I have been using my phantom for about a year now and it has taken my youtube channel to new heights, literally.

That being said there are a few unresolved gremlins here and there. Since many dji customers bought phantom 2, I feel that we should have our own little space for phantom 1.

Things I have done to my phantom:
Zenmuse gimbal
iosd mini (soldered contacts to motherboard)
fatshark predator v2
just upgraded from phantom batteries to zippy 2800
I have 2 chargers because when traveling it allows me to charge twice as many batteries at the same time.

I have crashed mine 3 times:
1 was when I let someone fly it and it ended in a tree (first thing to be lost were black rubber isolators).
1 was right after I installed iosd mini and took it to maiden flight. It plummeted 100ft, bounced off a tree and broke zenmuse gimbal plastic bracket. I did a diy aluminum cross while replacement part arrived. This incident is related to problem below.
1 was after above crash with aluminum bracket when my battery dropped voltage. It turned out that cell #3 was dead. I promptly ordered replacement batteries because I had 2 crashes too many in 24 hours and did not want to risk it.

I have put quite a bit of fly time on mine. Most of my youtube videos dating to August or so of 2013 now have phantom footage. Kayaking, mountain biking, soon scuba diving, hiking, traveling... you name it and it flew there. Coldest weather I have flown it was -9F. Hottest weather was 97F with 100% humidity. I have flown it in 20mph winds which taught me a lesson to never fly if wind is stronger than 5mph.

No major problems to speak of aside for flying and traveling with it. FAA / TSA always checkes it (have it as carryon stowed in pelican 1510 hard case) and they also dropped it (thankfully in a hard case). I also fell with hard case while climbing down mountain.

Most of the time I fly under 150ft high and usually within line of sight, although almost always thorugh fpv because I am controlling my gimbal to get the right shot. I am always filming in wilderness so never next to metal things or electric lines or people or anything but even in middle of nowhere I have found haters.

yarik83 -- good write up.  Your set-up and experience are quite similar to mine, though I also use the iPad Ground Station.  I never fly near urban areas or groups of people.  My main interest in using the Phantom is for photography, especially in isolated areas and natural settings.  I've converted my P1.0 to a 1.5 (moved everything into a P2 shell).  I use P2 batteries but just tried a pair of Pulse 2700 mah batteries and was quite pleased, both with performance and lower cost.  I also have 2 battery chargers.  With dual-batteries in my camper van I can fly & recharge almost continuously, all day long.  

franz.carl Posted at 2014-9-19 10:19
yarik83 -- good write up.  Your set-up and experience are quite similar to mine, though I also use t ...

Are there alternative batteries for the Phantom 2 that you mention in your post?

Nice guys.....

looks like you guys have gotten a lot out of the PH1 .... mine is in corner with go pro and zenmus and fat shark FPV.
I am flying my PH2V with the epson moverio glasses daily. I am waiting for some one to com up with an video interface from the AV to
WIFI so that I can use my Epson glasses on PH1.

well until then she sits in the corner

I have glasses therefore the fat shark are trick to use....