I'm a newbie to the drone game.  I have a little Syma x5 and decided to buy the P4 the day it was available at the Apple store.  Say what you want about the $30 Syma, but I feel it was great to learn how to fly a quadcopter.  So, I've had it for roughly a week now and absolutely love it.  I had to update the P4 out of the box. I followed the directions in the app and that wasn't too bad.  I was able to get my first flight in after that.  I couldn't believe how steady it was in the air.  I just sits there like it's anchored in the sky.  Very cool.

I took it out the next day and played around with many of the features.  I used the object tracking to have the drone follow my dogs through a field.  It worked great.  The only time it had an issue was if there a sharp and sudden change in direction.  I used the point of interest for a bit.  That also work pretty well.  Maybe I'm doing wrong, but I feel like it would make more sense to highlight something (similar to the tracking feature) and the P4 circle the object and keeps the camera on it.  I flew it out over some water and found some ducks.  I followed them around for a bit while recording in 1080p@ 120fps.  I figure the ducks would take off as soon as they saw the P4.  Nope.  They were cool with it.  Check out the video clip I've attached.  I think it came out pretty good.  I love the slow mo when the female flaps her wings.
Duck vid-


I've found the range to not be anywhere near advertised.  I have not been able to go more than about 2300 feet with out the RC link getting shaky.  I completely lost RC link yesterday at about 2500 feet.  It went into RTH mode which, being the first time I've used it, was nerve racking.  But, it worked great!  A coupe minutes after it began RTH, it came buzzing back into my life and landed within about 6 inches of where it took off from.  It was amazing to see it in action and added a lot of confidence in the machine.  

Object avoidance seems to work very well.  I have not relied on it while flying except for intentional demonstrations (flying it at my wife, etc)...

Sport mode is spectacular.  I took it out of P mode for the first time today.  I didn't realize how dumbed down the controls were in P mode.  I love S mode.  You get places much more quickly.

I'm glad you like your Phantom 4! It's great aircraft ! Talking about the range you have put the antennas in a correct way for better performance:

try increasing altitude to get more range. especially if there are objects between you and the drone

Thanks guys.  My antenna's are oriented correctly.  My job keeps me intimately familiar with RF.  The range sucks.  I'm also starting to have some other issues.  The gimbal is not level.  I tried the calibration and it didn't help.  It also failed calibration a couple of times before completing.  

The other issue is that it doesn't hold it's elevation the way it used to.  with my hand completly off of the left stick it will climb or sink while moving forward.  Also, while trying to hover it will bounce 5- 10' up and down.  

Gimbal level can be greatly helped with a good cold IMU calibration. Take the battery out of it, leave it someplace cold for fifteen minutes, then take it find the mist Level place possible, put the battery in. Turn on the radio and App. Turn on the Phantom and progress as fast as you can to the calibration section and calibrate that IMU. Afterwards, when finished, calibrate the gimbal. A couple of times if you have to. If still necessary, make some fine adjustments in the gimbal angle section. As for range, I tell you.....it susks on the phantom 4. It is absolute crap in range compared to my phantom 3. No matter what I try I cannot either match the FPV quality or range or both of my phantom 3 advanced.

morgro269 Posted at 2016-3-24 11:19
Thanks guys.  My antenna's are oriented correctly.  My job keeps me intimately familiar with RF.  Th ...

Have you done the IMU calibrate on the flat/level surface?
how height did you fly when the phantom 4 could not hold the position? wind?

I just went over my flight logs.  I realized my estimate for distance achieved was completely wrong.  I have not been able to get over 1500 feet at the most.  It's typically closer to 1300 feet.  I live in the middle of no where.  There's barely even cell signal here... and I'm on top of a hill.

As for fpv I'm truly at a loss with the phantom 4. Superior to the phantom 3 in every respect except range. This was today between 1000 meters and 1200. Normally this is a cakewalk for my phantom 3 advanced where I normally fly deep into that valley and past the lake. Not with the phantom 4. It's range is crap. And even if you are able to milk it further, be ready for seconds or more of complete blackouts. It's like flying a phantom 2 vision plus all over again. You're not alone pal :-( Shame. Such a well built phantom, fast, all, but crap light bridge compared to the phantom 3 advanced and professional.