The Drone Guide for Beginners

Buying the Right Beginner Drone

UAVs come in all shapes and sizes from toy-like quadcopters to large, commercial machines. Generally as a beginner you want a cheaper quadcopter that wont break the bank if it crashes or flies away.

Mini Drones

The cheap mini drones often come without a camera, and at the price you really dont have much to worry about, but can focus on learning. The flight time is usually less than 10 minutes. They usually dont have any special functions.

Budget Drones

If you add a little more money you get the UAVs that are a little bit bigger, and may have a cheap built in camera. They can be an awesome flying experience, and you can take some photos and shoot some video, but you cant expect great video. The flight time is usually quite short, around 10 minutes.

Some of the budget drones have features like flips, and 3D rolls, but they usually lack the more advances safety features of the prosumer drones, like return to home, follow me mode, hover, point of interest and often dont have live streaming.

Quality Drones and Prosumer Drones

These quadcopters usually set you back at least $300, but has so much more to offer. The flight time can be up to around 25 minutes, and the camera attached is usually of very good quality. A good example is the DJI Phantom 4, which shoots awesome video, and has features like return to home, follow me and auto-hover.

For this price they should have some kind of live video streaming system, via an app or via the controller.

At the high end of this category you can shoot video that looks quite professional, and have a drone that you can fly for up to 25 minutes. The larger drones handle wind better, and some come equipped with a gimbal that stabilizes the camera.

A few important factors to consider when buying a drone include:

The controllable range: what's the distance from which you can control the drone? Some of the most basic models have a control range of only 30 meters.

Battery life: this is a major problem for some of the more inexpensive drones. A single battery will last anywhere between five and seven minutes. More expensive and better-built varieties have an extended battery life of up to 30 minutes.

Additional features: there are many other great extras that manufacturers equip their drones with. Live video streaming, automatic return home upon the loss of connection, follow-me functionality, flight pre-programming and the ability to go around obstacles are some of the cool extras.

Additional Equipment

You may want to consider some extra equipment. It can make the drone easier to control, increase the versatility of the equipment or prolong the flight time. Some of the top drone accessories and additional equipment to consider buying include:

Batteries: this one is a no-brainer. Having extra batteries will give you the opportunity to enjoy additional hours of fun. While one of the batteries is charging, you'll be using the others to fly the drone. Make sure you have at least one additional battery.

Additional propellers: propellers are likely to break, especially while you're making those first flight attempts. Buy at least one full set of spare propellers.

Propeller guards: this one is great for beginners. It will keep your fingers and the propellers safe.

Landing gear: some quadcopter models are compatible with advanced landing products that are wider and more stable than the original. Customized landing can also help you improve picture/video quality.

SD cards: having at least a few micro SD cards will give you all of the memory required to shoot beautiful pictures and capture longer videos.

Carrying case: a quality carrying case will keep your expensive equipment protected while not being in use. It will also simplify the task of carrying your drone and accessories around. Make sure that the carrying case you're getting has comfortable, padded straps.

Getting Ready to Fly

Always read the instructions thoroughly before getting started. If there are any instructional videos, you should go through those, as well. You may think that flying the drone is a piece of cake but if you're not careful, you risk damaging a rather expensive gadget. Chances are that you don't make the first flight your last one. Take your time and prepare yourself before going out there.

Familiarize yourself with the remote control – play around with it, push the switches and practice coordination between the two hands. You should also know how to take off and land the quadcopter gently. Acquaint yourself with indicator lights and what each one of them means.

Assemble the quadcopter and check that all of the pieces have been secured together. Find a large open space and test the quadcopter. Don't go to maximum speed and maximum height immediately. Baby steps are a good idea for the first flight. Once you get a better feel for the controller and how the drone responds to it, you'll have the freedom to execute some much more daring flight experiments.