For most newcomers to the drone hobby, flying is associated not only with excitement and tons of fun, but also with fear or anxiety. Since so many people are buying drones, it’s perfectly natural that many of them would be concerned when it comes to their first flight. With help from our good friends at Drone Supremacy, here are five common fears of beginning pilots and tips on how to overcome them.
1. Being overwhelmed by the technology
If you’re still relatively new to drone flying, you’re probably overwhelmed by the amount of information you have to learn in order to start enjoying the hobby. Just think about it – flight checklists, gimbal adjustments, camera settings, filters, battery levels, altitude settings, no-fly zones, keeping the video recording smooth and cinematic – it’s easy to see how the information can become overwhelming!
The good news is that there’s a simple solution for all of this: Take each of those elements by itself and break it down into smaller milestones, until you feel comfortable with it. Now it’s easier than ever to find relevant information about the things you should know about your drone.
2. Fear of losing or crashing your drone
You’ve read and watched all the tutorials on the internet, you’ve spent hours on the simulator, and you finally feel ready to fly your own quadcopter. You are really excited, but you’re still scared. You’ve probably invested a ton of money in your drone and you don’t want to risk crashing it. You get in the air and even the slightest gust of wind or change of direction makes you panic and push the sticks the wrong way. And that’s perfectly understandable.
So how do you overcome this fear?
First – find a wide open area (preferably a large grass field). Make sure you are set to GPS mode and that your home point is set. Take your time. Fly slowly, not too high and not too far. If you get nervous or unsure of your orientation, just let go of the sticks – your drone will hover in place, which is much better than wobbling left-right. (Note: that’s only if your drone supports hover function; most of the newer quadcopters which are not toy-grade have this feature enabled by default.) Then, start practicing doing figures with your drone, such as a rectangle or circle. As you get more comfortable, switch the orientation of the drone – try facing backwards, forward and sideways.
DroneUp is one of the best resources to explore drone training, so don’t forget to explore the array of articles and drone instruction we offer at www.droneup.com.
3. Fear of not getting the perfect shot
So you’ve finally reached the point where you are comfortable with your drone and you get up there looking for the perfect shot. Whether it’s photo or video, often things are not as easy as they seem. I think it’s safe to say that each of us has been in a situation where you get home after drone shooting, you open up Adobe Lightroom to import your photos, and you realize that you’ve messed something up and your photos look terrible. This could be due to wrong camera settings, bad lighting or composition or anything else – you are just not happy with the final result. Sometimes that’s enough to knock down your confidence and bring you down to a level where you’ll avoid taking photos/videos.
However, the truth is that everyone makes mistakes, even the best “droners” out there. And most likely, you are your own worst critic. The key is to learn from your mistakes and not give up. You can do that by looking at other drone photographers for inspiration. And remember, we LOVE to see your shots, so share with us using any social channel or direct download!
4. Fear of trying something new
Since drones are still quite new, there are many people out there who are still not quite experienced with them. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it allows them to not have any boundaries when it comes to flying their drone and even to shooting photos and videos. When you’re fresh into the hobby, you feel motivated, excited and ready to experiment.
However, the fear of not being “within the frame” of what most people do can be a huge limitation for some. Remember when I mentioned you should look at other drone photographers for inspiration in the previous point? While this is really important when you’re first learning, it should only be used to a certain extent. Make sure you develop your unique style of shooting – there’s no right and wrong way of doing things in drone photography. Some people like HDR effect photos, some like really bright and sharp ones, etc. Just make sure you’re happy with the final result – that’s what matters.
5. Fear of being rejected by your audience
Nowadays social media allows us to post whatever we like, and people are often afraid to publish their work, because they feel it’s not good enough and they will be rejected or not liked by their audience. My advice is to not be afraid to put yourself out there just because some people might not like the pictures you’ve taken. If there’s one thing I’m really sure about, it’s this: There will always, always, always be somebody who’ll find something negative to say about the things you do. In fact, that’s a general rule in life. But just because one person doesn’t like the images you’ve created doesn’t mean others feel the same way and you should definitely not let this discourage you. If you’ve found that drone flying or drone photography is something that makes you excited, just make sure you learn from your mistakes, push forward and keep growing. And most of all, go DroneUp!