Flight Controls:
Multirotors have become hugely popular; in part to due the simplicity of their controls meaning anyone
can become a competent pilot within a relatively short period of time. The controls are as follows:
Throttle:
Move the left stick up and down to control altitude and acceleration. To take off and to gain
height, raise the throttle stick slightly above centre. To maintain an altitude set the throttle stick to the
centre position. Lower the throttle stick below centre to descend. To land, reduce the throttle gradually
and set the stick fully down once the multirotor is just above the ground.
Yaw:
Move the left stick horizontally to rotate the multirotor and change its orientation. Move the stick
to the left to rotate counterclockwise and right to rotate clockwise. For a slow rotation, move the stick
slightly away from the centre. Moving the stick farther from the centre creates a faster rotation.
Pitch and Roll
: The right stick allows you to control the multirotor’s position in the air. Move the stick
forwards to fly forwards, back to fly backwards, left to fly left and right to fly right. The amount of stick
movement is proportional to the response, so a large stick deflection results in a more movement than a
smaller input.
Tips for first time fliers:
•
Only proceed to flight once confident of the controls and operation of the airframe.
•
To begin with, fly in Angle mode. Angle mode won’t maintain altitude or position; you need to
make corrections for both using the control sticks, but it will make it a lot easier to fly and hover.
With it switched off i.e. Acro mode, the quadcopter won’t auto stabilise when the right stick is
centralised. So if for example the quadcopter rolls to the right, you would need to input left
aileron to keep the craft level and stop it moving to the right. In Angle mode, this correction
would be done automatically by centralizing the right stick.
•
Take off standing directly behind the multirotor with its nose pointing away from you. In this
orientation the controls will be normal; right will be right and left will be left. If you fly with the
front facing you, ‘nose in’ the controls will be reversed; right will cause it to fly left and vice
versa.
•
When it comes to taking off, don’t be hesitant with the throttle. The quadcopter will lift off at
around 50-60% throttle. It’s best to ‘punch’ the throttle up to this point to get the quadcopter off
