Let’s take a look at Aukey’s BLACK SPARROW Quadcopter drone. It’s in the big drone category with it’s 54cm x 54cm “wing” span. that is if you’re using the blade guards. Let’s keep it short, but detailed.
Flight time: 7-9 minutes (depends on ambient temp and weight it carries)
Charging time: 2-4 hours via included USB charger
Battery is replaceable / removeable, so you can buy more than 1 battery and keep going. You can also replace the battery with a higher capacity battery, they’re heavier, but it carry quite the bit of weight.
Supports special drone camera, it has connector on drone and button on controller, but camera is not included.
It’s suppose to have intelligent altitude hold, but it wasn’t working so well for me, same with headless mode, it’s suppose to have headless mode, so that drone’s forward is always in same direction as controller points, but I couldn’t get it working.
Check out the Video Review
Main Controls:
– Left analog = throttle up / down and rotate left / right
– Right analog = movement forward / backwards / left / right
– L2 button = get ready for 360 flip (hit the button, then push right analog to direction you wanna flip)
– R2 button = record video / capture photo (camera not included)
– Trim buttons / switches = those can be used if your drone constantly drifts, then you can counter that to make it more stable.
How to Fly Quadcopter Drone – for beginners / dummies:
1. Learn the controls (read the manual or this guide on which button and analog does what)
2. Start by going into open area, with no trees, water or tarmac nearby, grass is best to start on.
3. Place the drone so that drone and you are facing in same direction (so you’re standing behind drone, facing the drone’s back)
4. Power on the drone, power on the remote controller, push left analog all the way up and then quickly back down, controller will beep, indicating that drone is ready. Drone lights will remain constantly on. (if it doesn’t work, turn both off and repeat the process)
5. Now learn the throttle response, apply throttle very gently, there’s no need to even take off with the drone, just apply it gently to learn the response, then slowly apply more until drone starts to hover, try keeping it no higher than 10cm from the ground, keep doing that until you’re comfortable with throttle response and you are able to hover the drone stable at around 20cm from ground. If at any point you get scared or are uncomfortable with controls, just slide the analog all the way down and drone will instantly land, this is why you should not go higher at start, you may break it.
6. Now that you’re comfortable with throttle, take off and keep the drone at about 30-50cm from ground and start learning the movement, which is the right analog. Now it is very important that you and drone are facing same direction. So that when you push the analog forward, then drone goes forward, if drone is not facing same way, then drone’s forward is where drone is facing, meaning that it’s extremely difficult to control it. So start by moving the drone left / right / forward / backward by not going too far from the starting area, idea is to learn the controls first. So try flying 1-2 meters forward and then come back, if at any point you feel like losing control, use the throttle to bring the drone back to ground. Under 50cm from ground, it is quite safe to “slam” the drone on the ground without breaking it, this is why you should not go any higher when learning the controls.
7. Finally when you’re comfortable with throttle and movement, it is time to learn the hardest part, which is rotating the drone. This can be done by moving left analog left / right to rotate, however it’s hard moving the analog only left or right without going up / down at same time, this means drone will get more or less throttle and it’s easy to lose control, this is why it’s important to learn the throttle first, so you’re comfortable with throttle and know how to counter too much or not enough throttle. Hope this makes sense.
8. Now that you’ve learned how to control throttle, movement and rotation, try taking it for a spin. Remember, go slow and don’t panic. If at any point you feel like losing control, slowly decrease throttle to land the drone. It’s very easy to control the drone if you follow these easy steps and learn it step by step.
Hope this helps you learn how to control this (and any other) drone. Take it easy and fly safe!
Where to buy?
Black Sparrow is available on amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LZ8S07X