Hi my name is Dave i am a chief in clyde fire dept, we are interested in purchasing a phantom 2 plus to aid in search and rescue and other jobs, what would everyone recomend for accesories and what do we need, i want to be able to fly it manually and to see while we are operating it, we have laptops in our trucks now could we use those as docking stations or would ipads be better, we have our personal iphones also, any help would be appreciated

You'll need a smartphone or tablet to run the apps that allow viewing what the camera sees...

T J Gilbert Posted at 2014-10-31 00:26
You'll need a smartphone or tablet to run the apps that allow viewing what the camera sees...

Don't do it......   They are a great machine but not upto operational use at present...

You need to explore the other manufaturers and/or other high end DJI product for pro use...  Invest in professional equipment to achieve better results....

Waterproofing, smoke trauma, flir cameras remounting of other systems and lifting capacity are all very important factors in SAR...
Research your requirements or get seriously professional advice.
Contact DJI direct, they have solutions that are not viable for regular consumers.

mixstreme is correct concerning "hobby" vs. "professional" equipment
I was not endorsing your equipment choice.
I merely answered your "docking station" or viewing choices question.
I've spoken with pros that start with the hobby equipment to gain better knowledge about their professional needs and to gain pilot experience.
You will be wise to do your research even if it involves starting with the hobby stuff as I mentioned above...

For what it's worth, a police department, a few professional photographers, and a college professor have all flown my "hobby" equipment to help them decide which "professional" equipment to buy...

Fire department in copenhagen, denmark use Dji, call them ☺
Here is a link when they use it HERE

robbin.bergqvis Posted at 2014-10-31 02:29
Fire department in copenhagen, denmark use Dji, call them ☺
Here is a link when they use it HERE

Good example!
I would think that an "expendable" grade drone would be a plus if you need to fly it into a harsh environment.
If it goes down, you just replace it...

I would recommend a h3-3d model with a gopro and lightbridge, you can then have HD video live to a screen of you own choice.
If you have Vision plus you will only have low quality live video to you phone or tablet, you then have to connect to a computer to load the file and look at good quality.

if you have good quality HD streaming to maybe a 20' screen you can directly see any threats or people in need. You can also connect lightbridge to FPV goggles i think, but i dont know what video quality this goggles have, maybe other people can answer that.

Many video goggles do work with LB.
For specifics, search the LB thread on this forum or visit the LB threads on RCGroups...

Hi Dave.

What you need to make the P2 useful depends on what you want it to be able to do. The requirements the phantom is built for will not alway match what you need.

Curiously, I am part of a group that has been asked to come up with a package to help Search and Rescue. I'm on the other side of the pond to you, but I would be happy to compare what we are doing to your requirements and see if we could help.

Whew!  The first question would be how much money do you have in your budget?

For SAR (Search and Rescue)  you're probably going to want some kind of IR or THERMAL imaging systems and that is what will drive up your costs.  I ran across a few systems while I was trying to figure out what I needed for FPV and this is by no means a comprehensive range of what's out there.

BASIC THERMAL UAS PACKAGE - DJI PHANTOM 2 WITH FLIR TAU 2 THERMAL CAMERA (READY TO FLY $2,999.00)
http://1uas.com/Cat-Unmanned-Aer ... TAU2-THERMAL-CAMERA

Phantom 2 Dual Camera SAR and Inspection System (Around $8600)
http://www.uavdirect.com/THERMAL ... antom2-syst-324.htm