Syna8C Documenting The Kihei Bike-path

I'm getting pretty good at flying now - three months in. I still get confused as to which is the front and which is the back? This even after I sprayed half the underside of my black Syma 8, bright fluorescent orange -- to be able to better tell which way the drone is facing? Trying to see the lights in the arms, especially in daylight at a distance is not possible. The bright orange really helps.

From a distance this fantastic bargain of a bird, can get so high and so far away, so fast, that you really can't see which direction the drone is facing.  So you have two choices, maybe three. Fly local, in other words, if you begin to find it challenging to see, bring it in.  

You could also try to determine how your stick movements are affecting the flight, to try and figure out which way its going and or facing. At the distance the Syma 8C can be flown and controlled, its easy to have problems determining if its flying toward you or away from you. 

The saving grace is using HEADLESS MODE. If you have the presence of mind to hold the left hand switch at top of transmitter for three seconds, you will be able to steer the bird back, no matter what direction its facing.  There are some great tutorial videos on Youtube.

I'm finding that this "deal-of-a-drone" likes being in the air so much, it's difficult to get it down! Often I would have to cut the throttle completely...and let it drop say 10 feet, before punching the throttle back up to recover flight,  in order to quickly bring down the quad if it seems like its getting too far away. I repeat these maneuvers until the drone is close enough to better see and therefore better control. 

The other options to quickly bring the drone down,  is to put it into an extreme backward dive (toward you) and then reversing direction to stop decent and "flatten out."  Its a real trip learning and trying these maneuvers. The other thing you need to be aware of is INERTIA. This is no lightweight. You MUST take into consideration, velocity verses height with all these "diving" kind of moves.

I've had many a bounce on the pavement or grass - the latter of which I highly recommend for your learning curves. i.e. fly on a grassy park, golf course, or field where a crash landing won't do much damage.

I went over to Lipoa Street to film the crew making a new Kihei  bike path. Here are some of the images. There's a video too.  If you click the link below, it will take you to more aerial shots, including the video these images were lifted from.

http://creativity.com/phr/maui/droneimages/aerial1/index.html

Thanks for stopping by! Fly High! (but  don't lose your drone!)
Aloha,
MauiMacMan