Faith in Distance

[SkullyOne]

Hello All!

I am a newbie to this community and hobby. I have a P3A and I have about 5 flights in so far. My question is how did you all have faith in the quad going the distance. I am nervous (yes I said it) flying the bird distances greater then 200 feet and higher then 300.

From your experience how did you all break that fear and what were some of the precautions you put in place (if any)

I really want to enjoy this new hobby and not be nervous. It was an expensive purchase so I want to preserve this great piece of technology

Thanks in advance for all the advice!

 

[bbfpv]

You won't gain confidence unless you get some experience. Every flight you'll push it more and more as your confidence grows.

But to answer your question, I came from a P2V+ where flying any distance took serious balls. For me, getting a Flytrex got me over my fear of the dreaded fly away, which previous models were notorious for. That being said, the P3 is so much more of a reliable machine. I have complete confidence in it, and have not bothered to install a tracker on it mainly because the bird is just so solid in the air, and the signal strength (compared to the V+, or anything out right now, really) is amazing. Not saying I won't put a tracker on it for added peace of mind, I've just not had any oh-**** moments with it (yet).

 

[Patrick]

haha, thats a tough one, after a few months of flying i started to trust my phantom and myself. Return to home has always worked like a champ.

 

[SkullyOne]

Thank you for the great advice. What is a Flytrex exactly? Also when flying what would be a go/ no-go when wanted to fly in wind?

 

[Patrick]

watch battery levels carefully, nothing more scary than the first time it tries to go to home on low battery. was teaching my son to fly last night and remembered the dread the first time it happened to me

 

[Patrick]

in wind, i highly advise to learn the art of hand catching, its alleviated quite a bit of my anxiety about flying in general, especially in wind, i hand catch 99% of the time these days. Usually try not to fly in excess of 15 - 20 MPH sustained wind.

 

[SkullyOne]

Patrick -
Thanks for the advice. So you mention catching. If you catch it do you just grab the landing gear and turn the rotors off with the RC. Of is there another trick to it?

 

[Patrick]

i rotate the phantom where the camera is looking at me ,

hover above my head where i can barely grab the landing gear.

hold RC with my left. catch the phantom landing gear corresponding to my right arm. (drivers side of the phantom, since the camera is facing me)

hold down left stick on the RC with your left for 3 seconds.

its sounds much harder than it is. took me a few times to get comfortable doing it, intimidating having the props buzzing so close to your head since I've learned to hand catch I'm much more comfortable flying in adverse conditions. its scary trying to land while your being blown around.

 

[N017RW]

Keeping the Phantom [camera] pointed away from you keeps the right stick relative to the a/c, standing upwind, if any, also reduces risk of it getting blown into/at you.

 

[SkullyOne]

Awesome advice Patrick. Thanks!

 

[zibj1]

When I loose video signal i go back. I don't have booster and did 8400 feet distance and max up 1640 feet. Just do it. I have P3P.

 

[Patrick]

anytime!

 

[CianMcLiam]

If you use the Return to Home and Land feature it seems to automatically turn off the motors very quickly after you catch it.

 

[Grimfever]

I too am a new flyer, only having mine since late July and pretty much everyone here is right. Eventually you just do it and fly that 6300 ft or go super high (well except here, the law frowns upon flying above 400ft). For me it was flying over water which I just did last week. It was such a rush and the pics were awesome. While I'm still learning the nuances of good picture taking, I can definitely say when you start trusting your P3A, it's truly awesome!

 

[bill lawrence]

I bought mine last Saturday and update it before I flew it and I can't get 400 "hundred" feet out of it before is is lost signal in red on top and come back home.

 

[bill lawrence]

New phantom three standard and only got 400 feet total range. Perfect video