How to Fly a Drone for Beginners

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So you have a drone and you want to fly it huh? You’ve seen all the cool videos of people controlling their drones to do cool stuff and now you’re thinking how hard could it be, i just need a drone right? Wrong. If you’re doing this for the first time, you may want to buckle up and read through this guideline on how to maneuver your drone the right way. Here’s how to Fly a Drone for Beginners

Drone Flying Safety Guidelines

The first thing you’ll want to do is read your country’s guidelines for flying a drone (especially if you are based in the US). You need to know basic information such as the maximum height you should fly your drone, where you can and cannot fly your drone, things you should look out for and your own general state of mind when flying your drone.

DJI Ryze Tello Drone - Powered

Ryze Tello Drone - Powered by DJI
Product type: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE
Brand: DJI

4 Types of Controls for a Drone

Next you’ll want to learn about the 4 basic types of controls for a drone. They are Yaw, Throttle, Pitch and Row. Grab your transmitter and start following along!

Yaw

Yaw controls the rudder of the drone. By moving the left stick left or right, you can rotate your drone to face a new direction. Left will move it counter clockwise whilst right clockwise. How it works is that all the rotors spinning in the direction you want to rotate the drone speed up and the other rotors spinning in the opposite direction slow down. Your drone will now face in whatever direction you rotated it towards.

Throttle

Next is the throttle. The throttle of the drone refers to its altitude, or height. By moving the left stick up or down, the rotors on the drone speed up in that direction. So the more you push the left stick upwards, the faster your drone will move upwards and vice versa for moving the stick downwards. You may want to start by slightly moving the left stick up and down since you’re still a beginner. Increasing and decreasing heights of your drone at high speeds drastically increases the risk of you damaging it.

Pitch

The third control is the Pitch. This one is pretty straightforward. The pitch is controlled by moving the right stick forward and backward and it controls the forward and backward movement of the drone. Again, the speed at which the drone moves is proportional to how much you move the right stick up and down.

Roll

Finally we have the Roll. The Roll control moves the drone left or right. This is done by moving the right stick either left or right. There is another special control however. The trim controls are on both the left and right side of the transmitter and are used when you need to calibrate the balance between the right and left sides of your drone. There are plenty of videos online that can teach you how to use the trim controls to adjust the balance of your drone.

Some basic maneuvers to learn as a beginner are Orbiting and Hovering. Orbiting is circling your drone around an object. Many people use this to film some type of circular shot of their target object. Hovering is being able to hold your drown in mid air without it moving left/right or up/down. These two maneuvers are good for beginners because it really helps to teach you how to control your drone.

Top Tips – How to fly a Drone for Beginners

Always read the manual first.
Practice in simulator mode if your drone has one (Many of the DJI apps have this).
Fly in an area clear of buildings and trees for the first time to practice control of your drone.
Avoid areas where there are lots of animals and people.
Avoid flying in adverse weather conditions (heavy rain, snow, fog, high winds).
Hover for around 30-40 seconds to gain stability before heading out.