Awesome Test with Range and Failsafe
985 11 2017-1-25
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BashP4P+
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Im a complete noob with drones. Just for reference its a phantom 4 pro plus with the inbuilt screen. Continuation of some positive posting/experience of my now 3rd flight.

Last week I flew it and tested a RTH and it worked perfect. Did exactly what it should and returned home. Absolutely sweet. That was pressing the RTH button and or the on screen icon.

Today i had a go at atti mode. Maybe not a good idea to have tested it today as the winds were reporting according to google here in the UK in my town 16mph. I read somewhere from Labroides (apologies if spelt wrong) that 13mph is pretty eaay for the phantom and it could handle more than that. Based on that i continued. His her posts seems pretty clued up.

Up about 3/4 metres and the wind was pushing the AC and making it tilt.

Switched over to atti mode and had a real feel of the wind drifting the AC. It took a little practice to use the sticks to steer it into the wind and move it around. After reading so much i can appreciate if not read up well and watched tons of hours of tutorials. You very easily can lose an AC if gps lost or pannick mode if it kicks into atti. That went pretty good for my first attempt. Or at least i felt GREAT. Thats what its all about.

2nd test was the range. I was curious as im reading other members posting less than half mile and losing signal or video etc.  Before i attempted to try this i thought id try and test failsafe mode. I built up the courage to switch off power off my RC and see what happens. It worked perfect. After a few seconds it ascended and was on its route back to me. I switched RC back on and successfuly cancelled the RTH and took control.

i know as a new comer to drones i shouldnt have really tried this. But the testing of RTH and Failsafe given me the confidence to fly out a mile. I was about 50/60m high and kept it at that level. Was flying P-mode. I must have gone out about 1010 M . I wanted to test a mile.  I had no signal loss. No screen crash no error messages. Just the wind messages. Note.. On my first two flights ive not had the high wind messages. Today they were on screen because it was 16mph wind and i could feel wind pushing me never mind drone. At about a mile i Turned the AC around and flew it back. I was confident i could have gone further but decided to get it back in sight. You start losing LOS pretty much around 350-400m. It becomes a dot in the sky.


Another great day. Used all 3 batteries.

Thank you to All once again







2017-1-25
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Cetacean
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Aloha Bash,

     Good to hear!  Preparation is the bedrock of successful flying and you proved that all over again!

Aloha and Drone On!
2017-1-25
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hallmark007
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Why did you switch to Atti, rather than sport ?
2017-1-25
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BashP4P+
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Sport still has GPS or at least my understanding. Atti is without GPS. So wanted to feel flying with Atti mode.

The actual 1 mile range was in p-mode. The little time playing/testing atti was before the range test.
2017-1-25
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Svt04cobra
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Did you go further than 1010 meters? Cause that is only a bit over 1/2 mile or .627 of a mile.
2017-1-25
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hallmark007
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BashP4P+ Posted at 2017-1-25 13:41
Sport still has GPS or at least my understanding. Atti is without GPS. So wanted to feel flying with Atti mode.

The actual 1 mile range was in p-mode. The little time playing/testing atti was before the range test.

Ok thought you were having trouble getting home, you picked the right way to test Atti. Good job..
2017-1-25
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BashP4P+
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#Svt04cobra...  You are right. Thanks for highlighting that. It does equate to 0.62mile. My bad.   i will push it out further on a less windy day. I did have about 19 satelites and HD strength was pretty strong too. Thats without any range extender.
2017-1-25
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BashP4P+
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I was itching to reach this 1 mile point. Today i hit it. About 1677 metres. So 1 mile and 1.6 km. After about the 1 mile point i dropped from full hd signal to about 3 bars. I didnt want to reach out further as i think i may have been close to flying boundry in tgis country park.  RTH worked fine from a mile away. I must have been 2 feet away from take off home point. I was flying recording 1080 60 fps. There were momentary glitches. May have been as i was getting further out.

When i was playing back using album on the inbuilt screen It did freeze a few times. Sometimes a "wait" got it back. Other times power off screen and switch back on.

But overall im still happy. These minor bugs tweaks im sure DJI will fix.

Its about my fourth/fith flight.

Today i was having fun doing the 8 figure circuit. Just trying to practice as much as i can so it becomes natural movement.

Oh i did get 29mins flight time too. That was from say 99% to 8%

2017-1-30
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Punchbuggy
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BashP4P+ Posted at 2017-1-30 12:30
... Oh i did get 29mins flight time too. That was from say 99% to 8%

Sounds like your craft is solid, and that you're having fun learning with it. Cool!

Something I'll offer, after noting you comment about getting to 8% (which I assume is battery), is to be mindful of two things: firstly, that on the battery reaching critical level the craft will land whereever it is and you'll need to take control to stop that (may be a bad thing if over water); and secondly, you should 'train' a new battery. For the latter, one recommendation is to take new batteries down to ~50% and then fully re-charge them for the first 5 times or so. This will set them up for more prolonged efficiency.
2017-1-30
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Phantomski
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Also, it is unwise to fly below 20% as the power may be lacking, and even the wind may be more of a problem at that level of power.....
2017-1-30
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BashP4P+
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Thank you #Punchbuggy and #Phantomski.

Im having a great time and i appreciate The feedback and all noted. Thank you.

At 10% critical it did start to land but at this point i was just playing with basic moves and atti mode all within 10-20m or so.

I usually do change battery around the 30%. I have 3 batteries. So ample time and no excuse to not change in good time.



2017-1-30
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Punchbuggy
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BashP4P+ Posted at 2017-1-30 18:42
Thank you #Punchbuggy and #Phantomski.

Im having a great time and i appreciate The feedback and all noted. Thank you.

Happy to share. Otherwise, I suggest you set your battery warning initially at 50% as a timely reminder.
But, hey, it's good that you're taking the time to get used to your P4P - very wise to understand it's limitations.
2017-1-30
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