I have been flying the DJI Phantoms for 3 years but never indoors. An International Company has approached me to shoot several indoor functions in large ballrooms all of the State of Florida. This is an International Charity Group, so no money is exchanged, so it's really a great cause and it will be a fun, new project for me.

• I am really stumped based on posts in the forum...do I fly in atti mode or P mode?
• What are some of the pitfalls besides running into something?
• Do experienced indoor pilots fly with prop guards or not?
• The lighting is incandescent and magnesium bulbs, so what about settings for video and photos?
• Filters for indoor flying?
  

I'd really appreciate all or any comments, tips or ideas.

Many thanks everyone!

If you have a solid GPS signal, then you should be fine, else you will need to have the skills to fly indoors manually.
Good Luck.

I don't have the answers to these questions but I am curious to see the responses!!  I've only flown indoors a couple times very briefly and the two things I would say could be pitfalls, would be they are seriously noisy when indoors.   Also they move wayyyyy more air then the little hobby quads I had flown inside previously, which depending on proximity and weight of surrounding items could cause things to blow around a bit.   

Good Luck!!

If you're going to fly in P-mode, GPS will likely be spotty, so be sure VPS (Vision Positioning System) is enabled.  But  I would read up on the Vision Positioning System section of the manual, there are a lot of caveats.

Or if you're a good pilot you could just leave it in ATTI mode, which should be more consistent (not switching in and out of GPS mode etc.) if you're skilled at it.  ATTI mode makes the P3 more responsive but that can get you into trouble quicker too.

Prop guards couldn't hurt and might help.

You will be surprised how quickly a Phantom (or other copters) can hit the ceiling.  Easy on the throttle.

Hopefully you're not flying during an event, it would be noisy and windy and you better have practiced in advance to be sure your flight won't be a danger to people.  

Sounds like a worthwhile project!

Funny, but I flew two batteries to storage level because of weather this am in my garage as MY first indoor practice. I was looking for a previous pilot that posted about filming inside an aircraft museum, so I did a search of the FORUMS, and naturally, DJI-TIM came to my rescue HERE

From my own experience this morning:

1) Turn OFF RTH first thing! We don't want our aircraft climbing up to 50M.
2) I left mine in P-mode as I could get 7-8 satellites and P-mode will automatically switch to P-ATTI or P-OPTI as needed
3) My space was VERY confined so it took constant concentration. Don't over-correct, but anticipate the aircraft movements.
4) Analyze what VPS will be seeing within your filming environment and enable it or disable it depending on its benefit
5) After a while, I found that there was a "best" altitude for controlling the aircraft. Too low and ground effect was bad or adequate room for maneuvering was limited.

Good luck, fly safe, and take a look at the other post in the forum.

I recently covered a Zumba dance charity event indoors. The music was loud so there wasn't much concern for the noise of the P3P.

I found it best to fly ATTI with VPS off. as mentioned above be cautious of your ceiling heights and designated zones for take off and landing.

Another interesting thing I noticed was the drift caused by the updrafts as the room was quite warm from all of the activity. The P3P would rise 1-3 feet quite quickly so finer throttle control is recommended.

Prop guards would be essential in my view and another thing to consider is speaker positions throughout the venue, Get too close and you'll see calibration errors.

To all the above , I would add;  turn all the gains way down to reduce the possibility of abrupt or panicky stick movements that  may damage something or someone.  Keep in mind the normal performance of the P3,  it responds pretty fast.  A little nudge on the stick could be disaster indoors.  By reducing the gains,  you will reduce the response of the P3.  Anything that happens will happen much slower.

Kneepuck Posted at 2016-2-26 01:32
To all the above , I would add;  turn all the gains way down to reduce the possibility of abrupt or  ...

For sure on lowering the gains, that will give you a slower mushy response. I have mine set like that 100% of the time.