First Time Flying A Drone | AUTEL EVO

Oh yes we’re flying a drone today, what is up people? Donna here and today, as you just saw and heard, we’re going to be flying a drone. And if you’re anything like me, you may never have flown a drone before. Yes, I said it, this is going to be my maiden voyage as far as drones go. The folks over at Autel Robotics were nice enough to sponsor this video and send me out this drone so that I could try it out and see what droning is all about. The goal with this video is going to be to kind of give you a primer on what your first time might be like if you’re thinking about picking up a drone, some of the things that you can do to try and learn how to fly a drone, and basically you’re gonna watch me fumble through that whole process so that hopefully you don’t have to as much. Also, we’re going to take a look at the Autel Evo and see what it’s capable of.

Preparation and Guidelines

Before you start flying your drone, there are some things that you need to do. Let’s say you pick up an Autel Evo. First of all, make sure you charge up all the batteries and the controller. Second of all, make sure you go register your drone. And third, make sure you go take a look at the laws surrounding drones for wherever you are. In Canada, the drone laws are pretty strict, and as of June 1st, they’re getting even more strict. So, I made sure to go and read through the rules and make sure that I’m not breaking any of them. I found a nice wide-open space that I think I should be okay here if I’m understanding the rules correctly. And for today, I’m not gonna be doing anything crazy. I’m gonna be keeping it pretty low and just doing some basic maneuvers.

Introducing the AUTEL EVO

So this, as I mentioned before, is called the Autel Evo. When it’s unfolded, it looks something like this. The package that I got was called the rugged package and it comes with a couple of extra batteries, the charger, some cables, and then of course, the controller. One other thing that Autel sent along were the Polar Pro ND filters, which is super handy because then I won’t have to crank up the shutter speed to get proper exposure. Also, I absolutely love Polar Pro stuff. And the rugged package comes with this awesome SKB case. I’m pretty sure you could throw this off a mountain, but please don’t test that.

Taking a look at the drone itself, it’s got a three-axis gimbal on the front, sensors on the front, bottom, and back for obstacle avoidance, which is super handy, especially for people like me who might run into things. If you do want to put an ND filter on, it’s pretty cool because all you have to do is unscrew this front glass and screw your ND filter on, and you’re ready to go shooting in the sun. One of the other cool things is the controller. First of all, it folds up really tiny. It’s got these nice little handles. It’s got your phone holder, and it’s also got an LED screen right on it where you can either see your flight stats or you can actually see the picture coming from the drone, which is really cool because you don’t actually need a phone to operate this. In general, from what I found, it seems like most people enjoy it more if they use this for the flight information and then put their phone up here. You get a little bit more screen real estate with the phone to be able to see what’s coming off of the drone camera.

The First Flight

Because this is my first time flying a drone, I thought it would probably be a good idea to have some kind of plan of what I’m hoping to accomplish here. And I found a really cool video actually on the Autel YouTube channel that went over a bunch of really basic maneuvers. So, I have a list of about eight things that I want to try and do while we’re here, starting from just taking off and landing to a couple of maneuvers and then using some of the cool functions that come with the drone app. First things first, let’s see if we can even get this thing to take off.

Okay, so I’ve got the drone all set up. I turned it on, and I’ve got my iPhone attached to the controller. Up here, I can see what the camera sees, and down here, I can see all my flight controls. Let’s just try a simple takeoff. There’s a button right here that I’m gonna press and hold, I think it was for three seconds, and it’s just gonna do all the work for me. So, let’s try this. I’m gonna start the motors. Controller says safe to fly. Pressing takeoff. There we go, and we’re up. I’m actually impressed with how quiet this thing is. I thought it was going to be way louder. Okay, so the first thing that I want to do is just land it, so I’m gonna hold down that same button again very carefully. Okay, we have a successful takeoff and landing.

So, the next maneuver that we want to do is a forward back, left and right, and what we want to eventually be able to do is a square. Let’s give that a try. Taking off, I’m gonna go forward. Oh, that’s up. Let’s go forward left. Back, nice and soft, and right. Okay, so far I’m ridiculously impressed with how simple this is. The controls are really intuitive. The right joystick is going forward, back, left, and right, and then the left joystick is going to turn the actual aircraft itself and bring it up and down.

So, the next pattern that we want to do is the same thing, another square pattern, but first we’re going to turn the drone around so you’re actually kind of flying it backwards. So, when you press left, it’s gonna go right. When you press right, it’s gonna go left, same thing with forward and backward. Okay, so I’m gonna spin it around first using the left joystick, so it’s now facing the opposite way. I’m going to start by going backwards. Hey, you can see me. And then go right, which is my left. I’m actually having so much fun right now. And forward and left. We’re just gonna go right over me, and then back. Alright, another maneuver done.

Now, the next thing on the checklist is a vertical square. So, instead of going forward, left, back, and right, we’re gonna go up, left, down, and right. So, I’m gonna be keeping an eye on my flight controls to see what height I’m going up to. And what I want to do is try and bring it up to, let’s say, 12 meters, and then over, and then back down to 6 meters, and then back over so I kind of land in the same spot. I’m gonna bring it up to 6 meters to start with. There we go, I’m at 6 meters. Okay, now I’m gonna go up to 12 meters. There we go, I’m gonna go left, I’m gonna bring it back down to 6 meters again, and then I’m gonna go right. Vertical square, good to go.

The next one is where we start to get really tricky. So, what we want to do is make a circle pattern. So, I’m actually gonna try and circle around my 360 camera that I have set up to capture this whole process. I’m gonna start by going left, and just try to make a nice circle around it. Left, and right. Okay, I think we did it! That was a successful circle.

Overall, my first time flying the Autel Evo has been an amazing experience. The drone is easy to handle, the controls are intuitive, and the footage it captures is top-notch. I highly recommend giving droning a try, especially with a reliable and feature-packed drone like the Autel Evo. So, if you’re thinking about picking up a drone and trying it out for yourself, go ahead and give it a go. Happy flying!

Sources:

• Autel YouTube Channel