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KOPIS 2
Quadcopter Safety
Quadcopters are incredibly powerful machines. Their props can seriously injure you. Operating your
quadcopter safely is up to you! This isn’t intended as a complete safety manual, but here are a few
guidelines we think are worth mentioning.
Arming Switch
We firmly believe that a switch is the safest way to arm and disarm your quadcopter, because it allows
you to quickly and confidently disarm the quad when you need to. However, arming switches have a
r
isk: you can very easily bump the switch and arm the quad when you didn’t intend to. The most
common way this happens is if you have your transmitter dangling around your neck as you pick up your
quad after a flight.
Taranis Safer Switch Arming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv3VJ1jznw8
The best way to avoid this is to set up a two-stage arming switch. A video showing how to do this on
Taranis is linked above. There are various other ways to accomplish the same thing on other
transmitters.
If you don’t want to set up a two
-stage arming switch, the next-best thing is to
raise your throttle
immediately after you disarm. Betaflight will not let the quad arm if the throttle is raised. So raising the
throttle is like your safety switch. Make a habit of, “Flip the switch, then raise the throttle,” every time
you disarm.
There is one catch with this technique. If you raise the throttle, then flip the arm switch, the quad won’t
arm. However, if you then lower the throttle, the quad
will arm immediately
, as soon as the throttle
touches bottom.
The workaround for you should be that your “arming procedure” is always: verify
switch disarmed, lower throttle, flip switch to arm. If you watch old-timers who have been doing this
forever, you may even see them carry their transmitters with their finger resting on the arm switch,
holding it in the disarmed position. This is a great habit to develop.
