Flying a Drone and Driving Motorcycle at the same time [ Tutorial ]

All right, today I'm going to show you how to fly a drone and drive a vehicle at the same time. As you saw in my last video from Iceland, that's exactly what I did and the results were pretty awesome. Today I'm going to go over a very brief tutorial on how I manage to drive a motorcycle and fly a drone at the same time. One of the biggest challenges you face when flying a drone is obstacles, so what I definitely recommend is having an environment where there's absolutely nothing around. When I was in Iceland, there was a unique opportunity not to have a single person or thing around in all the places I was driving, so when I was doing it there, it was very safe. Flying and driving at the same time is a difficult thing to do. It takes a lot of dexterity, so you want to make sure that you're very, very capable of driving and you're very capable of flying before you try combining both at the same time. The difficult part about this is you have to control the flying drone with two fingers and one hand while you drive the motorcycle, holding the throttle on the other while at the same time figuring out what the drone is and trying not to look at the screen and instead look at the road ahead of you. All right, so then I'm going to go ahead and show you my secrets and my process on how to drive and fly at the same time. Let's go over the gear real quick. I have some extra batteries. I've got the controller. Most importantly, I have a neck strap so I can hang the controller off my neck. The other thing on the motorcycle is you want to have a tank bag. That way you can place a controller on here as you're driving. All right, so people want to know what drone I use. My favorite drone to use is the DJI Phantom 4. The reason is because when you have it in this great case, you can put it in your checked-in luggage. So whenever I travel, I check it in and I hardly find any issues with it getting damaged through the baggage process and the handling. I also like it because it's not terribly expensive, but it shoots 4k, which is awesome, and it's very portable. And the best thing about this drone is you can actually pop the blades on and off very, very quick. And one thing I've learned when traveling all over the world flying drones is you want to be able to assemble and disassemble it as quick as humanly possible. Otherwise, people start asking questions, you start drawing attention to yourself, and then people start getting in your shot. So you want to try to build it, disassemble, and get out of there as quick as possible. What I'm doing now is I'm attaching a GoPro to the very front of the helmet so you can actually see me flying the drone as I'm driving at the same time. And the other reason I love the Phantom 4 is because it has 25% more power than the Phantom 3s and 2s. So when I was in Iceland, I was fighting 30 mile an hour crosswinds and the drone could barely do it. So that being said, is that the 3DR Solo and the Phantom 2s and 3s couldn't have done with the crosswinds in Iceland. That was a very unique scenario. That was something I've never experienced anywhere else in the world and I think was the most difficult flying I've ever done. So it's not a huge deal breaker not to have the 25% more power. I flew a Phantom 3 for the longest time and I never had any problems. It's a drone of choice for me when I travel. It's not to say that other drones aren't as good. I really like the 3DR Solo. It's a great price. You can put a GoPro on there and do all the settings through your phone and such. It's really awesome. And for those of you wondering, I'm currently in Austin, Texas where it's about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and 100% humidity. So it's really really hot out here. The most important thing to do is hydrate. Cool, good break. All right, let's get flying. The most important safety feature that I'm going to teach you is having a neck strap. This is from an old USB cable so you can use anything that really goes around your neck. So you definitely want to have it hooked in while you're driving the motorcycle because in case something happens on the road and you're doing this and you have to let go of it, see, it's a great safety feature to have. Otherwise you can drop it and it'll hit someone or you run it over and it can be very expensive. You know and the thing I love about this drone is just how simple it is to put together. It takes me probably five minutes from disassembling to assembling and connecting it to the phone. So it's a really really really quick way of getting things done. The cord is usually very long so I like to wrap it around the actual bridge here so it doesn't go flying everywhere and gets in your way. When you travel with the Phantom 4, you always want to leave on the plastic protective case here because it basically makes sure that the gimbal doesn't get damaged when it's being transported. So silver goes on silver which is here and you push it down and you pop it in and there you go the blades are done. It's that quick and it's that simple. Cool we got drone, we got remote, let's go flying. Remember flying this drone is not easy. Remember when I'm flying I use the thumb and the forefinger sometimes. Sometimes I use the thumb and the ring finger and sometimes I just use both fingers like this. It really depends on the situation. You never want to fly and look at the screen the entire time otherwise it's going to be like Pokemon Go where you're going to be walking at the edge of the Grand Canyon. You're going to fall off because you're looking at the screen rather than what you're looking up ahead. The most dangerous thing about this is getting too caught in the screen rather than realizing where the drone is. Alright so we're going to turn the drone on and the way you do that is you basically hold both of them down and as you'll see over there the drone is ready to go. So we'll just gently lift it up. Alright here's the thing is you have to pick up some speed first before you can let go of the handlebars. We grab the throttle as so. There it is and as I'm driving straight the drone is flying straight with me with just one finger. So this technique is just one finger flying. The thing about having the control on your tank bag is that there'll be lots of moments where you actually need both hands to drive the bike and turn around so you have to be very very careful. The main concern is safety. Safety is your biggest concern here so you always want to have an exit plan. So in case something happens you got to focus on the road you got both hands on the wheel and you're safe. The value of the drone is not worth the value of your life. It's a really great feature on the DJI Phantom series which is something called ActiveTracked. It's something new for the Phantom 4. So all you have to do is you have to highlight your subject. Press OK. So from now on it's going to follow me anywhere I go which is great because that means you don't have to have your hands on the controller at all times. And now it should be following me as you can see and it does a pretty good job at it. It's a great way to drive and not run a lot of risk because your hands are off the wheel. And the best thing about it is that it has sonar and an obstacle detection system so if there's anything that gets in the way it'll stop automatically. Another thing of the unique feature of ActiveTracked is that if you hold the joystick to the left it'll keep tracking you but it'll do a 360 all around you. This is my favorite feature of the whole thing. Now another great feature about this drone is the following the tap fly and all you have to do is you got to press the screen and it'll show you where it says go and you press go and it'll go straight as you see the drone is moving by itself in a straight line. This is a great opportunity for me to drive under it and for cinematic purposes keep going straight. The two finger flying is the hardest thing you can possibly do on this thing so I'm going to give you an example of how to do it. Alright so first you want to pick up some speed on the motorcycle then you want to get your hands on the joystick and at the same time you want to try to fly it. So as you'll see me I'm not doing too bad a job right now but it usually takes a few times to do this to get it just right. Almost like playing piano once you do it a few times you start getting used to it. So when there's bumps and stuff it becomes inherently more difficult and that's all you got to do. So one thing I love about drones is doing something called a droney. A droney is like a selfie but using a drone and the way you achieve that is you give the drone about three to five feet ahead of you and then you zoom it up really close to you and then you do a dramatic takeaway as you fly it off and you lift it up at the same time. It gives you a really great perspective of where you actually are so it makes you seem like a small little ant in a huge pot. Anyway I love the droney because there's sometimes you're on edges of cliffs. I was in Australia on the great ocean road and it was just really awesome perspectives to see from the sky and see from different places so it's a really really fun All right so here's the deal. Next rep you can fly the drone with one finger straight you can use the active track or the tap flight feature. You can also do manual on both fingers and have a tank bag on the motorcycle to drive but remember safety is your biggest priority so if you can't be safe about it don't do it. If you can't be in an environment where there's nobody that can get hurt or any trees or any obstacles in the ways don't do it. My experience is definitely not worth it to get someone hurt to damage your gear or do anything stupid or illegal. If you like this video be sure to subscribe be sure to let me know what you liked about it and if you have any suggestions for future videos and what you would like to learn or know about what I do be sure to leave me a comment and I'll be sure to get to them. So thanks for watching and we'll see you next time!