I am new to the Phantom 3 Pro. I have read on previous forums that people have flown 6000m away? That sounds awesome! For some reason, the max distance I can set my phantom is 500m. I was wondering if there is something to change it to be able to fly further? Or just change the settings to not to fly back after max distance is reached? Thanks for all the discussions in advanced.

I have never understood the fascination with flying so far away. At that distance (6K meters = 3.72 miles), you really have no clue what is behind, in front of or coming right at you.  In my eyes, that is just unnecessary flirtation with disaster.

The Phantom DJ Posted at 2016-2-22 18:41
I have never understood the fascination with flying so far away. At that distance (6K meters = 3.72  ...

I understand that haha, I just want to be able to at least fly 1000m. I would like to know how to do it though, in the safest way possible

"That sounds awesome! For some reason, the max distance I can set my phantom is 500m. I was wondering if there is something to change it to be able to fly further? "

Your Phantom has a configurable Distance Limit in the app.
If it's enabled you can set a distance limit.
If you disable it, you have no distance limit.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-2-22 18:53
"That sounds awesome! For some reason, the max distance I can set my phantom is 500m. I was wonderin ...

Alright, thank you. 1000m here I come!

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-2-22 18:53
"That sounds awesome! For some reason, the max distance I can set my phantom is 500m. I was wonderin ...

Alright, Thank You. 1000m here I come!

Max distance mostly depends on your flight environment. you get less in the city and more in the wide opened area

I usually get around 600-800m on my standard without and range extenders..

If humans weren't into pushing ranges we never would have left Africa or went to the moon!  

Dr. Acula Posted at 2016-2-24 12:15
If humans weren't into pushing ranges we never would have left Africa or went to the moon!

That's fine as long as you don't want your aircraft back.

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-23 21:10
That's fine as long as you don't want your aircraft back.

Well that's certainly preferable...  

For what it is worth, if you are new to the Phantom, you would not be advised to try and maximum distance flying like this. It is fraught with dangers.

Firstly, you would be breaking the law, because the FAA requires you to have the aircraft in visual range at all times during a flight. That means you must be able to see it with the naked eye, or an observer working with you must be able to see it.

There are a whole set of circumstances that could cause problems,. meaning that you may lose your aircraft or even cause serious damage to someone or their property.

On the flight out you may experience favourable tailwinds that let you fly long and fast, but coming back you will have to fight those winds to return home. You may not make it home.

If you get out there, and are getting low on battery and your aircraft decides to return home, there is no guarantee it will make it home, so it will automatically land when the battery level gets critical. But where is it going to land? In someone's back yard (kiss it goodbye), on a road or freeway (kiss it goodbye), in water somewhere (kiss, well you know it by now).

People who try these long distance flights often add features to their aircraft to achieve those long distances, and they usually have some lengthy experience in doing so. And just because it says on a forum somewhere they can go those distances does not mean you can.

Using that command let's you set the max distance, that  you only want to & not beyond.
It's another of the phantom 3's handy built in safety features, kind of like Begginer mode.
As it restricts you to fly only within that barrier.
So to answer your question, to fly much further out, that button has to be turned off.
Turning it on and putting a number in there, is like a tether to a kite and a restricted set distance.

RedHotPoker

Geebax Posted at 2016-2-23 17:21
For what it is worth, if you are new to the Phantom, you would not be advised to try and maximum dis ...

Aloha Geebax,

     All of your points should be well taken.  But the FAA has not finalized the rulemaking yet.  It is all still proposed for small drones.  Very reasonable proposed rules though.

Aloha and Drone On!

I was just out today and was flying away down the road(private road) and actually could still see my P3A with the red prop guards on it and it seemed to just stop, I looked down and seen that I had reached my max distance...Dang! I wanted to go at least another 100' or so. So reading up on the max distance I guess the max you can set is 500m and if you want more, you have to turn max distance off. I can see the importance of being safe and being able to set your max distance but limiting the max on the app to 500m in my eyes makes it unsafe because then you have to turn it off making it now a possible fly away or something else. I would think it would be much safer to let you decide what your max distance should be than to just turn it off completely. Like I said, I needed to go about another 100' so if I was able to set my max to say 550m that's a lot safer than unlimited. I think that is why every time I move I get further away from civilization, just tired of being told what, when , where and how to live my life.

Here's a video clip of what I mentioned earlier showing how far 500m is which to me is not that far. At about 12 seconds it shows where I am and at the top of the screen to where I wanted to go. At 1:30 it shows how far I got when I reached 500m. I needed to go just a little further but to do that I have to turn off max distance, why not be able to add just another 50m or so?

Just a quick note: there is a built-in, 500M limit to height from home point. That's going up. So while you can change the ceiling where your Go app will tell you that you've reached maximum height, 500M is the limit. The US FAA limit is 120M and that's what you should set it at, but you can turn that off or set it higher / lower, but not over 500M.

There is supposedly a 6,000M altitude above sea limit (DJI specs: "Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level"), but I haven't tested that.

Not going up, the 500M limit doesn't apply. I've gone about 2,000 meters out, without any after-market modifications to the craft.

Kind of a silly complaint.  Turn the limit off and go.  If it allowed you to set that extra 50M, you'd get out to that point and decide you really would like to go an extra 100M.  Just turn it off and fly.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-3-20 19:43
Kind of a silly complaint.  Turn the limit off and go.  If it allowed you to set that extra 50M, you ...

Not silly at all if you really think about it. They set the max distance to 500m, if you want to go further you have to turn off the setting completely allowing you to go as far as you want which yes, is not safe but here's what I'm getting at, being able to set the distance that you want is a lot safer than no setting at all.

As far as altitude, I'm perfectly happy with the 500m, I stay below 400' anyway and so far out of about 30 flights I have not even reached 150'.

thumb Posted at 2016-3-20 22:36
Not silly at all if you really think about it. They set the max distance to 500m, if you want to g ...

Why is it not safe?

Well, the further you go out the more unsafe it is that something could happen I guess. Say if you wanted to go 600m but have to turn off your max distance to do that, so you take off and at 595m you lose connection. If max distance is turned off it will keep going after that until something happens like either RTH or worst case just keeps going on forever. If you were able to set your max distance to 600m then it would stop at 600 for sure..... Hopefully and all you could do then is turn around and come home

My standard came to life with A DBA mod for $109.00 2-21/2 miles no prob, had problems getting out over 1000 feet without the mod now 8000 to 14000feet no problem.

3.2 miles with no houses

thumb Posted at 2016-3-20 22:20
Well, the further you go out the more unsafe it is that something could happen I guess. Say if you w ...

If you lose connection then it automatically RTH. Just set it to no limit and don't go beyond what you dont want to go, simple as that. If 600m is max you want to go then don't go beyond that simple as that

hgtz92@gmail.co Posted at 2016-3-26 00:45
If you lose connection then it automatically RTH. Just set it to no limit and don't go beyond what ...

That's correct, if you enable the Max Distance you can set it from 15-500m (default is 30m)
You don't see the distance adjustment box until you power up the aircraft, then you will see it if you have it enabled.

I understand everything everyone is saying, I'm just saying I think it would be nice if you could set your max to whatever you wanted, that's all.

Sort of like drivning your car and the speed limit is 70mph but you want to go 75mgh so you set your cruise control to 75mph.

thumb Posted at 2016-3-25 16:47
I understand everything everyone is saying, I'm just saying I think it would be nice if you could se ...

Do you think any drone laws introduced will be adhered to the same way people obey traffic laws?

Gregory80 Posted at 2016-3-25 14:16
Do you think any drone laws introduced will be adhered to the same way people obey traffic laws?

No but I do.... Most of the time!