Hi everyone,
thought it might be helpful to share some good news instead of the usual crash reports and fly-aways.
I’m a happy (till now) owner of a DJ Phantom 2, 2 version now since almost 13 months.
I never flown anything in my life and believe it or not I have a great track record. No crash!!!!
Mounted are a Zenmuse H3-3D Gimbal and a gopro 3 white edition.
I have 3 batteries all in use. One was recharged 64 times, the 2nd one 37 times and the last one 3 times. Overall I completed some 130 flights.
Only in the last 10 flights I decided to go a step further and bought the Flysight kit and a dvr recorder.
I did have 4 or 5 close calls, 2 of which sudden loss of calibration / magnetic disorientation, one time instead just before taking off I noticed on of the propellers slowed down for a split second and therefore I changed one motor and the esc connected to it.
I used this marvel of technology for work and to make nice videos.
I’m still running my controller on the 3.08 version and have not updated anything since then.
Why? I personally feel that not having any problem or strange behaviour was enough to keep it as it is. I had a serious issue with the gimbal on the previous updating and had to reset the whole gimbal. The first 30 flights I made the “useless” Imu calibration dance”, but really, there is no need to do so if you are flying in the same area.
I carry my case always on the back seat of the car and never on the floor or in front. Why? Because most cars have very high magnetic fields on the front seats (I have measured them).
I also travelled abroad (between Europe and Us) aand never had any kind of problem (just questions out of curiosity)
Here are some tips from my personal experience.
One golden rule should be that whenever you fly you should do it as it were the first time. Get used to always check everything and you need to remain focused 100% (not 99%) what you are doing, where is the phantom is and if it’s well behaving.
If you do have a feeling something strange is going on then get it back down immediately and bring it back home to check it.
I always make sure that the home point is recorded, simply by flying some 30 meters away, turning the phantom a 30° angle and testing the home button.
I also generally look at the satellite situation on this map World Map of Live Satellite Positions – In-The-Sky.org
This does not only show me the satellites but it gives me an idea on how high they are over the horizon. Imagine you want to fly in a tight valley. You can quickly lose satellites and your drone would be fully disoriented therefore it’s also good to learn to fly in atti mode, which is fun and helps you better master the quadcopter.
I keep my RC always fully charged (generally after 5 flights even if all lights are green).
I never fly over water without putting some floaters I made for the phantom.
Fly smoothly, it’s not a racing car, simply avoid fast movements of the stick and be careful that when you descend you don’t keep the stick fully down. The motors should not go off but I avoid that by changing the rate of descent.
I never descend in a straight line, I zig zag to avoid the turbulence created by the props.
I never fly in bad weather. Would be quite useless because the light conditions for a video are not good.
Last and most important. Fly responsibly. Avoid flying over people, over highways or streets with lots of traffic, avoid private property if you are less then 30 meters high and obviously stay away from airports. Be always polite.
That’s it folks.
I hope I don’t have to return here with a new thread like “It crashed, It’s gone, It vanished”.
Happy holiday flying.
thought it might be helpful to share some good news instead of the usual crash reports and fly-aways.
I’m a happy (till now) owner of a DJ Phantom 2, 2 version now since almost 13 months.
I never flown anything in my life and believe it or not I have a great track record. No crash!!!!
Mounted are a Zenmuse H3-3D Gimbal and a gopro 3 white edition.
I have 3 batteries all in use. One was recharged 64 times, the 2nd one 37 times and the last one 3 times. Overall I completed some 130 flights.
Only in the last 10 flights I decided to go a step further and bought the Flysight kit and a dvr recorder.
I did have 4 or 5 close calls, 2 of which sudden loss of calibration / magnetic disorientation, one time instead just before taking off I noticed on of the propellers slowed down for a split second and therefore I changed one motor and the esc connected to it.
I used this marvel of technology for work and to make nice videos.
I’m still running my controller on the 3.08 version and have not updated anything since then.
Why? I personally feel that not having any problem or strange behaviour was enough to keep it as it is. I had a serious issue with the gimbal on the previous updating and had to reset the whole gimbal. The first 30 flights I made the “useless” Imu calibration dance”, but really, there is no need to do so if you are flying in the same area.
I carry my case always on the back seat of the car and never on the floor or in front. Why? Because most cars have very high magnetic fields on the front seats (I have measured them).
I also travelled abroad (between Europe and Us) aand never had any kind of problem (just questions out of curiosity)
Here are some tips from my personal experience.
One golden rule should be that whenever you fly you should do it as it were the first time. Get used to always check everything and you need to remain focused 100% (not 99%) what you are doing, where is the phantom is and if it’s well behaving.
If you do have a feeling something strange is going on then get it back down immediately and bring it back home to check it.
I always make sure that the home point is recorded, simply by flying some 30 meters away, turning the phantom a 30° angle and testing the home button.
I also generally look at the satellite situation on this map World Map of Live Satellite Positions – In-The-Sky.org
This does not only show me the satellites but it gives me an idea on how high they are over the horizon. Imagine you want to fly in a tight valley. You can quickly lose satellites and your drone would be fully disoriented therefore it’s also good to learn to fly in atti mode, which is fun and helps you better master the quadcopter.
I keep my RC always fully charged (generally after 5 flights even if all lights are green).
I never fly over water without putting some floaters I made for the phantom.
Fly smoothly, it’s not a racing car, simply avoid fast movements of the stick and be careful that when you descend you don’t keep the stick fully down. The motors should not go off but I avoid that by changing the rate of descent.
I never descend in a straight line, I zig zag to avoid the turbulence created by the props.
I never fly in bad weather. Would be quite useless because the light conditions for a video are not good.
Last and most important. Fly responsibly. Avoid flying over people, over highways or streets with lots of traffic, avoid private property if you are less then 30 meters high and obviously stay away from airports. Be always polite.
That’s it folks.
I hope I don’t have to return here with a new thread like “It crashed, It’s gone, It vanished”.
Happy holiday flying.
