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Make the drone fly a shape

Now that your drone takes off and lands from code, let’s send it on a journey. You’ll program it to fly a square - and then discover how loops make it far easier.
Fly in a big, clear space. A square needs room in every direction. Keep the red LAND NOW button handy.

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The movement blocks

Two Flight blocks do all the moving:
  • fly [forward] for [1] second(s) at [50] % speed - flies a direction for a set time
  • spin [left / right] for [1] second(s) at [50] % speed - rotates in place for a set time
Notice turns are measured in time, not degrees. To turn about a quarter-circle, you spin for a short time and tune it. Start with a small spin time and adjust until the turn looks like a corner.

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Fly a square, the long way

A square is four “fly forward, then spin” steps. Build it block by block:
Run it and adjust the spin time until each turn is about a corner. That’s a lot of repeated blocks, though…

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Fly a square, the smart way: loops

Notice you repeated the exact same two blocks four times. A loop does the repeating for you. Open the Loops category and use a repeat [4] times block:
echo.pitsco.com Loops block category

The Loops blocks: repeat, repeat while, count with, for each, and break

Same square, way less work. This is one of the most powerful ideas in all of coding: don’t repeat yourself - loop.
Comparison of writing a square the long way versus using a repeat loop

Nine blocks the long way, or three blocks with a loop - same square

The two blocks inside “repeat 4 times” run four times total - four sides and four turns make a square back to the start.

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Try other shapes

Change the repeat count and the spin time and you can fly almost any shape. The more sides a shape has, the more repeats you need - and the shorter each turn.
Gallery of shapes showing loop counts and turn angles for triangle, square, hexagon, and circle

Repeat counts and turn amounts for common shapes

Triangle

Repeat 3 times with a slightly longer spin time for sharper turns.

Hexagon

Repeat 6 times with a shorter spin time between sides.

Rectangle

Alternate a long and short fly forward time inside the loop.

Spin in place

Just repeat several small spins with no forward flight.

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Debug like a pro

If your shape comes out wrong, don’t guess - change one thing at a time:

Watch which step fails

Run it and note exactly where the path goes wrong.

Adjust one value

Tweak a single spin time or fly time, then run again.

Compare

See if it improved. Repeat until the shape is clean.
Debugging cycle diagram: watch, change one thing, compare, repeat

The debugging loop every engineer uses: watch, change one thing, compare, repeat

The classic beginner mistake is changing three things at once, then not knowing which one helped. One change, one test. It feels slower but it’s how you actually solve the problem.
Because turns are timed, the perfect spin time depends on your drone and battery level. Finding it by testing and tuning is real engineering - and exactly how pilots calibrate autonomous drones.
You programmed the drone to fly a square both the long way and with a loop, and you tuned the spin time to shape the turns.