Orientation, what's the secret?

R

Rook33

Rook
Ok taking full advantage of the beginners forum here. I'm a few months into flying quads, (first RC anything), and I am learning a lot and getting better I have had my fair share of crashes which has helped me to learn about my quads as I have to take them apart to repair afterwards. The most difficult thing I deal with while flying is orientation. I can fly pretty good when I am not too far out, but when I go out further I lose sense of which way it is facing and in somewhat of a panic, trying different directions to figure it out but I usually end up crashing. I've tried lights on the front, and the orange ping pong ball across the front and these help, but I am still struggling. I see videos of guys flying their quads and it is completely amazing. All different turns, directions, speeds, altitudes and don't seem to have any problem knowing which way is front on the quad. Is there a secret to doing this? Any tips you can give me? or is this just something that will come with more flight time? Be easy on me, still very new to this.
I have also been looking at carrying cases for my quads when I go out to fly. I have a couple of small ones (V959) and a Walkera qr X350 and Aerosky H100. I have found quite a few different ones online but the prices are pretty steep. What do you guys use?
Thanks
 

PeteDee

PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
The seven P's is the only answer;

Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.

Cheers

Pete
 

SoCal Blur

SoCal Blur

Member
Another idea would be to fly FPV. You would never have an orientation problem flying from a first person perspective. Line of Sight flying is great close up but like you have discovered, at distance, it can become difficult to tell which way your quad is facing. Yes practice will help with Line of Sight flying as well.
 

Toymaker

Toymaker

Crashologist
I have been flying RC planes, and driving RC cars and boats for 30 years. My quad has been worst thing to learn for orientation. I ended up making my front arms white and rears' black, the front lights white and the back lights orange. I will be adding green lights to the right side and red lights to the left side also. I have been flying a bit at night and that has helped because there is a much more distinct difference in color and direction. During the day I still have a hard time at longer distances. Flying in wide open areas has also helped. It gives you more time to correct mistakes. Altitude also helps with the amount of time you have to correct mistakes. I have been flying a lot of figure 8's in both directions around obstacles. I use orange cones or plastic trash cans for this. These won't get hurt by the rotors. Using obstacles really helps me gain depth perception which I am still working on.
Oh yea....
Practice, Practice, Practice.
Fly often!
 

C

cootertwo

Member
I think time and patience and practice. It's strange how orientation can be so confusing one day, and all at once, it's no problem. Kinda like a very steep learning curve. I do think FPV flying has helped me, but I still have my good days, and not so good days. Doing close in figure 8's is good practice. Hovering nose in, and letting it drift, and correcting, left side of craft is left stick right side right, etc. etc. But also like you said, you must be able to tell what's front/back, left/right. Simulators can help, but not like the real thing. Simply amazing to watch someone whom has orientation "mastered", fly. I remember when I was learning with my nitro helie's. I could do flips, rolls, everything except nose in, or inverted. I'd go to pieces every time I tried, followed by my heli going to pieces. Then one day I watched a guy that had it all down pat. Blew me away. Seemed as if he could do anything, without even thinking about it. At least with most of these quads, the repair after a mishap isn't near as expensive as crashing a nitro heli, and watching it do the "funky chicken", as it bashes itself to pieces on the ground. Lot's of props, and lot's of batteries, and lot's of practice, the only solution I know of.
 

G

...guest...

Guest
Lights are always good. That's why the Phantom has huge green and red LEDs hooked up to its ESCs to denote what is the front. Stickers also work. Again, the Phantom has red stripes around the two front arms. Colored propellers for the front arms also helps too.

But with smaller builds you could paint the front day glo orange and it still gets pretty tough to tell orientation at any material distance so as SoCal Blur suggested, FPV is really the best way to go.

Of course if you have a Naza flight controller, you can activate Intelligent Orientation Control and this is no longer an issue. Just don't accidentally activate it without knowing otherwise you will have a serious fly away scare don't ask me how I know lol.
 

Benjamin Kenobi

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
How come no one has mentioned practise yet? Practise practise practise (three P's for me)

Okay, I'll P-off now......:nevreness:
 




R

Rook33

Rook
Thanks everyone for the advice. I remember how I struggled making turns when I first got my quad and how all of the sudden it just clicked and I got it, so I imagine with PRACTICE it will get better and hopefully one day it will just click.
I tried IOC on my qr X350 and for some reason that was even more confusing for me than flying in manual.
 

genesc

genesc

Member
I am also new at Quad flying. I have bought two mini quads to practice with and a load of batteries...:) At first there was no way I could fly more than a few seconds before I would bounce of something or crash. As Pete said, practice, practice, practice.. I have been on the this forum now for about 3-4 weeks but was reading allot before I registered, gathering information and questions to ask.

I wanted to be able to fly my new scratch build Quad with a little more than a total beginner. Hence I practice every day with my mini quads which cost allot less to replace than what I will end up with after I build my DJI F-450.

So I say practice, practice, practice, until you feel comfortable with your maneuvers. I can actually turn on a dime now an do figure 8's...:)

Best of luck

Gene
 
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G

...guest...

Guest
I found that proper tuning is the key to be able to fly 200mm-300mm (mini quads). Especially for asymmetric quads you really have to unlink the pitch and roll PIDs. Before I had properly tuned my minis (read: copied others tuning lol), I was bouncing all over the place and had very little control. Now my minis fly on rails comparatively.
 

PeteDee

PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
The secret to my success is that 40 years ago I started flying gliders, often flying a long way away so you had to learn your left from your right, about 30 years ago I started racing off road buggies and again you really had to know your left from your right instinctively, three years ago I started flying heli's and MR's and I already had orientation firmly in my head all from my previous 37 years of practice.

Pete
 

{}{steve}{}

{}{steve}{}

Member
Using a simulator helps a lot, IMO. What really helped me, though, was to get a small quad (protoX works great) and fly it from the couch once or twice a night. It annoyed my wife at first, but now she barely noticed it sand actually enjoys watching it sometimes. The only other advice I can give is to try to not overthink it. Over the years my brain has just kind of learned to react as if I'm in the plane/heli/mr. It hard to explain, but some people learn to focus on which way the plane is physically pointed in reference to their self, but always mentally following the aircraft from behind.
 

R

Rook33

Rook
{}{steve}{} said:
Using a simulator helps a lot, IMO. What really helped me, though, was to get a small quad (protoX works great) and fly it from the couch once or twice a night. It annoyed my wife at first, but now she barely noticed it sand actually enjoys watching it sometimes. The only other advice I can give is to try to not overthink it. Over the years my brain has just kind of learned to react as if I'm in the plane/heli/mr. It hard to explain, but some people learn to focus on which way the plane is physically pointed in reference to their self, but always mentally following the aircraft from behind.
Click to expand...

Mentally following it from behind makes a lot of sense. I've always looked at the nose which has thrown me off. Thanks
 


S

Scott Drysdale

Mixmaster
If you find the Pelican cases a bit too expensive try the following:
http://www.uwkinetics.com/

I have several and I like these better than the Pelican cases.
We have a local supplier who sells these at trade shows w/o the extra shipping costs.


Rook33 said:
Ok taking full advantage of the beginners forum here. I'm a few months into flying quads, (first RC anything), and I am learning a lot and getting better I have had my fair share of crashes which has helped me to learn about my quads as I have to take them apart to repair afterwards. The most difficult thing I deal with while flying is orientation. I can fly pretty good when I am not too far out, but when I go out further I lose sense of which way it is facing and in somewhat of a panic, trying different directions to figure it out but I usually end up crashing. I've tried lights on the front, and the orange ping pong ball across the front and these help, but I am still struggling. I see videos of guys flying their quads and it is completely amazing. All different turns, directions, speeds, altitudes and don't seem to have any problem knowing which way is front on the quad. Is there a secret to doing this? Any tips you can give me? or is this just something that will come with more flight time? Be easy on me, still very new to this.
I have also been looking at carrying cases for my quads when I go out to fly. I have a couple of small ones (V959) and a Walkera qr X350 and Aerosky H100. I have found quite a few different ones online but the prices are pretty steep. What do you guys use?
Thanks
Click to expand...
 

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