Drone Control Training

You don’t realise how hard flying a drone will be. They make it look so easy on YouTube. It is something that will definitely require practice to become competent, let alone expert. Perhaps for someone who plays a lot of video games it could come naturally. Not for me.

There are some moves that are easier than others. Often times the drone simply doesn’t do what I think I am telling it to. Or the drone will do something that I thought and felt I was not telling it to. Fine motor control will come with time and deliberate practice. Awareness of what you’re actually doing with the controls, gained through the kind of exercises listed here, will allow you to develop that motor control.

Performing these maneuvers is deliberate practice.

Occasionally I will lose my bearings, I will lose my memory of which stick in which direction does what. And at other times I understand what to do instinctively.

For a good while flying the drone will become work. It will be, for the most part, performing specific exercises with the aim of becoming a better pilot. My advice is to find those specific maneuvers that you find difficult and work on those. There will be easy exercises and they can be done once or twice each session simply for warm up. But after that, focus on the difficult, the maneuvers where you lose your bearings. The more difficult the better. Mastering these moves is how you become a skilled pilot.

Forwards, Backwards, Sideways, Diagonals

With this exercise you can gradually move into performing each direction without stopping. This lends itself to the diagonals turning into a V maneuver. Adding in the decent and ascent, and combining it with a level movements at different heights. So, beginning a meter off the ground, move forwards, then rise to 2 meters off the ground, moving backwards. Ascending to a height of say 5 meters, then using that as a new level. It is by combining these simple movements with ascension and descent, and without stopping whenever possible that your flying can begin to take on a more rhythmic, natural flow – and is quite enjoyable. Keeping within the parameters of the exercise avoids the flying being reduced to chaotic movements and whatever is easiest.

S-Turn

The S-Turn maneuver is great for slowing down the forward and backwards motion, getting control over that movement. I found I had difficult early on changing my forward speed, and that I would gradually start to increase speed as I moved along. I would also, for some reason, begin to rise towards the end of one movement and would have to stop and bring the drone back down to the level I wanted.

The exercise gradually teaches you to have control over both sticks simultaneously.

Another problem that would arise, especially at the end of a movement when I’d reached my destination, I would start to make the drone rise. Not deliberately, just as part of stopping, for some reason. Becoming aware of this, I was able to get control over the tendency.

Another great variation on the S-Turn, and one that addresses the problem of rising at the ends of a movement, is to invert that S, essentially moving up and down while moving forward. I think of it as a “Flow” maneuver. This improves you ascension and descent control while moving forward, and by changing the speed of movement as well as the height and depth of the flow, it can become very challenging.

And we can combine the S-Turn and the Flow to go to another level of difficulty. And by doing this, we can get the benefits of both in one, save time and really test our control skills. Call it the S-Flow.

Vertical Box

This is a good maneuver to practice smooth cornering and speed control. It also teaches good spatial perception as you try to maintain similar distances for each side of the square.

Start by stopping at each 90 degree turn. Try and make these pauses smooth. Then move onto smooth cornering without stopping. Getting your distance right as well as maintaining something close to a 90 degree angle with a straight line becomes difficult.

Reverse Sensing

This is a simple seeming maneuver but is in fact very difficult.

Simply go forward and backwards in a straight line. Once you reach the end of the forward movement yaw 90 degrees to have the camera face towards you. Then move “Forward” again. This will test you ability to adjust your use of the controls in reference to the position and “direction” of the drone.

Reverse sensing can be added to any of the maneuvers in order to make them more difficult and to further improve you drone piloting skills, and I recommend you do try and add reverse sensing whenever possible.

Horizontal Box

A rectangular course is another great way to practice smooth cornering. It also lends itself to incorporating reverse sensing. It is like the vertical box, now horizontal.

Vertical Triangle

This exercise will test your ability to make a smooth ascent and descent while moving sideways. At times I had difficulty with this and so practiced it a lot.

Just like the vertical box, begin by stopping at each angle to get good control of the drone and then make the triangle without stopping. Make small and large triangles.

Orbit

With yaw and without.

This is good practice for future cinematic drone shots. Focus on keeping the orbit speed consistent, as well as the circumference of the circle.

Move on to a spiral where you widen the orbit, taking in more of the surroundings, as well as adding throttle and gaining altitude.

By adding yaw and keeping the subject in the camera frame you gain more control and develop skills that apply to many areas of drone use.

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My advice is to not spend too much time on developing your control skills alone. It can get kind of boring. It’s as if we’re training just to train and that will sap your motivation. A couple of sessions spent on getting a half decent handle on the basic controls, and then have these exercises become a part of your warm up each time you fly. Much like a warm up before a game of soccer, do these maneuvers before you fly your drone for whatever it is you’re actually interested in - photography, videography, modelling, FPV.

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