What to do when you are not flying, the quite bits when you are waiting for another session....

Like any other addiction, when you dont fly or don't do the thing you love to do... You will get moody... or try to find an alternative thing to do... Its not so easy if your hobby is mostly outside... and you live in a country that the weather changes every winter time... Most people mothball their drones thinking nothing more then watching past videos or doing a clean maintenance for your dusty drone...

The lucky ones are the people who live in hot climates reaping the rewards of all year round mild weather. The things is not everyone is like that and whether or not there'll be times when life and family gets in the way... Not to mention maintenance issues and crashes where you'll be sending off your drone for a long while...

On days of not flying I have to make up my own entertainment... Of course there is the telly and all the rubbish that going on TV... And work and chores to do in every day life, making a working week a less of a pain as you forget your drone life... Although some people are now trying to make a go of this by getting qualified and learning the theory and writing their tests and operations manual...

Whether paid or not, hobbyist or fully qualified professional everyone has down time and flying hours you might clock up wont change the weather... For my addiction I temper my frustrations on related topics such as blogging and to read up on the latest developments... While pottering around the house doing all sorts of alternative hobbies...

Sometimes I like to play the classics and look at the past flight videos  see my improvements...

going over your flights to look for flaws or strategize, is helpful as I'm always willing to look for ways to becoming a better pilot... Being critical to your movements and overall smoothness pushes me to find a solution to certain short falls... Take for instance the switch to sport mode... Most beginners would want to use it all the time and like the feel of high speed flight... But I noticed in my inspire 1 flights and even my mavic footage that clocking over 30 miles an hour, my camera movements were unstable...

I would jerk the rudder or the gimble will catch the wind and would spoil the smooth long flight in a orbit or complex maneuver... My early videos, I would edit out the jerks or inconsistent flying... in favor for smooth edited videos... slowing the altitude settings (slowing the acceleration curve) or making the rule to use sport mode to fly only in a straight line helped a lot... This reviewing my videos from a new perspective has helped solved many an issues and trim my expos, my sensitivity and gain settings
( gain is the flight settings to react to exterior forces )
Another thing you can do in your down time is maintenance, or cleaning your drone and inspecting it for cracks and hairline fractures... Not everyone lands gently and its possible that you might have  have to look out for stress fractures and use preventative measures to stop your drone falling out from the sky...
In my case I land on the beach pretty softly and the only thing I try to do in my down time is clean the sand off my drones... Or clean the lenses using a lens pen and soft brush to get rid of dust and microfiber tip...
One major problem I found in my down time is that I am trying to solve a on going problem... My inspire 1 system has a definite screen lag from the light bridge system.... Knowing the system is a digital video link... I am understanding that screen lag is caused by a error correcting system that trys to reshuffle the data to the correct order in the hope that video signal comes out perfect from the camera view... The error correction uses process power to shuffle the video and if its overwhelming, it will cause screen lag as well as pixelation... My solution is to boost the signal between the controller and aircraft, as this will ensure the best RF link for what I think is a reduced RF power dictated by the latest Firmware update from DJI ...
The simple answer is that a larger aerial mod fitted on the inspire controller should boost the signal by a few decibels... 
his is a passive system and should be legal in terms that the CAA only allows passive aerials only and not powered versions... This theory has been tested on my mavic system already using a DBS itellite antenna... And has been operated in a area of high RF, with no lag or pixelation...

Having Down time can be very useful as a whole as It gives me ample time to go over each individual problem from my drone and see if improvements can be made... In the winter seasons you should check your batteries every few months, as the self draining battery management can possibly drain the inspire battery or indeed and other DJI battery to dangerous levels... Eventually the season will change and hopefully spring will bring up more opportunities to fly again...