So you must learn to fly the quad with the assistance of ther Master Controller (MC) which will deal with the critical flight parameters. This scenario is available in your flight sim and this is where you should spend your time and not your money!

Make your dream happened on the sim, and then we will see how to proceed with your newly acquired skills in real life. This, in my humble opinion, is the only way to go. Efforts....Efforts....Efforts....RESULTS!

Cheers!

Rodge

 

[Gary Mortimer]

Turn the wind up on the sim, find a local quad pilot, watch him fly his own machine first to make sure he really can and then let him have a go of yours.