Hi from Latvia - former Soviet Union - a Brit far from home

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Hi ... I have just ordered a Phantom 3 Standard and looked for a good solid forum to join. I wanted greater depth of knowledge than the average RC forum displays.
Myself ? I am a 60 yr old English guy who lives in Latvia for last 24 yrs. I have been RC'g since a young boy and before that Control Line flying. Multi-rotors are a recent addition to my hangar after playing with the usual WLToys cheap items.
I decided on the P3 Standard as I am not a serious Drone person - my real hobby fav is fixed wing 3D and aerobatics - so I hope you can bear with me when I ask some pretty stupid questions.

Looking forward to reading and contributing ...

Nigel
 
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hey, control line flying? How old are you? I did that in the 50's..LOL..OK I see you are 60. wish I was. that was so long ago. I'm Ted from the USA formerly a British colony. Kind of wish we hadn't gotten all pissy with you guys.
 
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Hi ... I have just ordered a Phantom 3 Standard and looked for a good solid forum to join. I wanted greater depth of knowledge than the average RC forum displays.
Myself ? I am a 60 yr old English guy who lives in Latvia for last 24 yrs. I have been RC'g since a young boy and before that Control Line flying. Multi-rotors are a recent addition to my hangar after playing with the usual WLToys cheap items.
I decided on the P3 Standard as I am not a serious Drone person - my real hobby fav is fixed wing 3D and aerobatics - so I hope you can bear with me when I ask some pretty stupid questions.

Looking forward to reading and contributing ...

Nigel
Welcome to the forum Nigel
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post .
Don't be shy and ask anything if you can't find it by searching .
This bunch here are the smartest you will find anywhere :)
 
Hey Guys ... losing America's was only a spit in the ocean in our history ... don't sweat it ! Oh by the way to the French and Spanish parts ? Didn't we kick their butts out ?

I look forward to posting / asking a lot of silly questions - so bear with me !!
 
Hey Guys ... losing America's was only a spit in the ocean in our history ... don't sweat it ! Oh by the way to the French and Spanish parts ? Didn't we kick their butts out ?

I look forward to posting / asking a lot of silly questions - so bear with me !!

Well, I'm afraid that you never gave that kick...The Spanish and the Frenchies helped America on the fight for his freedom with England.

During the War of American Independence (1776-1783), Spain played an important role and provided financial and military support to the colonies, both openly and clandestinely. The Kingdom of Spain had more than twenty thousand troops fighting to support England and southern US side, supporting the General Washington and other parents of Independence.

With the Paris treaty of 1763 France ceded Canada to Britain and all the territory east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, a city that is passed to Spain and its former possessions west of the Mississippi. Spain ceded Florida to Britain but kept their possessions in areas that today comprise the states of Texas, New Mexico and California. Thus, in the late eighteenth century, more than three quarters of the current territory of the present United States was Spanish, leaving the new borders west of the Mississippi to the Pacific, in the hands of Spanish and Native American tribes, who inhabited .




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I am originally from NY. My DNA show about 70% British. I am going with British Colony

Are you 100% sure...hahaha Well the Spaniards being the first Europeans to explore the Grand Canyon (Coronado), Mississippi (Hernando de Soto) and navigate and touch the ports of New York and Virginia over seventy years before the Mayflower came to these shores...if you know some of the history of NY, the city was Brit of course, but after that came the Dutchs , Irish and Italians on the last inmigración... I'm curious, How do you know your DNA? You can do that on the US?


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Jorge ... 20,000 troops supporting England ? Typing error I assume ?

Anyway - the real problem was George and his belief that British Troops would be fighting Farmers and pitchforks. His lack of real support to the troops sent over ... not least because Britain was fighting other battles in other lands as well.

But I didn't come to this forum for a tour of Smithsonian or History lessons - I came for knowledge of the P3S quad.

I'll be looking for :

Range enhancement
Video tricks

Basically how to get more from this entry level machine.

Nigel
 
Jorge ... 20,000 troops supporting England ? Typing error I assume ?

Anyway - the real problem was George and his belief that British Troops would be fighting Farmers and pitchforks. His lack of real support to the troops sent over ... not least because Britain was fighting other battles in other lands as well.

But I didn't come to this forum for a tour of Smithsonian or History lessons - I came for knowledge of the P3S quad.

I'll be looking for :

Range enhancement
Video tricks

Basically how to get more from this entry level machine.

Nigel

Sorry supporting" the rebels" not England of course. Yes you are right , it was a long and bored response to another member of the forum, sorry for the off-topic.

And for the range enhancement try to use the classical windsurfers , and to check some other basic recommendations:

The transmission rate on the HD icon should be at minimum (4 Mbps); this will maximize your HD Link range

Start with a fully-charged battery.

The two antenna should be parallel to one another with wide flat sides facing the aircraftat all times.

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If you want a Hugh performance you can try the MAXXUAV mode, but this will avoid your warranty




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I've ordered the Windsurfer parabolic reflector and also a 7" tablet holder. So just waiting receipt of all the goodies !

I'm reluctant to delve into FW and internals of the Tx untill I see what the standard gives me. Pal in my club has an 'out of box' Standard and he lost link at 200m at our ex Soviet Fighter Base ... but has better range in other locations. Other pal with the Pro is way out of sight at same location, over 1.5kms last check.
I'm just looking for reasonable height and 300 - 400m distance as I just want to video local surroundings at first. Maybe later modify with ARGtek or Litchi etc.
 
Nice! The windsurfers will help you a lot. One of the most important things as you could imagine is the location, you have to study well the area and terrain and avoid any kind of communication antennas,Tv towers, and everything with metal surfaces like old bridges...your RC always with 100% batt and the tablet as well...maybe if you power the RC with an external mobile battery it will help a little more. Another important thing is to have the batteries warm, on the DJI site I think they are offering some kind of heaters, but I imagine that if you live in Latvia, a Baltic country you'll have your own nice strategies to warm the batteries before the flight :). So tell me how are the rules there for the UAVS? Are you flying in an abandoned soviet military base??? May you share some photos of the area?? Regards,


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Luckily we are not too regulated as the population is nowhere near US numbers. Latvia is quite an empty country with large swathes of agricultural land. But the electricity / telephone cables are all over the place and reduce areas of flyable land.
The base I prefer flying at is at CIRAVA in West Latvia. Formerly a Frontline Soviet Fighter Defence base. The entrance still has a Mig 15 two seater sitting there ...



The base has two runways, a grass runway and a concrete block runway. The airfield is now run purely for light private aircraft and the main people are also model flyers. We have no problems flying both as we have an Airband Walkie Talkie so we know what is going on.

See the website : Cīrava

Here's a quickie video taken by one of the guys P3Pro ... you will see my Silver and Red Zlin Z50 a few times in the video ...

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Nigel
 
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Wow a MIG 15 the Jet of the Korean War! Cool place to fly Nigel and cool aircraft [emoji106] to fly in that open space is a dream. I've seen a radar tower, I suppose is still working, Could this affect on the video transmisión signal? If I were there I try to fly a FPV Parrot Disco not a drone , because you can land it easily and you have enough space!
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Regards!


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The Radar is linked to the main Traffic Control Centre in Riga. There is a new rule coming in about 500m exclusion zone on all radar stations as these. That will technically make us have to stay across the area from the main hangar. But being away from most things and Cirava is only a village now - we don't expect to have any problems.
The village has some amazing abandoned buildings. They look just like Royal Mansion Houses ... they come from the Czars period back in 1800's and later became Officers quarters for Luftwaffe and then Soviet Air Force. When it all collapsed - the buildings were left and now are in poor state. Shame as they really are magnificent buidings.

Back to my home ... this is my "back-garden" :



and my boats ... in private channel and moorings I own ....



My front "garden"



View from my bedroom balcony ....



I think you can see why I bought the P3S now ... I spend quite a bit of time on the river - which has access to the Baltic. My larger boat - I sail across Baltic to Sweden to the islands - fabulous cruising area.
 
This view is awesome, what a beautiful place. In some aspects remember me some landscapes of England, everything green and the sailboats. You can make memorable shots and films there, to fly over the water is nice as well because there are no interferences, buildings...the trick is to catch the bird during the take off and landing with the hand, there are some videos explaining that technique. The home point in case of any RTH Should be linked to the RC,not from the take off point.
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On the next month when they start to decorate the villages with the Christmas lights on the evening you can obtain an awesome footage there, and of course on the forest with everything covered with snow. You are lucky![emoji106]


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We get lot of ice fisherman in winter as well - so that will get a few vids made. I also fly my normal models of the frozen river as the ice can get to 1m thick.

I'm looking fwd to making some videos. I also have the Soloshot3 system ordered. Combining the SS3 with the P3S videos should enable some spectacular movies.

Got news today that courier picked up my P3S and its on its way.

Nigel
 
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That would be awesome to see, please keep us updated on your future winter flights! Maybe is another good reason to visit Latvia! [emoji2]


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