Critical Lessons Learned from a NOOB

Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
54
Reaction score
5
Location
Austin, Texas, USA
Here goes my first post.

Coming up on three weeks experience with the P2V with about 20 flights or so. I am very pleased so far, but the learning curve has been large and I imagine learning will happen for quite a while. I hope some of these lessons will help someone...

My experience with RC was practically nil: a very few RC helicopter flights inside a high school gym and maybe a dozen unsatisfying flights with a Parrot AR Drone. So far the P2V has been a wonderful experience with it's ease of flying, stability and first person view.

I also own an original GoPro v1.0 and so far I'm impressed with the DJI camera in comparison.

Here a few of the critical lessons I've learned so far:

One of my first landings was in some fairly tall grass and I did not stop the drift. The P2V tipped over and two of my original props ground off about 1/2” to 1” of prop materiel. I then tried to fly it with two messed up props and it actually flew quite well. However, with my slight experience I would NOT try to fly again with messed up props. Too much at stake.

On another early flight I did not have the ringer volume turned up on my iPhone and flew right through bingo fuel. I was not keeping track of my remaining battery and did not get the aural warning because my volume was muted. Luckily my P2V came down in an open field about 500 feet from where I was... iPhone volume – full up, is now part of my personal preflight checklist.

I've learned the gimbal system on the P2V is okay but certainly not perfect. Eventually I hope to have the smooth control and flying skills to compensate for some of the imperfections with the gimbal.

Not sure how cool this lesson is, but I have flown a few flights in windy conditions (15+ kts or so). I was very impressed with the stability of my craft. It fought hard to maintain GPS position. I am pretty sure video shot in windy conditions would not work very well. Anyway (remember my drift on landing problem), I practiced a few “hand landings”, I flew the P2V down to an altitude where I could grab onto it from below and then killed the throttle. Maybe not the safest thing to do, but I wasn't about to risk a tip over on a windy landing...

I have tried a few forced Fly to Home landings and they have worked every time. The big take away here is to make sure you have a good GPS home position before initial take off.

There is a LOT of information here and on YouTube about flyaways and I have taken it all to heart: upgrade the firmware, get a good compass calibration (preferably in the middle of a wide open field) and avoid power lines and cell towers.

As yet, I haven't been convinced on the best way to process photos and videos. I've tried a few software work flows with just okay results. Can't wait for some sort of RAW converter that actually works and a video work flow that does a good job with fish eye and stability with video.

My P2V is stored in a TradeCraft case which I am VERY pleased with. It may be too big to be a carry on, on an airline, but everything is nice and snug with room for 5 batteries. Speaking of extra batteries, My P2V was purchased before the extra battery promotion from B&H. I gave them a call and they honored the promotion and sent me a free extra battery – GREAT customer service, as usual!!

That's all for now Pfellow Phantom Pflyers, I will report more later. And thanks for sharing all of your tips and experiences here – it has been a GREAT help!!

outlaw704, Austin, Texas, USA
 
outlaw704 said:
That's all for now Pfellow Phantom Pflyers, I will report more later. And thanks for sharing all of your tips and experiences here – it has been a GREAT help!!

outlaw704, Austin, Texas, USA


..reminds me of a funny thing my wife said last week, when I told her there was another guy in town with a Phantom, and we were going to get together and compare notes, maybe over lunch or something... (we were driving away from dropping the kids off at school- so middle school mindset and she said:) Maybe you could be PFF's.

Oh man.

You'll get it if you have kids I think... It took me a few seconds to put it together, but then it was funny!







"Phantom Friends Forever"

like the kids say: Best Friends Forever, BFF's..

Now, do I feel dumber for telling you all the joke/story- or for explaining it?

:oops:
 
coloradosky said:
..reminds me of a funny thing my wife said last week, when I told her there was another guy in town with a Phantom, and we were going to get together and compare notes, maybe over lunch or something... (we were driving away from dropping the kids off at school- so middle school mindset and she said:) Maybe you could be PFF's.

Oh man.

You'll get it if you have kids I think... It took me a few seconds to put it together, but then it was funny!

lol





"Phantom Friends Forever"

like the kids say: Best Friends Forever, BFF's..

Now, do I feel dumber for telling you all the joke/story- or for explaining it?

:oops:
 
Just ordered my Phantom 2 Vision yesterday. Been watching every video I can find (especially all of the how-to's on DJI's website). I've been flying my Blade 180QX for a few weeks now and can actually keep it in the air and under control. Nice landings too. So, I'm assuming (Uh oh...) that with the skills I acquired with the 180, I should have NO problems adapting to the Phantom.

Get software upgrades in before flying (checking to see what versions I've got when it gets here).

I've been cruising this site reading everything I think will help me NOT blow it when I get started. I even downloaded all the manuals from DJI so I have some idea what I've got to do. Whew. :roll: I'm glad lots of you guys are already making mistakes, fixing mistakes, offering advice to "NOOB's" like me, and generally making it easier to stay airborne without a hassle.

"Here", by the way, is Carson City, NV. Any more Phantoms out this way?
 

Recent Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic