Flyaway Drone

Rueful…
Roderick: How’s the ATTI mode practice shaping up? Still flying without the satellite safety net?
Eddie: It was going reasonably well… until this morning. Two minutes after takeoff, one tidy practice circle, and then it headed straight out over the mudflats like it had somewhere to be. Crashed out there.
Roderick: Ouch. Did you manage to retrieve it?
Eddie: All the pieces, yes. Broken landing gear, snapped prop arm, and the battery contacts are full of silt.
Roderick: All right. One, compass or IMU disagreement. If the sensors can’t agree, the drone can fly in the wrong direction.
Eddie: I calibrated on Saturday, though not there.
Roderick: Second: GPS instability or mode confusion. Over mudflats you can get reflections, brief dropouts, and sudden transitions the control logic doesn’t handle well. Or radio interference. But there’s also sticky or drifting controller sticks. A bit of grit, wear, or moisture and the stick doesn’t quite centre.
Eddie: So my thumbs stopped, but the controller kept send a wrong signal?
Roderick: Precisely. ATTI doesn’t make flying more difficult. And it removes excuses.

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Voice-over
There was more but Roderick ends by suggesting a thorough checklist before takeoff. 

1. Controller first — always

• Power on the controller before the aircraft.
• Move both sticks slowly through full travel; feel for grit, hesitation, or lazy centring.
• If a stick doesn’t snap back cleanly to neutral, stop. Clean it or swap controllers.

2. Calibrate with intent, not habit

• Compass and IMU only if needed — but do calibrate when changing locations or surfaces.
• Avoid metal tables, vehicles, and reinforced concrete. ATTI exposes sloppy calibration instantly.

3. Know the wind before you fly

• Watch grass, flags, smoke, or ripples — not the weather app.
• Pick a ground reference and imagine how fast the drone would drift in 10 seconds if you let go.

4. Choose the right airspace for ATTI

• Wide, empty, and boring beats scenic every time.
• Avoid water, mudflats, cliffs, and anything that creates optical or RF weirdness.

5. Confirm the mode — twice

• Visually verify ATTI mode on the display.
• Say it out loud if necessary. Pilots skip fewer steps when they sound faintly ridiculous.

6. Short hover test (10–15 seconds)

• Lift to chest height.
• Hands off the sticks briefly.
• Observe drift direction and speed before committing to manoeuvres.

7. Keep manoeuvres small at first

• Circles, figure-eights, and slides — all close and slow.
• ATTI rewards smooth inputs, not ambition.

8. Maintain a mental “abort box”

• Decide before takeoff where you’ll descend if things feel wrong.
• In ATTI, landing early is not failure — it’s judgment.

9. One variable at a time

• Don’t combine new modes, new locations, new wind, and new batteries in one flight.
• ATTI is a teacher; don’t shout over it.

10. End on a success

• Finish the session while everything still feels calm and predictable.
• Fatigue and confidence spike at the same time — that’s when mistakes happen.