hey, I'm going to buy a vision for fun and general desire of a drone, I'm familiar with rc everything. I'm so exited but their are horror stories everywhere here and I'm kinda nervous now, will my phantom fly awy? Or a motor fail mid flight ? Can I trust my phantom if I kept it updated and do everything right ? Thanks

Well.....you can probably trust it as much or more than any other quad of it's size and capability out there. But you can't trust any of them to be other than "hobby grade". A lot depends on the pilot, regular inspection, good luck, etc.

If you spend a couple hundred extra and send it to one of the aftermarket shops they will check everything beforehand to see if there are any weak links in the chain.

Droneflyers

Are you joking?

If you buy it from a dealer then you expect
a) that it to be of merchantable quality out of the box - DJI quality
b) the merchant to check it over with you to ensure you understand it and all bits are there  - like buying a pet. Happiness

You should not have to send it off before you fly it unless you want addons

I have only had mine for a few weeks, but it's been flawless.   Some of the horror stories are pilot error or pilots doing some risky things.  IMHO, if you take a cautious approach to your flying you can minimize the risk:
Use a preflight checklist and follow it.
Power the thing up in proper order
Ensure you have plenty of satellites locked in before launch
Do a compass cal everytime you power the phantom up
Stay away from cell towers and other structures with antennas
Fly cautiously ( stay away from people, land while you still have some battery life left, stay within line of sight, descend slowly, avoid high wind days, keep it out of the clouds etc...)
Read and FOLLOW the manual.

Do these things and you can greatly minimize the risk.  Also, buy the very latest version with the upgrades.  You can find horror stories, but, there are often ( not always)  extenuating circumstances.

The problem is horror stories will always be heard about before the good stories, that's nature! I have had a phantom now for 2 months and not had any problems, yes I had one crash but that was my fault as was learning manoeuvres and am still learning now from this forum and YouTube, think it will always be an ongoing process. Up to now reliability has been good for me. In my opinion the majority of problems we hear about could be avoided if read the manual then reread but what I will say is that the dji manual could be improved on and it must be embarrassing when an individual like pattydays?? can do a better job than dji themselves.

Also should I always up date the software to the newest one or should you wait until there is feedback ?

I have a couple of phantoms and my experience is that the DJI products are excellent. I started with no RC flight experience and have only had problems when i am testing the limits of the phantom.  

mrburns Posted at 2015-1-4 21:20
Droneflyers

Are you joking?

It's all a matter of percentages. You can buy it from the best dealers and it still comes sealed in the box (usually). In fact, most people want it that way.

Every and any thing you do affects the longevity and the chance that you will keep it. If you always fly less than 200 feet high and less than 400 feet away from yourself, you have a much bigger chance of keeping it than if you fly 1000+ feet away.

If you fly over soft grass in an area with fewer trees, fewer Wifi signals, etc. - and with strong GPS receptions - you have an even larger chances of retaining it longer.

These are mass produced and the QC is certainly not up to milspec or even to Apple and other standards. We've known that for 2+ years.

I'm not saying that's a good thing....just that it "is". If I used my Phantom for commercial or important work, I'd not only send it in to the aftermarket guys...I'd own two of the same model. That would further increase reliability.

Maybe in 5 years these things will be semi-perfected, but they are not that way yet. Not even close.