First flight & safety

You built it, you flashed it, now fly it, carefully. A good first flight is boring on purpose: a low, short hover in a safe place after a few checks.

Check your local rules before you fly. In many places a drone over ~250g must be registered, and there are no-fly zones around airports, crowds, and people. The rules vary by country and change, treat your national aviation authority as the source of truth.

Pre-flight checklist

Inspect the airframe

Props tight and undamaged, motors screwed in, nothing loose, battery strapped down.

Power up, props off first

Confirm it arms and disarms, motors respond, and the failsafe works (turn the radio off, the motors should stop).

Range check

Walk away with the radio (low power if your radio supports it) and confirm the link stays solid.

Pick the spot

Open space, no people, no obstacles, legal to fly. Stand back, props are sharp.

The first hover

Arm, then gently raise throttle until it just lifts off.
Hover knee-high for a few seconds. Watch for drift, twitching, or anything that sounds wrong.
Land, disarm, and check motor temperatures, warm is fine, too-hot-to-touch means stop and investigate.

If it flips on takeoff, won’t arm, or a motor is hot, don’t force it, that’s a signal. Start with Troubleshooting; the usual causes are motor direction, motor order, or a wiring issue.

After it flies

Bring the design and learning back into a loop: tweak in the app, re-export, and fly again. Save the .vdx so you can rebuild or share the exact drone that worked. Welcome to the hobby.