I am new to multirotor or any air craft and was wondering what people did to learn to fly. I mean really fly, not just hover ten feet away and then pitch back to where you took off.

Did you...

A. Just do it and wreck a bunch? (which I would like to keep to a minimum)

B. Have a training manual or set of maneuvers you would perform repeatedly to raise skill level?

or C. Hire someone to teach you to fly?

I want to get better quickly which I know requires a lot of practice and I am willing to put in the time, but is there a best/ fastest way to get better at "real" flying? (no gps controlled/ glorified hovering)

Thanks for the input,
Brandon

I used a syma x5c-1 to learn on. Built a F450 and quickly found out it was way to much for me. The syma is not very good in the wind but it helped me alot. I hear the hubson x4 is also a good one.
Hope this helps

Radd's school of rotary flight as real life exercises and a decent sim software (I preferred Phoenix, but there are others out there) for daily training did the trick for me.

Not much learning needed in autolevel mode, though.

-mike-

http://quadcopter101.blogspot.com/

This link might be helpful.

For me it was practice, practice, and more practice with mini sized quads then more practice, practice, and even more practice with my build.

I am still "practicing".

Brandon- good luck.

It is a process. It takes some time before really "piloting" seems "natural".

I learned on a hubsan x4, but if I had to do it again I would look for a quad that had a real acro mode (no self level). I flew in my living room a lot, learned to nose in hover and fly figure eights, then went outside and tried it in the wind. Lost one x4 when I got a little too ambitious. Next I built the Hobby king Spec Racer and started the journey to fpv. Flew self level for a few months, then took a vacation week from work and flew in acro mode every day till I was comfortable. Now my transmitter hasn't had the self level switched on in so long, I think the switch is getting rusty!

It doesn't really matter what you learn on, the most important factor is stick time, so get something that you can maximize your time with. If you have lots of outside space, a bigger trainer is fine, but if you have to fly in a small area or inside, a x4 or nano would be best. Don't over think it, just fly fly fly.

For a sim Try FPV Freerider (It has a line of sight mode also)

I have never used a simulator to learn on, have always just went to real flying. Been flying RC planes for over 25 years and helicopters for around 5 years. Just started on multi-rotors last winter with a small indoor heli-max 1si and a couple months ago on bigger ones. Got a cheap tarantula to start with outdoor flight and was going good until I flew it into the pool. Then I went to a tri-copter which was going great until I wrecked it learning to do some flips, just got the parts to fix it today so it will be up and running soon. Since then I've built a couple 450 size quads and a f550 hex and have learned a lot about flying, building and programming from the actual experience it gives you that you can't get from a simulator. You are going to wreck them at times, but repairing them and getting them flying again is 1/2 the fun. Besides after you wreck 1 it's always a good time to try those upgrades you wished you had thought of before you built it the 1st time

I used Realflight and for FPV another fan of FPV freerider here, very cool for FPV practice.

Originally Posted by Sudovoodoo80

I learned on a hubsan x4, but if I had to do it again I would look for a quad that had a real acro mode (no self level). I flew in my living room a lot, learned to nose in hover and fly figure eights, then went outside and tried it in the wind. Lost one x4 when I got a little too ambitious. Next I built the Hobby king Spec Racer and started the journey to fpv. Flew self level for a few months, then took a vacation week from work and flew in acro mode every day till I was comfortable. Now my transmitter hasn't had the self level switched on in so long, I think the switch is getting rusty!

It doesn't really matter what you learn on, the most important factor is stick time, so get something that you can maximize your time with. If you have lots of outside space, a bigger trainer is fine, but if you have to fly in a small area or inside, a x4 or nano would be best. Don't over think it, just fly fly fly.

For a sim Try FPV Freerider (It has a line of sight mode also)

Yep, I also started with a Hubsan X4 and it was great to learn orientation. I still fly them during the winter inside zipping back and forth and around my basement. Just wish they had Acro (Rate) mode instead of auto-level only. These are pretty tough and can take a lot of crashing. Props tend to fly off and get lost rather than break but the motors do go bad and need to be replaced.
Next was a 200 size quad X with a MWC and BLDC motors. This upped the challange and pushed my skills. I got better but it wasn't until I build a Warp Quad aerobatic quad that I could take off the training wheels and fly in pure Acro mode.

Next I scratch a 260 mini_h with FPV. The LOS experience was a big hep but FPV ha it's own new challenges. A year and a half of flying FPV and now I feel I'm finally getting pretty good at it.

As other have said: Stick Time is the most impotant and you will crash many, many times.

Thanks for the feed back. It seems like almost everybody didn't really have any training like in the form of an instructor or course you took. I knew it would be a matter of flying, A LOT, but do you think that an outlined training course or paying for an instructor would speed up the process?

Brandon- check out that link. It may be helpful in getting together a training plan for practicing the different aspects that need to be learned to effectively pilot a multi-rotor aircraft.

You are not alone with this learning to pilot an RC aircraft. There are all kinds of threads here at RCG and on the internet offering training suggestions from different owner/operators of multi-rotor aircraft. Everyone has their own learning curve and needs.I copied a post of mine from some time in the past at a similar thread:

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2448591

https://www.youtube.com/user/captjacvideos
http://quadcopter101.blogspot.com/

"These are two helpful training tutorial links for multi-rotor aircraft. There are also several helpful training tutorials on the internet for RC helicopters (where I learned the basics.).

I practiced "writing" the alphabet, circles, figure 8's rear in, left side in, right side in, and nose in. You may find one (right/left) side easier than the other so practice the "weak" side until you are comfortable. Then the nose in practicing.

If you notice I use the word "practice" frequently because one most practice these skills to the point of extreme boredom (5 minutes for me ), but after a while (in my case a long while ) it becomes second nature regardless of orientation of the aircraft. One must break up these practice sessions to ~ 5 minutes and then break the monotony with some fun flying, and then back to practicing. It was a long and slow learning curve for me.

I hope this helps.

Good luck and keep practicing."

first learned to fly angle mode with a lite hawk exciter.

learned FPV and acro mode with FPV freerider.

Hubsan H107 and Dromida Ominus - both are GREAT for learning.. Just ease into it.

I used to race rc cars years ago but was very rusty. I started with a ProtoX and then got a Hubsan X4 and NanoQX a week later. I would recommend a Hubsan X4 with prop guards or NanoQX (prop guards built in) and lots of propellers.

I first started just banging around and crashing a lot. Then I found some training videos on YouTube and practiced left in, right in and head in control as well as figure 8's and circuits. I did this for a couple of months but still could use more practice. I built a Hunter Mini Vtail and ET200 (fpv). They're a lot of fun to fly.

Both Hubsan X4 and NanoQX are pretty good outdoors in light wind (<15mph?) but you can lose orientation pretty quickly since they're so small. I'd recommend keeping them within 100' or less. 50' would be better.

I always practice left, right and head in for a few mins every time I fly though. Doing just that would get boring and having time to let it sink in is better than no time between practice flights. It just takes time.

Learning to fly is hard there are no real shortcuts.

I started flying last spring and now consider myself a capable pilot in most situations both line of sight and FPV. These are my best tips to help ease the way.

1. Be safe and dont take any shortcuts. If you are flying a copter they can be dangerous to bystanders - dont take any risks - find a place away from other people so you can concentrate and crash without harming anything or anybody. The best spot is a park or field with tall grass. Be a responsible pilot and ambassador to our hobby we dont want to hear about it on the evening news.

2. You will crash a lot - bring everything you need for quick repairs (propellers, zip ties batteries, tape) or your sessions will end quickly. Flying one session after the other is the best way to learn fast - you need all the time you can get in the air.

3. Learn to fly line of sight in "Horizon Mode" or a self level mode - its hard but it will become more natural as you practice. The flitetest guys did a good video -

Flite Test - How to Fly a Multirotor (16 min 27 sec)

.

Practice these techniques - the "walk the dog" exercise is really useful to start - just walk behind your aircraft learning the hover and fine motor control required to get the aircraft to respond. After you are comfortable with that try standing still and flying circles then figure eights. Once you can fly figure eights you are doing really good.

4. Last big tip - find out what the rates and exponential do to your control of the copter. Some copters are very responsive and need the rates dialed down and the expo dialed up to achieve best control - find out what works for your style of flying and aircraft. Generally speaking its best not to use any expo on the throttle and a bit of expo on pitch, roll and yaw. This gives the best throttle response and allows some sloppiness with you thumbs as you learn.

For me this was a really big tip - finding the balance between my aircraft, my thumbs and the controller inputs made a really big difference in my ability to control the aircraft.

5. Go out to fly with a plan everytime. Dont just launch and fly around - be methodical and practice techniques for the first batteries of every session. Then on the last batteries do some freestyle and relaxed flying.

6. Flying a copter in "Acro mode" line of sight is much more difficult than flying a fixed wing. Once you get decent at flying a copter in a self level mode - try some simple hover exercises in Acro mode. Dont worry if you cant fly Acro line of site - not many pilots can. Flying in Acro is much easier in the goggles - you will know when you are ready for that.

7. Last tip - dont progress to the goggles too fast - flying line of sight is really fun. There are tons of tricks and things that you can do LOS that would be impossible in FPV. Consecutive flips and rolls, pirouttes, cyclones etc... these moves would be too disorienting in the googles - imagine trying this FPV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=8p5uDf9i_Yc

Have fun and fly safe!