 Guys, today we are talking about grinding our drone. I used to skateboard, I think you used to do, role-building. Yeah, aggressive. We've been around the aggressive scene for years. Grinding is like a whole genre of tricks and freestyle mini quads really scratch the itch for skateboarding, but I always kind of wanted to grind. When I first started flying, it was like three years ago I first started flying and I wanted to grind. But the thing is it just, the flight controller wouldn't allow you to do it. It's designed to have that outside force and bump you away from it. Grinding with these things is really not easy. To be honest, we're still figuring out exactly how to do it. It usually takes me many, many tries. I haven't really gotten to that consistent point. Lots of tries. So we want to talk you through this, see if you guys can get trying it yourself. So I think the things that you need to consider when grinding is what's the physical structure of the drone? Where can you actually lock it in? The software. What do you want to do with the software, with your tune to maybe allow you to do it? And then three, what's the actual technique? Yeah. Structurally, we've actually got two good examples here because you've got a bottom on battery. So what if you have- Yeah, so I have a bottom mount battery. Okay, hey. It's a grind plate. It's a grind plate to lock me in. The roller blades actually. The roller blades, yeah. And it doesn't matter, even skateboarders and BMXers, they have pegs and skateboarders have lips or trucks to lock themselves in. But let's see what you have. Well, so yeah, I have a top mount battery and with my frame in particular, this horizontal standoff down here, that I was thinking would be something that I could like maybe lock it on between the carbon fiber and balance it like a nose grind. Sometimes I can get it for a little bit more often. I end up kind of pinching somewhat like the arm is involved. Getting in that sweet spot. Getting some sort of sweet spot where it's kind of crooked between the standoff and the arm. Once you lock in though, whether you've got a grind plate or a natural pinch point. Once you lock in and you feel it, you know it. Yeah. It's weird, you just- And it feels good. And then what do I need to do to make sure that this thing doesn't freak out while I'm on the rail? Right. And the thing that I thought- So what do you do? What do you do with the software tune it? That's what I did. I turned off the air mode on a switch. Same. And then I also thought to lower my idle a little bit. It's good, but it's also hard. Once you lower your idle, you are gonna get wobbles on the rail. So there's almost that sweet spot of it balancing on its own. And the only way you're gonna kind of find that sweet spot is going out and doing it and playing with your throttle. Coming right off your throttle and pitching forward and seeing if it does a little float or you know, if it stays in a straight line. Right. So by turning off air mode, you decrease how effective the pids are at lower throttle. Those outside forces that, you know, air mode is designed to do. So when you get on the rail and you drop your throttle a little bit, the flight controller is gonna be less reactive to the contact of the rail. Yeah. And then lowering your idle also helps with that. So I do the exact same two things. That's something I've been doing for a while because I've been doing skidding. I'm only recently getting into the grinding, but I've been really into the skids. And then you just- So you're getting that muscle memory, the mechanics of all the whole thing. Switch, get in there, split up. Yeah, so. With the technique, now this is where it gets fun because show them how big that space is that you, the target on your- This? Oh, it's like teeny. So it's teeny tiny. And then the rail, the rail is only about two inches wide. So now we're getting to the point where I have to lower my camera tilt. I can't do this at 60 degrees. I've noticed that with the technique because my tilt is lower, it's pretty hard to slowly get onto something. I always have a better time if I have a little bit of forward momentum to get myself on. You really have to be very precise and hit that center line. If you don't hit that center line and get it perfect, you're bouncing off and also with the throttle management, you're bouncing off the rail. You have to lower the throttle. So you have to gently set it on there then lower the throttle. You can't dump off the throttle. You can't dump off the throttle. You gotta feather it on. But you have to be quick too. There's a sweet spot again in the throttle that you can have to hit. For me, I feel like it's somewhere around 10, 15% stick travel. And what I also noticed too with setup is props that have a higher pitch or that don't have a low torque because when that pit loop does kick in and it wants to bump you off the rail, that thrust isn't there in the prop. Also with another technique I find is when I get onto the rail, I like to pitch forward a little bit. Yeah, I do the exact same things I get on there. Yeah. Chop, throttle a little bit. Chop, throttle. You have to feather the throttle. Okay. I go out and get discouraged because for myself, it took me three days around to tweak this, figure everything out. The first day I was able to grind, but it wasn't until like the third day when I started to get a little bit more consistent. You sit there and you'll fly three or four packs without doing a single grind. So you have to be very persistent. Just like when you see skateboarders doing tricks over and over and over again to try to get that one trick, it's kind of the same. I think this is something we're gonna get more consistent. Absolutely. Seriously, why we wanna make this video to share some tips, see what you guys can come up with. Give us some feedback. Start grinding. Start grinding. Start grinding. I know what I'm doing wrong is I'm not getting the pitch forward right. I either don't do it enough and then when I land on the rail, I set my belly down and fall off or I pitch forward too much and it's what it's gonna take to take grinding to the next level as a trick though, to be able to do it in two aligns. Yeah, absolutely. But also sitting here and having the patience to be able to stick the trick. What was being done tonight will I think will breed a whole new genre of piloting. It might actually grab more skateboarders, more BMXers, more aggressive inline skaters, it would be scooters, it doesn't matter. I honestly think it could grab other people who didn't think flying drones was cool. It's too advanced right now though. Like, okay, so a skater might get into it but like to do that grind, you have to- You have to be right now but that's the thing when I used to skateboard, like dolphin flips weren't even a thing or whatever and now we see like 14 year olds banging them out. Well that's the thing like when- So it all shifts. When a trick has already been done, it is easier to do. So like if people get into it on the premise that they're getting into it just because they want a grind because they've already seen it, it'll happen faster. Yeah, absolutely. One more disclaimer, this is pretty hard on your gear. Even if you're doing successful grinds, the point is you're still intentionally running your quad into a metal pole. Oh no, okay, okay, oh my god. You're gonna be just running it into metal over and over. It's pretty brutal on your gear so be prepared to have to do some repairs. So drone grinding, really want to see this continue to progress. I hope that these tips help you start trying to play with this. Leave any tips in the comments below so- Yeah, if you can figure something out tell me how to do it. Let's progress the whole community. If you find something that works and you become very consistent at it, please leave a comment in the comment section. Yeah, I'm Lydred. Matty Stence. Thanks for hanging out.