When you fly a drone in the UK it is your responsibility to be aware of the rules that are in place to keep everyone safe. Follow these simple steps to make sure you are flying safely and legally.

The Drone code

◦ Make sure you can see your drone at all times and don't fly higher than 400 feet

◦ Always keep your drone away from aircraft, helicopters, airports and airfields

◦ Use your common sense and fly safely; you could be prosecuted if you don't.

Drones fitted with cameras must not be flown:

◦ within 50 metres of people, vehicles, buildings or structures

◦ over congested areas or large gatherings such as concerts and sports events .

1. Make sure everything is fully charged. This includes the quadcopters battery as well as the batteries in your transmitter. Both are needed to ensure you get the maximum control range.

2. Find a big, open space to fly It's tempting to learn to hover in your garden because it's convenient. But it's amazingly easy to lose control and end up flying too high and too fast. And if you're inexperienced, you can panic and make things worse.

3. Don't fly if it's windy Quads don't generally cope well with strong winds. They get blown around and small, light drones can quickly be carried away even if you're using full power to try to overcome it. Be patient and wait for calm weather, or find a sheltered spot.

4. Check for damage Before you fly, and after each crash (of which there will be many to start with) inspect your quad for damage. Make sure the battery is secure, and that the wires are firmly connected. Check the rotors spin freely and aren't damaged. When replacing rotors, replace like with like. Two rotate counter-clockwise, and the other two clockwise. Don't mix them up. This fact also means you have only two spare propellers: not four.

5. Have an emergency plan When there's a problem, it's easy to panic and get brain freeze. Unless you have a plan worked out, you might do the wrong thing and make the situation worse. First, then, practice how to control your quad so it returns to you even if you can't see which direction it's pointing. If your controller is set up in the normal way, you'll press the left stick left or right to make it turn on its axis. The right-hand stick controls forward, backward, left and right movement. If you can't see it well enough, turn the quad using the left stick and see which way it's moving. If to the right, then keep pressing right until it's coming towards you. If left, press left. It's easy to remember, and always works… if you still have control. In an emergency, the best move is usually to reduce the throttle so the quad descends. It's better the get it to the ground - safely if you can. If you really have no control at all, turn off the transmitter and the drone might cut power to the motors and drop to the ground. This might cause damage, but it's better than flying away never to be seen again.

6. Mark your quad so it's identifiable as yours I wish I'd thought of this before it occurred to me in hindsight. Had I written a phone number on a sticker, I might have received a call to say it had been found. If it's worth a lot, then it would pay to mention a "reward if returned" on the sticker too.

 Battery charging rules Its important to take note of these rules when charging your lipo battery

1 Never charge your battery unattended - from time to time check to see if your battery is getting warm to the touch or starts to swell, if so stop charging immediately and contact an expert immediately (like someone on drone test) before using the battery again.

2 Never charge a damaged battery - don't charge if it is swollen (puffy) or has any other visible signs of damage

3 Always charge your battery at 1C or less - many chargers allow you to set a charging rate, although most batteries can support up to 5C charge rates (which makes charging your battery much faster). Its always best to charge at 1C or less as this means the chemicals inside your battery will gain energy slower which keeps them more stable and ultimately means your battery will have a much longer life in terms of charge/discharge cycles.

4 Try to charge your batteries in a fireproof location, or in a lipo safe bag. - this just adds an extra layer of protection

Important — LiPo batteries are fully charged when each cell has a voltage of 4.2 volts. They are fully discharged when each cell has a voltage of 3.0 volts.

It is important not to exceed both the high voltage of 4.2 volts and the low voltage of 3.0 volts.

Exceeding these limits can harm the battery.

We recommend landing @ 3.3 / 3.4 volts this can be set with a LiPo alarm