1.3: Flight Directions

Step 1

We've Moved!

We’ve moved to our new lesson portal: Robolink Learn! Lessons here will remain available until the end of June 2026. This version of Basecamp will no longer be updated and uses outdated references to Blockly for Robolink. You can access the previous version of Blockly here.

Step 2

Junior Flight Commands

Air vehicles move a little differently than land vehicles. While land vehicles can move forward, backward, and sometimes side-to-side, air vehicles can do all of that and move up and down! In the flight commands menu in Blockly, you will find a block that can help you program your CoDrone EDU to fly in any of these directions.

The Junior Flight Movement block can move the drone in six directions:

forward
backward
up
down
left
right

Select the go block from the flight commands menu, and then use the drop-down menu to pick your CoDrone EDU’s direction. Type in your CoDrone EDU’s flight time as well as the power value. The power value can range from 0 to 100, with 0 being completely still and 100 being very fast. We recommend starting at 50 and seeing what you need to do from there.

gofowarddropdownpower-cde-blockly-junior

Step 3

Turn Around

In addition to being able to fly up, down, left, right, forward, and backward, your CoDrone EDU can also turn left and right! The turn degrees block in the flight commands menu can be used to turn your drone left or right by providing a value in degrees. The drone will turn left or right relative to where the drone is currently facing.

Remember, the front of your drone is indicated by its front propellers (colored red).

Step 4

Put It All Together

Try writing a program that will have your CoDrone EDU take off, fly forward, and then turn before landing! It could look something like this:

flightcommands-example-cde-blockly-junior

Step 5

Challenges

Challenge: Rewind

Run the following code, then write a new program that runs the whole flight path in reverse. For example, if a program goes forward and then turns left, your reverse program will first turn right and then fly backward. Imagine you hit the rewind button. Bonus points if you run the original program and the reversed program back-to-back to check!

Challenge: Shape Shifter

Write a Blockly program using the turn degrees block to fly in different equilateral polygons. An equilateral polygon is a closed shape where each side is the same length. This means you have to fly for the same amount of time and power for each side. For example, flying in a square would look like this:

Try writing code to fly in a square. Then, challenge yourself to find the right angles for flying in an equilateral triangle and pentagon! What other shapes can you make?

Step 6

Lesson Complete

In this lesson, you learned how to use more of the CoDrone EDU’s flight blocks to move and turn in different directions. These blocks will help you program the CoDrone EDU to fly in different patterns and shapes!

This lesson works with:

Grade level:

Approx. time required:

CSTA

CCSS

We've Moved!

Junior Flight Commands

Turn Around

Put It All Together

Challenges

Lesson Complete

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