How to not get yourself into trouble with a Range Extender

[Paul A Byers]

I have a Phantom 3 Professional and just bought the DBS Mod, excited! Any advice on how to not get myself into trouble and not be able to make it back?

Thanks!
[email protected]

 

[flpholt]

I have a Phantom 3 Professional and just bought the DBS Mod, excited! Any advice on how to not get myself into trouble and not be able to make it back?

Thanks!
[email protected]

watch battery level

 

[shockwave199]

Don't install the mod . The mod is a good way to meander into trouble. But since you will, start conservatively to gain confidence and by all means, do your long range cowboy flights over water or open fields. Avoid flying oodles of miles haphazardly through congested populated areas, including roads and highways, please.

 

[flpholt]

 

[CCDD]

heading speed of only 22mph, must be an X-Star

 

[flpholt]

heading speed of only 22mph, must be an X-Star

nope p3a

 

[fastfed]

I just got one recently as well, hit about 3 miles so far, the only advise I have,you now have to know wind speed and direction, I flew with the wind doing like 40mph out, and stopped at my max distance hovering around, not paying attention to my battery, I freaked out when I realized I was only making 15-20mph on the way back and was at like 50% battery lol, landed at like 14%

also, don't drop your altitude at all when you start going far, you must drop below something that will block your line of site.

 

[WetDog]

Ask yourself what you are planning on. Are you just trying to push the aircraft as far as it will go? Do you have a spot you are trying to photograph that you can't get to in the stock configuration? Just because?

Answering that question can give you a framework for how to proceed. Personally, I'm typically trying to get through trees. Living in a boreal rain forest will do that. It's not so much distance as the ability to get even 1000 feet when surrounded by dense forest. So one very important task to start with is understanding RTH since, almost by definition, there will be times when you lose signal while testing the rig. RTH is an often poorly understood and certainly poorly documented feature of the Phantoms. It's not really hard but boy, you can screw up fast if you don't figure it all out.

Thinking through 'what happens when it screws up' is always useful and really should be part of evaluating every flight. Lots of folks seem to ignore the fact that these things drop out of the sky on occasion so they merrily fly over highways and people. As far as testing distance, as has been mentioned, flying over water is probably not the smartest way to go.

And with distance goes battery. What factors affect battery performance? Mostly wind, temperature and to some degree the age / state of the battery. If you go out far, you really want the thing to come back.

Think three times, measure twice, cut once.

 

[jephoto]

Definitely check where the wind is coming from. Try to fly INTO the wind going out so its at your back on the return.
And if you have to fly with the wind to get where you want, don't mad out your distance as it will take longer to get home.

Last year I was shooting at dusk at this big commercial bakery. Building was 2-3 blocks long. We getting great stuff close in and wanted to be the other end. My P3 went really fast to the other end and when I realized I had 35% battery hit RTH- which is set for 150'.
This took it up higher and into 21mph wind against me. I fought it all the back and barely made it down by like 12%. At 10 it would have just landed- either on top of the building or worse- in the middle of a busy street.
I was sweating it....


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