New Pilot Experience - 5th of September
Recap!
On Thursday night,
6-8PM, DJI store hosted their Sixth New Pilot Experience across all
stores. We had a range of pilots this week with many bringing their partners!
The two hour
course took pilots, with varying levels of experience, through some of
the basics to the more intermediate skills. Some of the topics that were
covered included pre/post flight checklists as well as
photography/videography settings. Whilst flying the drone may be the
easy, learning how to utilize the DJI GO 4 Map may not be. There are two different maps that can swap in the bottom left hand corner. When connected to GPS, a mini-map will show on the bottom left hand corner of your location. Upon clicking on the map, it will enlarge and show the full map. On the map, there are three icons to note. One being your current position (the blue dot), the Green H icon (your home point) and the red triangle (the drone). On the map, as you fly away, it will draw a straight line from you and the drone. This is especially helpful if you want to return to home manually. (Simply fly back along the straight line). The second map is a general map found in Attitude mode, this is a map that will show the aircraft orientation. We highly recommend flying with GPS connected as the aircraft has greater stability and reliability.
Furthermore, the
workshop also had many questions asked and answered, boosting everyone's
confidence when using the drone. We encourage people to ask as many
questions as possible. Each week, we try and add those questions into
the course to ensure that it is fresh and relevant! We highly recommend
you to sign-up if you haven't already as it is definitely worth it! Click here to sign up!
Feedback from the evening!
"Thanks guys. it was a great workshop. I was there for Sydney Shop’s workshop. The crew did a great job and good content!"
— Dinesh Ranasinghe
Question of the week!
How do I maximize the range of my drone?
This
is a great question and is super handy for those who have a drone with
smaller range. The Mavic 2 series has one of the best ranges seen in any
drone to date, however the Spark, Mavic Air and Phantom 4's have range
issues where the transmission can be choppy and deflate your confidence
in flying.
The first misconception is to do with the remote
controller. Instead of pointing the antennas directly to the drone, we
actually want maximum surface area to face the drone and to aim at the
receivers on the drone. These are usually located in the front legs of
the drone, so you could potentially gain more range by flying backwards
than forwards! This means we want to point the long-side of the sticks
to face the drone, you can tilt your controller to ensure you get that
maximum surface area to the drone.
Another thing to do is to reduce the interference around the actual controller. This means that we want to get rid of the any of the interference that can be coming from our mobile phone (that is attached to the controller). For this, turn off your Bluetooth, WiFi and if you really want, you can turn off your cellular data and GPS. However we recommend keeping the GPS on, however if you have already pre-downloaded the maps, you can turn off cellular data. This will help reduce the interference and extend your range.
If possible, try and be elevated when you fly. So if there is a hill nearby, We recommend running up that hill to get to the that extra height as if you are in a valley, the signal will be weaker as your signals will be blocked by the surrounding walls. You should also get the drone to be elevated from the ground to ensure the signal is not blocked. If you fly up then fly down behind an object, you will most likely loose signal with your drone as the object will block the frequencies.
Check which mode you are in. Depending which drone you have, it can potentially choose to swap between the 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz band. Based off pure physics, the shorter the wave length, the shorter the range of the said signal. The 5.8ghz is a faster band, however the range is limited compared to 2.4ghz, similiar to how the 5G network needs a lot of towers to ensure full reach. Not only this, the 5.8ghz band can be blocked easier than the 2.4ghz band. You can check which band you are in via the top of the application. The drone will do its best to swap in-between the two, looking for the best and cleanest channel!
Whilst all this will improve your range, please ensure you operate your aircraft within the CASA rules and regulations.
Further Comments
We are seeing a lot of pilots turning up to the NPE sessions now, please make sure you book in advance to secure your place! We will try to run these sessions for as long as we can. The team really appreciates your support and we will always look after you with your purchase, drone help and more!
Don't miss out on this FREE (only for a limited time) event!
If you have any questions regarding the NPE or this article, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@d1store.com.au.