Light, small, and offering high performance capabilities, the Parrot Bebop Drone is the top of the line in the family of Parrot drones. In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to get your Bobop drone ready to take its first flight. In order to connect and pilot your Bebop Drone, you must first download the Freeflight 3 application on your tablet or smartphone.   It’s free on the Appstore and Google Play. Start up the app Freeflight 3 to get connected to the drone.  For an optimal flight experience, update your drone each time a pop-up suggests this option.   Download the update by following the instructions.  The files transfer only takes a moment.    Finally, restart your drone to proceed with the update installation.    You will notice the red LED power button start to flash during the rebooting process.  Do NOT unplug the battery at this time. The Bebop Drone had 3 piloting modes : Ace/Normal/Joypad To fly indoors, it is highly recommended to attach the framework (hull) / protective shell to the base of the Bebop’s propeller blades.

In the flight settings, activate the mode “framework/shell/hull” – a configuration that enables the drone to adapt to indoor flight conditions. You are now ready for take off. During the first series of flights, you will be required to calibrate your drone’s magnetometer.  To do this, manipulate the drone by reproducing the animations displayed by the application on the screen) (The drone will be calibrated once all of its axes are shown as valid.   Once calibration is complete, you can go back to the piloting interface which is on the previous menu page.) Before each take off, be sure that the Bebop drone is put on a flat, level surface and push on the button “Flat trim”. Push on “Take-off” to get your drone off the ground.  Take-off is automatic, the drone lifts off the surface and hovers in place about 1 meter above the spot from which it took off. As you can see, its sensors give it great stability, even when there are disturbances ((such as)shaky hand movements).

In order to make the drone rise, push the joystick on the left hand side upwards. To make it go back down, pull the joystick downwards. To make it pivot, move your left thumb towards the right or the left. You can manipulate the drone’s pitch control / (movements) with the accelerometer on your smartphone or tablet. To make the bebop drone move forward, just keep the thumb on your right hand pressed down on the joystick and tilt the tablet forward. To make it go backwards, simply tilt the tablet backwards. Do the same thing to make your drone glide to the left or to the right.  When you release the joystick on the right hand side, the drone goes back to its initial position and hovers in place. Depending on the positioning of the drone, the control settings may change.  For example, if the drone is facing you the control settings are  reversed.  (Example : if you wish to make it go backwards, you will have to tilt your smartphone or tablet device forward.

The Bebop drone is equipped with an integrated GNSS type GPS chip (and it also has) the Glonass satellite tracking function. To activate the GPS, you must first activate the Exterior mode in the flight settings.  After it is activated, wait for the GPS icon on the piloting interface to go from grey to white.  (The GPS activation process takes about 30 seconds)   parrot ar drone access pointFor outdoor flights, we highly recommend that you remove the protective outer shell in order to obtain more stability and wind resistance.parrot ar drone 2ehands This function allows you to make your drone automatically go back to the spot from where it took off.   parrot ar drone og wi fi b gTo activate it, go into the menu settings and click on the “Return Home” icon.  

The icon goes green and the drone goes into automatic return mode.   During this period, it is still possible to control the drone.  If need be, press on the “Return Home” icon again to disenable automatic pilot. The bebop drone can also do a looping figure called a “Flip”.  To do this, click on the “flip” menu and  scroll to the type of flip you want, then quickly tap twice on the screen to activate the flip. Remarque : il est aussi possible de réaliser un flip quand le drone est en mouvement. In case there is a problem such as: risk of collision, the drone going out of your sight, loss of control, the “Emergency” button placed at the top of the piloting interface allows you to turn off the engines immediately. Maximum altitude: The maximum altitude option allows you to set a limit on how high the bebop drone can go.   If the drone is about the go beyond this limit, it will automatically adjust and remain at the selected height. Maximum inclination: This setting allows you the define the maximum angle of inclination the Bebop drone can take as it moves in space. 

This setting directly influences the drone’s speed.   The greater the angle of inclination, the faster the Bebop drone will fly. Rotation speed: This function allows you to modify the Bebop’s rotation speed. Vertical speed: This function allows you to adjust the drone’s climbing or descending speeds. The Parrot Bebop Drone has a unique camera with high performance capabilities that surpass expectations.   Not only does it offer full HD definition, it can film up to a 180 degree wide angle thanks to its fish-eye lens.   And finally, the video is numerically stabilized on three axes in order to avoid all potential disturbances related to the drone’s movements. By default, the Bebop drone is in video mode.  In this mode, the drone starts to record video as soon as it starts to fly, and it records in 1080 P at 30 images a second. In order to start recording video manually, you simply press on the “Rec” icon (picto) at the top of the Pilot interface. 

The ‘Rec’ button starts to blink, which indicates that your drone is now filming.   Press on the button again to stop recording.    While in Video mode, you can also take photos by cliquing on the “photo” icon. To control the camera’s positioning, slide your two fingers on the piloting interface, in the direction opposite the desired orientation.   For example, slide two fingers from top to bottom in order to orient the camera towards the top, or from left to right to orient the camera towards the left. In “ace” mode, you control the camera by using your right thumb on the joystick, at the right side of the device. While in video mode, the photo icon allow you to take a still shot that was captured during filming,  but the Bebop’s camera also allows you to take high resolution photos.  To do this, activate the photo mode which you can find in the “recording features” tab. You have the choice between two photo formats : Jpeg and Raw.  The images captured in high resolution are in Fish-eye format, giving you the total wide angel view provided by the Bebop’s camera.

This mode allows you to take a series of photos at regular intervals.  Activate this mode in the recording settings, which you can access once you’re in Photo mode. When you go back to the pilot interface, you will notice that the “Rec” icon has been replaced with a “Timelapse” icon.   Click once on this icon to start recording.  At the end of the recording, you will find your photos in the device’s internal memory storage. You can retrieve your videos and photos directly on your smartphone or tablet via Wi-fi.  For this, go in the the contextual menu of the application FREEFLIGHT and click on internal memory.   Select the videos you wish to keep and click on “Transfer” to add them to the gallery.   The internal memory has a capacity of 8 gigs, so think to systematically get rid of unwanted footage after the transfer.   For this, select the footage you wish to erase and click on “erase.”   You can also either retrieve or erase material by connecting your Parrot bebop drone to your computer directly with the micro-USB cable provided.