Getting Started with Drones and Model Airplanes

"Getting Started with Drones and Model Airplanes has been written for the beginning pilot, who wants to understand how these marvelous machines work and how to fly them safely. Buying a drone or a model airplane is really just the beginning of the journey: You must register your aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration, complete a testing and certification process and then figure out how to safely operate your machine in (or to avoid) the busiest and most complex airspace in the entire world. It can be all be a little overwhelming for a beginner, but luckily you've got an expert co-pilot to guide you every step of the way: Patrick Sherman is an award-winning instructor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who has been flying and teaching people about drones for more than 10 years. In this book, he takes complex subjects and explains them in simple language with pictures and diagrams to make these concepts easy to understand. In Getting Started with Drones and Model Airplanes, you will learn: - Different rules apply depending on whether you are flying for fun or flying to make money, and different training and certification is required. - Fundamental principles of aerodynamics, so you can understand how different kinds of flying machines - like airplanes and helicopters - work. - How to maneuver a drone or a model airplane using the ubiquitous two-stick controller used by both recreational and commercial pilots. - What are the different parts inside a drone or a model airplane, and how they work together to make it fly. - The importance of flying safely and how you can avoid running into other aircraft or hurting people on the ground. - Simple techniques for taking great aerial photographs and how to evaluate a new flying site before you launch your aircraft. This book is the perfect primer-whether you are teaching yourself how to fly, giving it as a gift along with a drone or model airplane, looking to get into commercial drone operations, or studying robotics and STEM subjects in school related to aviation"--