A Veteran Pilot Goes to Drone School

First Flight

So you’ve opened the box, put everything together, had a quick look at what is supposed to pass for instruction, and brought your new quadcopter out for a test fly.  If you’re like most of us, your first quad is a Phantom and your first landing wasn’t by choice…..

There’s plenty of advice on YouTube and a lot of it isn’t worth the time it takes to watch. The good stuff tends to be split up and spread all around, taking a ton of time to collate.

And even when you think you have rounded up enough tips, you still are not sure your next flight will be any less costly to repair than your last. 

Ups and Downs

Drone technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, but the support structure for flying multirotors has been slow to follow along. 

I have been flying for a number of years and I have been through a number of platforms. Currently, I fly a Phantom 1 and a Phantom 2 with gimbals, FPV and advanced transmitters, and a hex rotor S900 with a GH4 platform with a switchable dual/single operator setup.

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I have been able to learn a lot about what works and, more expensively, what doesn’t. Despite having a pretty strong confidence in what I know, I find myself more concerned about just how much I don’t know. 

Drone School is in Session

With that in mind, I recently headed down to the DSLRPros Advanced Flight School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a two day session. The first day was a comprehensive overview of the basics of safety and flight preparation and included in-depth instruction covering everything from large battery properties and best charging practices to understanding every aspect of the equipment we use to fly our multirotors. Autopilot software, gimbal systems, iOSD software, firmware updates, craft control settings… we covered it all; in depth, and hands on. 

Day 2 was an extension of Day 1 with a morning review and reinforcement of the preceding day’s information, along with the opportunity to talk further with the instructors and classmates about specific issues and challenges we faced on a variety of demanding shoots and flight situations. 

We moved outside for the afternoon session of Day 2 and had the chance to put into practice the skills we brought with us, along with the new tips, tricks, and whole new lessons that we had been taught the day before. 

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First with a Phantom 2 and then with a eight rotor S1000, each class member flew a series of small flights to demonstrate that we had a solid grasp on the lessons taught. The afternoon was a great chance to pick up on techniques and tips from the other class members.

Class Dismissed

There are a lot of choices that can be made about how we set up and operate our aircraft. These two days at drone school were an excellent lesson about the value of searching out experts on the instruction side of things. 

Attending the class wasn’t a small investment- by the time I was done flying down, finding accommodation, etc., I was putting in as much as a spare Phantom 2 setup would cost me, but it was absolutely worth every penny. 

The opportunity to chat with the instructors, classmates and R&D folks at DSLRPros was great and I left at the end of the class knowing that I was as up to date as anyone could be (and feeling a whole lot less like an involuntary Beta tester of the technology from our friends at DJI). 

On a good note for you, reader, I also had the chance to have a look at a remote instruction program being offered by Drone Academy X, I’ll write a review post of that soon and look into their Inspire series training program as soon as that gets the official rollout. These programs are great for those of you who are looking for a complete instruction package but can’t work into your schedule either a beginner or advanced flight school at the DSLRPros campus in Florida.