Background: I owned a P4P (not the plus version) for three weeks during which I thoroughly tested its flight, video and photography capabilities. I ultimately returned this P4P to Best Buy due to an unacceptable tilted horizon issue when flying it faster than 15 mph either forward or sideways. In all other aspects I was very pleased with the P4P. The 4K 60 fps 100 Mbps video quality in MOV and MP4 file formats was outstanding. But I own four other DJI aircraft and need fully-functional equipment. I could not adjust horizon tilt with a single gimbal adjustment setting in the DJI GO 4 app because gimbal tilt increased as P4P speed increased above 15 mph. I will wait one or two firmware update cycles and then purchase another one and test it again. Long-Distance P4P Flight Testing Results - 3.8 miles Range Achieved Using fully-conditioned batteries from my older P4, so that I could trust the remaining battery level, I completed two successful long-distance runs to 20,125 feet (3.81 miles) and 20,295 feet (3.84 miles), respectively, over open, flat farm land on two separate days. In both cases, I turned the P4P around at 60% battery level but still had 3-4 bars of RC and video signal. In the first flight I experienced intermittent video signal (but not RC signal) for 2-3 seconds about half-way out, but quickly recovered it and continued with no further issues. On the second, longer run in a slightly different direction, RC and video signal strength remained at 4-5 bars for the entire flight. I could have flown further on both flights based on good RC and video signal, but didn't want to risk running out of battery on return flight. In both flights I landed P4P at Home point with 11-12% battery remaining. My DJI GO 4 app and equipment setup for the two P4P long-distance flights: - HD Transmission in Custom Mode, 2.4 GHz selected, Custom Channel 20, 4 Mbps transmission rate (lowest) - Note: Channel 20 showed the lowest (nil) interference at the Home point and my past experience with dozens of long-distance flights to 4+ miles with my P4, P3Pro and Inspire 1 have used this same Custom channel setup. - RC antenna pointing straight up, parallel to each other with wide flat sides facing the P4P at all times - High-quality ($25) solid aluminum Parabolic reflector slipped over and behind the RC antenna - RC in P mode with 16-18 GPS satellites locked - Care taken to maintain RC antenna with parabolic reflectors aimed (like satellite dishes) directly at P4P for entire duration of flight - Fly predominantly at maximum forward stick for entire flight - Horizontal Speed for 1st Flight: 38 mph for entire flight (Obstacle Avoidance OFF) - Horizontal Speed for 2nd Flight: 28 mph for first half (Obstacle Avoidance ON), then 35 mph (Obstacle Avoidance OFF) - Altitude for 1st Flight (196 feet for first 17,800 feet then increased to 384 feet, 387 feet for return leg)
- Altitude for 2nd Flight (206 feet for first 15,000 feet then increased to 357 feet, 357 feet for return leg)
|