Got a new Phantom 3 Pro today

[Grandpa Don]

Great story and an excellent application of long range drone flying that is well within the safety guidelines. Flights over desert landscape and bodies of water are reasonable and safe activities. Let's hope we can police ourselves to fly safely so the guidelines do not become restrictive rules.

Grandpa, will you give us the title of your book?

I don't think I'm supposed to advertise on this forum. But since you asked, it's "Aircraft Wrecks In The Mountains and Deserts Of California" (3rd edition). The book was published in 2004, and was on the market until just recently. There are still some available out there on Ebay and Amazon. I still have about 10 copies left myself. I hope this doesn't get me in trouble with the moderators.

 

[Grandpa Don]

Set of windsurfers ?? I am new to this, what do they look like & what are they ?

They are little antenna covers that slip over you regular antenna. They help direct the signal in a particular direction. They are available on the Internet for around $20.00 USD. You can't go wrong with them. They are cheap to buy, and just slip on the antenna. There is even one you can make for free. Some folks say they got a 50% range improvement, and others say they only got 20% improvement. For less than $20.00 USD, it worth a try.

 

[Grandpa Don]

Here my Phantom 3 Advanced completes the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Run, 3.91 miles one way (20,646.9') using only a Windsurfer which I'm not even sure I needed. Bird returned with 20% battery remaining.

3.91 miles one way. And you did a round trip. Holy Smokes! All that water sends chills down my spine.

 

[mfr1340]

Don't forget to break in your batteries the proper way, first 10 flights should be short flights to do a slow break-in. I have 4 sets of the range extenders but I haven't used any of them yet. My butt puckers when it's out there 1500' and I take my eyes off the bird to see the screen and when I look back up I can't find it. I just fly FPV and come home.
I bought a new P3P for 750.00 and now I don't worry as much when I'm flying my P3A.
My P3A had a fly away but was landing on the other side of a canon on its own, I found it in a bush in harmed. It was the first flight in the area and for some reason it decided to land at its current location. I had put on new carbon fiber props, but I think I changed the return to home (home point)'to its current location, so it started to land and I freaked. But I kept pushing up on the controller so it landed softly.
Second fly away was 30' away and landed on the grass, rolled over, and skidded on its top (props) across 30' of grass and then 45' of street until it hit the curb and stopped. I had to change all 4 ones with new props. The cones on top were scratched up.
I sent it back to DJI and they fixed it at no cost. Good contact with DJI US repair.
Still no scratches, I also had a carbon fiber sticker set on it so it didn't get any scratches or stress cracks, or any other problems.

 

[Grandpa Don]

Don't forget to break in your batteries the proper way, first 10 flights should be short flights to do a slow break-in. I have 4 sets of the range extenders but I haven't used any of them yet. My butt puckers when it's out there 1500' and I take my eyes off the bird to see the screen and when I look back up I can't find it. I just fly FPV and come home.
I bought a new P3P for 750.00 and now I don't worry as much when I'm flying my P3A.
My P3A had a fly away but was landing on the other side of a canon on its own, I found it in a bush in harmed. It was the first flight in the area and for some reason it decided to land at its current location. I had put on new carbon fiber props, but I think I changed the return to home (home point)'to its current location, so it started to land and I freaked. But I kept pushing up on the controller so it landed softly.
Second fly away was 30' away and landed on the grass, rolled over, and skidded on its top (props) across 30' of grass and then 45' of street until it hit the curb and stopped. I had to change all 4 ones with new props. The cones on top were scratched up.
I sent it back to DJI and they fixed it at no cost. Good contact with DJI US repair.
Still no scratches, I also had a carbon fiber sticker set on it so it didn't get any scratches or stress cracks, or any other problems.

Oh lord! I didn't know there was proper way to break in the batteries. Tell me about it.

 

[mfr1340]

Just look on u-tube, or the DJI site. Mine came with 3 batteries so I did 30 short flights. It took 10 days at the park just down the street to get the break-in flights done. My first long flight was great, I did 3 fifteen min. Flights.

 

[BayouBill]

I don't think I'm supposed to advertise on this forum. But since you asked, it's "Aircraft Wrecks In The Mountains and Deserts Of California" (3rd edition). The book was published in 2004, and was on the market until just recently. There are still some available out there on Ebay and Amazon. I still have about 10 copies left myself. I hope this doesn't get me in trouble with the moderators.

Thank you for this info. It is so great to see an interesting, unique application for our expensive toys. I don't expect any problem from the moderators. This is not big bucks we are talking about. But it's my fault so they can slap my hand if necessary.

 

[Grandpa Don]

This is an amazing application for a Phantom... I've been able to take mine out over 6000 feet in areas with heavy radio interference so you should be able to do 3000 no problem. Good luck on finding those airplane crash sites, and if you wouldn't mind uploading some shots of your discoveries I would love to check them out!

Well again I'm not sure if this is the place to put this, but here it is anyway. The moderator can delete it if I'm in violation of the rules. I honestly haven't had time to read them all anyway. This is a 30 minute video I made for my metal detecting web site. I sure could have used the drone on this hunt, but I didn't have one at the time. I'm now planning another trip up there to film the area from the air using the P3P. Here's the link:

 

[rkingsb353]

Here my Phantom 3 Advanced completes the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Run, 3.91 miles one way (20,646.9') using only a Windsurfer which I'm not even sure I needed. Bird returned with 20% battery remaining.

What brand of windsurfer do you use?