Hey,

I've purchased a Phantom 3 Standard and I'm obviously excited. Is there anything you can help me with?

Thanks

Watch all the Tutorial videos from DJI and download the Manual, Print it and read it. It may not make a ton of sense at first because your P3 isn't in front of you but it will be well worth it once you fly. I believe that Almost all fly aways or accidents are from people that do not really understand the Phantom. For instance, a quick scenario; you lose visual, which will happen and now your HD feed goes out, you get a weak RC signal . You freak out of course, but in this situation your are very likely to get your bird back if you understand the telemetry readings and how the P3 will respond in this situation and how you pressing buttons while freaking out will affect the P3's response. I tell anyone, even people interested in a $30.00 quad from amazon or Toys' R' us, "READ THE MANUAL".

Also, Put your phone number with a sticker or maybe a sharpie somewhere. I put my number on my battery via a sticker and I also put it on the bottom of the legs. And depending on the country, register it with the FAA in case of an accident. I think it's a very heavy fine for not having it registered if you get yourself into trouble. it is only 5 bucks.

The key to success is to practice... A LOT!
make sure you learn each aspect from the different components with the DJI Go App, to the different switches.
Many just take off and try to fly away as far as possible, but then they are here wondering how they crashed, or got a fly away.



One key element to know are those two switches.  The right one should be up for GPS mode.  Middle for Manual (NO GPS), and down is for things like POI (point of interest), follow me mode, etc.
The left should normally just be in the center position, but is key if you need to do a RTH (return to Home) by siwtching the left one up and down twice.  This is great if your app crashes and you need your bird to come home.


Also, make sure to set your RTH fail safe height.  The default is 20 meters, so is rather low.

Also, do not try to carry anything on your bird.. Some think this is a great idea, but it can cause a crash.

Welcome to the forum and your new P3S.  I have a P2V+ and a P3S and enjoy them both.  I'm going to repeat mostly what has been said.

1. Read the manual - twice, if not three times.  The P3S does not come with a printed manual, so download it (.pdf) from the DJI site under Phantom and Downloads.  Take notes, jot down the meaning of the flashing LEDs, etc.

2. If you're confused or uncertain on anything, check the tutorial videos on the DJI site and YouTube.

3. Before your first flight, yes, put your name and phone number on the bird somewhere in case you loose it behind those trees due to inexperience.  Register with the FAA; also put number on the bird.

4.  Get as familiar as you can with the DJI GO app.  Especially the battery level, the number of GPS satellites, and the button to initiate Return to Home.

5.  On your first flight, do the pre-checks and compass calibration.  Pick a nice open field away from trees, tall buildings, power lines and water.  Running into a tree, building, or dunking it water almost guarantees that's your last flight!  Take off and maneuver your Phantom to fly in a large square, then a circle, take it up, then down, not too fast, to get a feel of the controls and how to fly it to where you want.  Sure, take some photos or record some video to see what it looks like, but on your first few flights, you should concentrate on flying and maneuvering the Phantom, not photography.  Doing both well takes a lot of practice.  Keep it within visual range at all times.  Fly it out of sight and maneuver with the FPV video only after you build up plenty of confidence.

6.  On your first flight or two, bring it home with the RTH (return to home) to get a feel of how that works, the return altitude (in case you want to make it higher), how long it takes, and how close it comes to the take off point to land.  On your flights, anything goes wrong or you send it too far away, or something, RTH can save your skin (if nothing tall in between you and the Phantom) to get it back to you safe.

7.  After a couple of flights, you are excited to go send it somewhere really neat.  Don't get too exotic at first.  Just remain conservative with your flights until you get comfortable with the bird.  Maybe 2-3 flights, maybe a dozen.  Your mileage may vary.

8.  A big problem for many of us at first is keeping track of the orientation of the Phantom.  That is, you yaw it around to take photos and you loose track of which way it's heading.  You pull your right stick to bring it home, and it flies off in a completely different direction.  Learn to watch the GO app for the orientation to know the heading of the bird (the arms with the red flashing LEDs defines the front of the Phantom - the same side as the camera).  Another reason not to fly it out of sight until you've mastered orientation and using the Home Lock function.

It's not really that hard, and gobs of fun.  Just be conservative at first and really learn how to maneuver the Phantom.  A good flight is no problem.  Where you get into trouble is when you loose GPS lock or something.  Learning to recover when things go wrong is the key to many flights to come.

Good luck, have fun, and let us know your progress.

Read the manual, and then forums, and videos. One tip is keep the front of the phantom pointed in the same direction you are if you are a first time flyer. Also get it up to at least 10-15 feet and don't hover it too low on your first couple of flights. The prop wash (air being pushed down from the propellers) will bounce up of the ground and make the drone a little more unstable.

Practice makes perfect, so easy, I just picture myself in the cockpit of an aircraft

Always check the weather!   Wind can ruin your day very quickly

quickpoint Posted at 2016-4-12 18:15
Always check the weather!   Wind can ruin your day very quickly

Yes wind.  Wind is evil!  Almost lost battery power on a RTH once.

microcyb Posted at 2016-4-12 16:19
Yes wind.  Wind is evil!  Almost lost battery power on a RTH once.

DBS mod so you can fly out over 2 miles. $100

RICK8162JR Posted at 2016-4-12 18:49
DBS mod so you can fly out over 2 miles. $100

I knew you would say that!

Make sure switch S1 is in the UP position.  Play with the other positions when you become more experienced.  I crashed mine accidentally (no damage luckily) when I had the switch in the down position (Atti mode) and it started drifting away in strong wind.  

Keep your maximum altitude to 120 meters and check where you are and aren't allowed to fly here: http://daim.lfv.se/echarts/dronechart/

G_MEZ_G Posted at 2016-4-12 20:56
Also, Put your phone number with a sticker or maybe a sharpie somewhere. I put my number on my batte ...

Phone number is a very good idea.. And FYI Sweden doesn't have nor require registration of remote controlled multicopters with LFV (The Swedish equivalent of FAA).

G_MEZ_G Posted at 2016-4-12 14:56
Also, Put your phone number with a sticker or maybe a sharpie somewhere. I put my number on my batte ...

Good advice! I wrote mine on the bottom of the landing skids:

Thank you guys so much! I really appreciate it!

FAS1 Posted at 2016-4-13 22:26
Good advice! I wrote mine on the bottom of the landing skids:

I wrote mine there as well, Stole your idea from another post

Make sure your return to home height is set to clear any trees/buildings in the area, make sure you get the home point set notification before takeoff, stay away from areas with large aggressive birds that may attack your drone.

isac.lego Posted at 2016-4-13 11:10
Thank you guys so much! I really appreciate it!

You will soon be a dronie in no time!
{:3_59:}

microcyb Posted at 2016-4-13 18:31
You will soon be a dronie in no time!

I really do hope that's the outcome of this adventure, it would be too bad if I read to much information and destroyed it at 2 meters. lol

I'm so darn in to this!!!!
To bad the processing and shipping will take at most 15 days

Oh well. DHL for you

snowsurferss Posted at 2016-4-14 00:22
Make sure your return to home height is set to clear any trees/buildings in the area, make sure you  ...

I have heard of drones being attacked. Are there certain birds that one should avoid that you may have heard of? besides the obvious Large aggressive ones, lol. I mean like sea gulls? crows?

Le0ntin Posted at 2016-4-13 13:14
I really do hope that's the outcome of this adventure, it would be too bad if I read to much infor ...

Just take your time and practice a lot.  The default beginner mode is a nice feature to helps you get a good feel of everything.
There are tons of great videos people have made that will help you till your bird arrives.

Of you have any more questions, we can certainly help you out!