RC Noob
lvl.2
United States
Offline
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I joined AMA and my local RC club to fly my P3 Pro. At first, a few raised eyebrows and contant tips on what i should do and should not do.
When the wind picked up to 15 mph, a lot of advice to be careful.
All good, I appreciated the concern and the fact that this was education to a group of die hard RC advocates who did not have much direct exposure to Phantom, and likely just knew about what the media was saying..
So I settle in, taking my time to educate folks..
Then yesterday, my Pro 3 became a rescue drone!
An experienced RC fixed wing pilot lost his beautiful, large plane in the shrub downwind of the flying area. He asked me to help him, so I did!
We formed a search party.
Pilot put on boots and turned his phone on, staying connected with another RC flyer standing next to me, and relaying instructions.
I took up my Pro 3 in 10 mph+ winds (no problem, mine handles 20 mph just fine).. and sure enough in 10 mins I found his plane about 500 feet from the runway!
I used the POI feature to hover just above the treeline (maintaining visual LOS), and the owner was able to scramble to get there. It was in a very different location than the owner had imagined.
Only hiccup was that all this searching and guiding needed more than 1 battery, so i had to fly the P3 Pro back, change batteries, and fly back - did not want to take a risk hanging out downwind with 40% battery left.
So, my RC club members now have a new found respect for the Rescue Drone. I think i can find a dozen planes in a day if we wanted to!
Only question I had.. when i changed batteries and retraced steps, i had to spend some time to find the plane again in the dense shrubbery / swampy area.
Is there a way i can mark a location in memory, and then navigate to it on a future flight? that would cut down some time for some search and rescue flights.
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