Getting going with Phantom 3 Standard

[davecarter39]

For sure, for sure....use the simulator. It is very close to the response of the real deal. Practice until you feel good about the controls. It will be freaky the first time you start motors, get into the air etc. I freaked out going up about 50 feet. Keep getting into the air and push it a little more each time. You will discover more and more each time. That's my advice as a new flyer myself. Stay away from trees and obstacles until you feel you are ready.

Thanks!

 

[davecarter39]

One of my favorite (and inexpensive) accessories for my Phantom is a small, carbon-fiber board that fastens with zip ties across the bottom of the landing gear. It has to be in the right spot so it stays out of the way of the camera lens - both photographically and physically. When you start the Phantom, of course, it goes through that beeping an gyrations from the camera. If you put that little board in the wrong place, it will hinder the movement of the camera.

I mostly hand catch, with few exceptions. But that little board on the landing gear adds an amazing amount of rigidity to the landing gear and makes damage less likely if you have a less-than-perfect landing. The hand catch initially sounded kind of scary. Once you've done it a few times it becomes a piece of cake. (And no more grass stains - and no more sucking up sand from the road.)

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

Thanks!

 

[dronezone1010]

I wanted to say thanks to all of you that took the time to respond to my question about purchasing a 3 Standard. I bought it yesterday and its beautiful and thanks to all of your comments, I believe that I made a good choice. I haven't had a chance to take it out yet but that will happen this weekend. I've wisely been reading the full downloaded manual (geez) and watching some YouTube stuff. I have a couple of questions, please. Is it true that, especially as I'm learning this...I can hit "auto-take-off," fly it around, then it "auto-landing" and I'm basically covered and safe?

One other question: Any advice? I am only using for video and aerial photos and will not race it or move fast.

Thanks in advance!

I use auto take-off all the time, but would not say that you are 100% safe (though it's pretty safe, if you take off from the right area.)

About a month back I took off from a pier that looked like it was made from reinforced concrete - these type of structures contain a lot of metal, and often have a high magnetic field.

Anyway, my drone went crazy 2 seconds after takeoff, and I crashed it.

You can learn from my experience here, and how to potentially avoid it:

Standard - Crashed Phantom Today. Pls Help Me Analyse Crash.

 

[jsm1847]

I NEVER use auto take off, nor have I used return to home. When I was researching one of the main causes of flyaways, guess what popped up? Yup, Return to home. Now grant it, there were many errors associated when using the RTH feature that ended in flyaway, but why chance it? At least at this point in the game I need to worry about learning to fly like the back of my hand before I go having to make split second decisions cancelling rth or losing signal etc. Heck, I didn't get above 20-30 feet my first flight. Take it slow rookies and when you start to feel comfortable doing flights, then push yourselves. RTH/Auto take off is safe I'm sure, but not error proof. Just my .02
Also, if you don't feel comfortable with take off and land, practice. Practice on simulator then on real. Just up into the air, then land. Try it till you are comfortable. The aircraft will actually hover inches above the ground if you maneuver it there.

 

[dronezone1010]

I NEVER use auto take off, nor have I used return to home. When I was researching one of the main causes of flyaways, guess what popped up? Yup, Return to home. Now grant it, there were many errors associated when using the RTH feature that ended in flyaway, but why chance it? At least at this point in the game I need to worry about learning to fly like the back of my hand before I go having to make split second decisions cancelling rth or losing signal etc. Heck, I didn't get above 20-30 feet my first flight. Take it slow rookies and when you start to feel comfortable doing flights, then push yourselves. RTH/Auto take off is safe I'm sure, but not error proof. Just my .02
Also, if you don't feel comfortable with take off and land, practice. Practice on simulator then on real. Just up into the air, then land. Try it till you are comfortable. The aircraft will actually hover inches above the ground if you maneuver it there.

I am still learning, what is the main reason a 'Return to Home' fails? Is it because the RTH ascent height is set too low, and it crashes into an object, or other reason?

 

[jsm1847]

I am still learning, what is the main reason a 'Return to Home' fails? Is it because the RTH ascent height is set too low, and it crashes into an object, or other reason?

RTH has failed most of time because yes, user will set too low and it'll crash into something. But what freaked me was the unexplained bugginess that happens sometimes. Why does that happen? No clue

 

[dronezone1010]

RTH has failed most of time because yes, user will set too low and it'll crash into something. But what freaked me was the unexplained bugginess that happens sometimes. Why does that happen? No clue

I have only started relying on 'Return to Home' recently. Can you expand on the 'bugginess' factor? Thanks.

 

[jsm1847]

Another reason was RTH was engaged, then the user tried to regain control of aircraft with no camera I'm guessing. The Aircraft then hovered in place until battery died....

 

[jsm1847]

I'm not entirely sure myself about the bugginess, so I would direct you to search the forums and web. It's always a guess when something goes wrong because flightlogs only tell part of the story, or so I read because I've yet to have any issues with my phantom, thank God. I'm fairly new to the skies myself, but did a lot of research....still learning from this great forum!!

 

[dronezone1010]

I'm not entirely sure myself about the bugginess, so I would direct you to search the forums and web. It's always a guess when something goes wrong because flightlogs only tell part of the story, or so I read because I've yet to have any issues with my phantom, thank God. I'm fairly new to the skies myself, but did a lot of research....still learning from this great forum!!

Yes, a great way to lengthen the lifespan of your Phantom is to 'learn from others mistakes.' Youtube is a treasure trove of crash videos, and a great way to learn and minimise your crash potential.

 

[jsm1847]

Yes, a great way to lengthen the lifespan of your Phantom is to 'learn from others mistakes.' Youtube is a treasure trove of crash videos, and a great way to learn and minimise your crash potential.

I'll second that.
A wise man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man will learn from the mistakes of others.

 

[aburkefl]

I have only started relying on 'Return to Home' recently. Can you expand on the 'bugginess' factor? Thanks.

It is unfortunately common to blame the unknown/unexplainable on a bug, which sometimes includes accusations in regards to a new firmware update. If, as was suggested, you do some youtube searching and internet sleuthing, my bet is that you'll discover no one has yet looked at the .DAT or .TXT files (i.e., the flight log) and discovered an ESC error, a failed motor, a battery that was used "down to the nub," etc. (Not to mention that most famous of bugs - pilot error!

Classic (and mentioned already in this thread) - fly a quad out of sight. Go into semi-panic mode (or full-blown panic, choose one!). Press RTH and start praying. Panic continues. Operator fiddles with buttons, joysticks, views, etc., and accidentally turns off RTH. As another poster also wrote - now the quad hovers (possibly *still* out of sight) until the battery reaches critical voltage (controllable, for the most part, by the operator/owner) and lands. Or at least, tries to land. A quad landing somewhere where you cannot see it is called a crash. Yes, TRACKIMO (or similar), the pilot log and/or cached video on your tablet/phone/device will often help you find where it landed (if it didn't really crash).

When things truly go haywire - quad lands 200 yards offshore at the beach - then you truly are going to experience a bout of bad luck. The quad "world" is full of people who unbox the quad, install appropriate software, log on, make half a dozen flights, take on the attitude of "...hey, this is easy, I got this..." and then fly up to 1,000 feet (into a much stronger wind they never realized was there), fly downwind, blah, blah, blah. The quad is now most likely already out of sight. They know how to fly in ATTI mode (we think) but, by this time, the quad is virtually invisible and extremely difficult to identify front or back. Now something minor goes wrong, but you're already in no man's land and the whole scenario ends in at least a minor disaster.

Most of the readers here know exactly what I'm talking about and they, too, could write a book about why things go wrong. Please, please, don't ask *me* how I know some of these things! LOL

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

 

[davecarter39]

I use auto take-off all the time, but would not say that you are 100% safe (though it's pretty safe, if you take off from the right area.)

About a month back I took off from a pier that looked like it was made from reinforced concrete - these type of structures contain a lot of metal, and often have a high magnetic field.

Anyway, my drone went crazy 2 seconds after takeoff, and I crashed it.

You can learn from my experience here, and how to potentially avoid it:

Standard - Crashed Phantom Today. Pls Help Me Analyse Crash.

Thanks!

 

[davecarter39]

Thanks!

Thanks!

 

[davecarter39]

It is unfortunately common to blame the unknown/unexplainable on a bug, which sometimes includes accusations in regards to a new firmware update. If, as was suggested, you do some youtube searching and internet sleuthing, my bet is that you'll discover no one has yet looked at the .DAT or .TXT files (i.e., the flight log) and discovered an ESC error, a failed motor, a battery that was used "down to the nub," etc. (Not to mention that most famous of bugs - pilot error!

Classic (and mentioned already in this thread) - fly a quad out of sight. Go into semi-panic mode (or full-blown panic, choose one!). Press RTH and start praying. Panic continues. Operator fiddles with buttons, joysticks, views, etc., and accidentally turns off RTH. As another poster also wrote - now the quad hovers (possibly *still* out of sight) until the battery reaches critical voltage (controllable, for the most part, by the operator/owner) and lands. Or at least, tries to land. A quad landing somewhere where you cannot see it is called a crash. Yes, TRACKIMO (or similar), the pilot log and/or cached video on your tablet/phone/device will often help you find where it landed (if it didn't really crash).

When things truly go haywire - quad lands 200 yards offshore at the beach - then you truly are going to experience a bout of bad luck. The quad "world" is full of people who unbox the quad, install appropriate software, log on, make half a dozen flights, take on the attitude of "...hey, this is easy, I got this..." and then fly up to 1,000 feet (into a much stronger wind they never realized was there), fly downwind, blah, blah, blah. The quad is now most likely already out of sight. They know how to fly in ATTI mode (we think) but, by this time, the quad is virtually invisible and extremely difficult to identify front or back. Now something minor goes wrong, but you're already in no man's land and the whole scenario ends in at least a minor disaster.

Most of the readers here know exactly what I'm talking about and they, too, could write a book about why things go wrong. Please, please, don't ask *me* how I know some of these things! LOL

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

Thanks!

 

[livefreeanddrone]

This video is good for beginners

 

[davecarter39]

This video is good for beginners

Thank you!