![]() Ensure you have the NAV Drone app and manuals on your mobile device and that they haven’t been sent to the cloud due to their disuse.Īlso – and we’ve been bitten by this one – be sure to have your MicroSD cards with you. ![]() FPV pilots might also want to do a firmware version check for their goggles and look for any updates for their flight controller etc. It’s a real drag if you get out there and are faced with a 356 megabyte download by phone before you can fly. But we do feel it’s worth emphasizing the importance of ensuring your drone and app are fully updated before you get to the field. We don’t want to rain on Kate’s checklist parade. Don’t simply throw them in the garbage, unless the possibility of putting out a rogue garbage-can fire appeals to you. If there’s any physical damage like this, particularly in conjunction with apparent swelling, safely dispose of the battery at a municipal electronics waste facility. Had we not been looking carefully, we could have easily tried to charge – or even put the drone in the air – with a damaged battery. Better to safely dispose of such batteries than risk charging them. The battery had never been dropped, so we had to assume there had been some swelling. But something about one battery caught our eye: There was a hairline crack in the plastic shell itself. A couple of years ago, we pulled our own Mavic Pro from the basement, updated the firmware and pulled out the charger. Kate also recommends a physical inspection of the batteries themselves. “So that would be not just charging, but balancing the cells and using any resources like the battery health tools within a flight app to confirm their reliability before you get airborne.” “Regardless of whether you’re using commercial off-the-shelf systems or standalone flight packs, you’ll want to do as much as you can to confirm the battery’s health before you trust it in flight,” she says. Those systems include software (ie firmware), power (batteries), propulsion (props and motors), fuselage – and even regulatory (Transport Canada or FAA authorization, where required). We’ll have a full checklist in a moment, but Kate recommends that you think of this overall process in terms of systems. And the same systematic approach applies to flying drones (which, of course, are also aircraft). Well, whether they’re flying a Cessna or an Airbus, they have a rigorous protocol to ensure everything is looking good prior to takeoff. And while it’s tempting to simply charge up and hit the sub-400′ skies, Kate says a more methodical approach will save you from unnecessary problems. “You want to make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success by taking the time to prepare for that first flight and the ones that follow.” ![]() So I think it’s good to have a plan,” she says. “The fact your drone hasn’t been flown, and you haven’t been flying, increases the risk of your first flight. Here she is:īecause of her wide-ranging expertise, Kate is one of the best people we could think of to help us safely return to flight. Kate has also created and fronts the excellent new FLYY online drone learning resource portal, which is fully up-to-date for those seeking drone skills (including those who want to obtain their Basic or Advanced RPAS Certificate) in 2022. (In addition to flying and creating one of Canada’s most popular online drone courses, Kate is also a member of Transport Canada’s Drone Advisory Committee, or CanaDAC.) She’s a mult-rated commercial pilot, a pilot instructor – and a drone expert. Kate is widely known in the both the traditional aviation and drone worlds. So we thought it would be useful to pull together a quick guide for those preparing to return to flight.įor that, we contacted our resident expert, Kate Klassen. But we suspect – given the large number of recreational pilots who fly only occasionally – they’re in the minority. ![]() Some pilots are meticulous about this process. Depending on where you live in North America, it’s that time of year when many of us are dusting off our drones for the first time since we put them away last fall.
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