Flight School – DJI New Pilot Experience

There was a definite electricity in the air last week for the 200 or so potential pilots who attended our “Flight School – DJI New Pilot Experience” events that were held last week at Vistek Toronto.

The event started with a talk by DJI Product Experience Specialist Francisco Toro (pictured right) who had flown up from California for the event. During the talk, he explained the history of DJI, the features of the Phantom 3, basics of flight, and then spent time answering questions from the crowd.

After the in-class lecture, it was time to move to the outdoor “flight centre” in the parking lot. It was here that the real fun began.

Once the pilots had broken off into their groups of around 20, our four flight instructors took the stage.

After once again going over the pre-flight safety rules, and giving a brief hands-on demonstration of the flight characteristics of the Phantom 3, it was finally time to hand the controls over to our would be pilots.

DJI’s latest firmware upgrade for the Phantom 3 series and Inspire 1 aerial platforms now allows for Intelligent Flight Modes via the DJI GO app. The new flight modes include: Follow Me, Course Lock, Waypoints, Home Lock & Point of Interest. The New Firmware will also upgrade the Phantom 3 Professional to support 2.7K (2704x1520p30) video recording.

It’s actually remarkably easy to control the Phantom 3 as our pilots found out during their 2 minute introductory flights. Under the watchful eyes of their flight instructor, they soon mastered the art, and had their Phantoms soaring, banking, hovering and eventually landing on the “helipads” that were created for the event.

This is not to say that there weren’t any “incidents” however…

One of the drone pilots (let’s call them Ghost Rider) inadvertently performed an unauthorized flyby of the tower (tree) which led to a rather rough landing due to some damage sustained to its propellers.

Thankfully, DJI Product Experience Coordinator Brian Tran was close by to assess the damage, replace the blades, and get the wounded Phantom 3 back up and flying all within 20 minutes. Talk about being user friendly!

Meet the DJI S900

The DJI Phantom 3’s were the only aerial platforms on display. DJI Product Experience Coordinator Brian Tran, also brought out the much larger DJI S900 model for everyone to see. While the S900 isn’t a consumer level drone (being geared more to the professional) it was a hit with the gathered crowd.

The Flight School – DJI New Pilot Experience was a huge success…

thanks to the excitement and enthusiasm of our guests and everyone who worked hard to make it happen.

A special thanks goes out to DJI, Product Experience Specialist Francisco Toro, Product Experience Coordinator Brian Tran and our two volunteer flight instructors,  Eddy de Danga and Thiago Neves of Snoweye Aerials (pictured below with Vistek Pro Video Product Manager Brian Young).

Thanks again to everyone who took part, and we’re looking forward to seeing what DJI has in store for us at our upcoming ProFusion Expo taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this November.

See more photos from the DJI New Pilot Experience on Vistek’s flickr site.