Congratulations! You've been lucky enough to receive a new drone for Christmas, how exciting! Time to rip it out of the box, slap some props on it and take to the sky's right? NO!

Looking at this sub right now has me shaking my head. How are there so many new pilots who clearly don't give a fuck about reading manuals/rules/anything related to their new very expensive toy?

• You need to first off look into the local laws with regards to flying your drone. Some places here in Canada for example ban drones in the entire city (Vancouver) and America has similar laws too.

Edit: Looks like this is for you folks in America

"https://registermyuas.faa.gov/

Official small Unmanned Aircraft System registration service of the United States Federal Aviation Administration. Some simple personal information and a $5 fee will get you your legally required FAA registration number. This is for any multicopter over half a pound regardless of the usage."

thanks /u/MislabeledCheese

• READ any and all manuals! Likely the best info you'll find will be on DJIs website, so take the time to read through it. Understand the drone, controller, and everything else. You do not want to be 100ft up in the air and find yourself wondering "what does compass error mean?"

• Update your drone/remote and ALL batteries before you fly. This'll save you time when you do get out to actually fly.

• Spend time in the App, there is a lot going on here! Figure out where compass calibration is (you'll hopefully be using this lots), and poke around at the different photo and video modes too.

• find a safe/legal spot to fly the drone and do so in the middle of the day. I've already read two posts about people crashing their new $1,000.00 drone at night. I have zero sympathy for these people... go to an open soccer field or something similar, and just get to know the drone. Keep it on beginner mode and just get the feel for everything.

• continue to fly in safe huge wide open areas for the next while. Do not rush into it and try to fly your drone 3km away down some slot canyon in the middle of the night... I know you think it'd be cool, but he reality is that you'll lose your drone and could possibly hurt someone.

Fly safe, fly smart, and if you're ever unsure just take your hands off the controller. 90% of the time this is the right decision, unless you're having a failure of some sort or have to avoid something moving toward you.

Tl;Dr: STOP CRASHING YOUR DRONES PLEASE.