I'm not all scary with my bird. I bought it to use it and if I was going to be afraid to fly it I would have just saved my $3k and not bought it. So I conducted a long range test with heavy tree cover canopy over the road I drove on with my RC in my car. Went without even the slightest hitch. I flew it for around 5-1/2 miles.

If you have any specific questions ask away. No way I'm posting videos with all the snitching and snooping going on with UAVs so don't ask.

You said there was heavy tree cover, was the GPS in the phone/tablet ok with that? I mean, was the Inspire 1 able to follow you accurately?

Also, what speed were you driving at?

yeach, that's a pretty good result

Yes, for a significant portion of the trip the trees covered the road to where you could not even see the road.  What I did was started where there was a big enough gap in tree coverage and got my bird up to around 200 feet. Then I switched the RC to the Intelligent Flight mode and selected follow me and hit apply.  I drove until I found another significant gap in tree coverage and pulled off the road to safely land her.

I was so very impressed on how precisely the Inspire 1 followed the path of my car and the road. The flight path as basically superimposed on the road even on curves. My driving speed was around 40-45 mph, but I made sure to slow down to allow the Inspire to keep up. Post flight data showed the Inspire getting a top speed of 33mph. Also the battery consumption is not all that bad, I guess because it's pretty much flying smoothly without air braking.

I normally use an iPad Air 2, but seeing reports saying that I needed the cellular radio model I used my Galaxy Note 4 instead. Let me tell you something, the Note 4 is a performance beast when used as the flight screen. The screen resolution is much greater and the video feed is much smoother. I almost feel like I wasted $500 on the Air 2. Also it's lower profile is better when doing a follow me type shoot, it's lighter and less cumbersome especially when the RC is in your vehicle.

The GPS signal never deviated from "strong" not once. Even with the tree cover, even when the Inspire was trailing behind at around 100M or more. I did however keep the sunroof open lol so maybe that helped.

I'm very impressed with DJI with this firmware addition. I'll be doing more testing. If you guys have any more questions ask away. I may decide to post a screen cap of my post flight data and flight path, I just don't want to give away any locational data as I know these forums are being actively monitored.

Skylinewg Posted at 2015-12-10 14:28
Yes, for a significant portion of the trip the trees covered the road to where you could not even se ...

That sounds great. I actually use a Note 4 myself but had issues with USB debugging mode, which I thought was necessary before... Now it works perfectly without it but I get the, "no signal" issue if I use it.

Hey there Skylinewg,

I have an Inspire 1 version with the X3 camera and I'm running the latest firmware v1.06.00.40 right now.

Earlier with the v1.05.xx.xx I would get the message "Follow me not available" or something to that effect. I looked up the issue and it turned out that DJI had launched the Follow Me option on firmware v1.03 for Inspires and Phantom 3's, however they removed it in the following firmware updates for only the Inspires.

I haven't tested it out ever since, however I would like to know from you how you were able to do so? Perhaps you are running a different version of the firmware on your Inspire?

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards...

I did the same kinda test with a wifi iPad mini but hooked up via Bluetooth to a garmin glo. Did the follow me, got to 35mph - It was like the bird was on a leash. Worked like a dream! I really want Dji to make autopilot logic to be compatible with the x5. Any news on that anyone?

What firmware are you using? Great journey btw. I have an Ipad mini and I havent used my note for the Inspire 1 but now I will try it.

ajmalian@gmail. Posted at 2016-1-16 06:53
Hey there Skylinewg,

I have an Inspire 1 version with the X3 camera and I'm running the latest firm ...

I need to check my firmware version, it was the one released in early December if I recall correctly.

I haven't flown since then because of the upcoming Christmas season and everyone being on edge about all the new birds in the air.

cool to know.  would love to see footage.

Just wondering, did you shut off the "Return to Home" function on the RC ? Or did you change it to Hover?  I am going to try this when I travel to Northern Michigan ( No Traffic). I can also appreciate you not wanting to post the Video with all of the "Internet Police".

With any of my other RC aircraft systems I would not trust such a adventure.  BUT with the DJI Lightbridge Technology I have faith that it will work flawlessly.

Cheers -donnie

Nice!Good Job!