Meta4
Premium Pilot
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2014
- Messages
- 15,300
- Reaction score
- 9,242
Do you mean that you switched your Phantom from GPS to atti?
That on its own won't make your bird crash.
What exactly happened?
I really don't feel safe to buy...
- Thread starter Shrekpower
- Start date
That on its own won't make your bird crash.
What exactly happened?
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2013
- Messages
- 114
- Reaction score
- 38
Love the DJI P3 Pro. Hate DJI the company. You always take the risk when you fly and it does not matter what copter or what company. You just have to do it or don't and do your best to avoid your own mistakes. Don't upgrade firmware if it's flying well. I think the real crashes are going to start happening when these new apps start to show up.
Newbie with 10 flights under my belt "my P3 Pro is the best thing I have ever bought" says my wife. I agree with her!!
You have to convince yourself. You are spending too much time thinking about this like it might be a life altering experience. My God, we are only talking about $1,000 - not $10,000.
As with any major hobby there are risks. Especially on where flying up and out are involved. Look at all the crashes that happen with fixed wing hobbiest. It's part of the risk of flying. Where you run out of gas or out of battery no difference as what goes up must come down .. Somewhere ! Look at all the hobbies and different risks they all have them. It's just that this is a high dollar risk. I have two Phantom and I fly a lot so I already know it's not if it's going to happen just when because I know it's going to. No guarantees with this hobby. Some one told me before. If you can't afford the chemical don't install the pool . So here if you can't afford the loss don't buy one. If you go to Vegas and can't afford the loss don't gamble so now it's up to you. Love it or leave it.
- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- Age
- 60
It really is quite simple:
How much pleasure, enjoyment would you get from owning and flying a Phantom 3?
Weigh that up against the cost and pleasure you may receive from any other 'Hobbies' you have.......
Then, to help put in place a sense of 'security' in your investment....Buy insurance. Here in the UK it is approx a tenth of the cost of the Phantom 3.
.......You do not need convincing by other people, you need to make the choice yourself and info from others may help BUT.....The choice is yours to make!
anybody can fly one of theses, my 8yr old daughter can fly it but she can't pilot it, if your a smart pilot you won't have issues, i love my p3p
Just flew mine across the valley and the furthest I have been at this location.... 3000 feet plus. No problems except it's really hard to see out at that distance.... Charging the batteries as I type...
After owning a P2V+ for 18 months, just bought the P3, first flight, after uploading firmware, went up 400 ft, then descended and about 10 ft from the ground the two right side props stopped, causing crash, and they would not start until I removed battery and restarted after 20 min
Heres the best advice I have for you. If you don't feel safe to buy. Then guess what? Don't buy it lol. Nobody is forcing you to get into this hobby it's just something your interested in. Theres a handful of people having problems and theres a handful of people flying just fine. If money is concern to you then I wouldn't buy this P3. If waiting for DJI to correct any errors or defectiveness is a concern to you then I wouldn't buy. As any other hobby this cost money. Things go wrong and lessons are learned. If something does go wrong and it was absolutely not your fault, well then DJI will replace it. If it was your fault then you will be out $1,200. When I bought the P3 I was excited because everything that the P2 cost me was like $2,000+ including a monitor, transmitter, receiver, batteries, gopro, h4-3d gimbal, iOS mini. All that stuff adds up so when I saw the p3 pretty much had everything come with it and ready to fly at $1,259 I jumped on it. Now let me tell you this is just the beginning. I purchased the extra battery package. $1,359. I purchased all 3x SRP filters, $1,500+. I purchased the Airport Helipak - $1,740+. I purchase 2 more extra batteries. $2,040+ and just recently purchased an extra charger which totals at $2,100. I'm sure this is just the beginning of everything I'm going to need to buy and batteries do eventually expire so like I said if money is a concern to you then don't get into this hobby. It doesn't really make you confident after already buying the P3 and then hearing about all the people crashing or errors because they updated to newest firmware. It puts jitters in you to fly every single time. The only reason I remain confident is because now I have over 70+ flights and had no close encounters at all. Plenty of lost signals. But, remained calm. I just know if something goes wrong it was not my fault which means DJI will correct it even if I have to wait 2-3 months. It sucks to receive customer service like that. But, with such a new product its going to have bugs and problems. DJI is the best out and they keep pushing the limits. It will eventually be all corrected.
I started with the P2 Vision, flew for months with only a few minor crashed due to my errors! Moved to the P2 Vision+ every mishap was due to me by not practicing enough. I crashed it a dozen times, some very hard, the last was an easy drop onto a bush. Even with a gimbal saver it separated a little & the camera went nutz! Sent it to my DJI dealer & they said the camera was broken. I think if I took the back off the gimbal & realigned the shaft like in the YouTube videos I could fix it, the camera works except for the cycling right to left over & over. Problem is I used the wrong loctite & stripped the heads off the 3 little screws. I'm too old & shaky to drill them out. So I guess I'll put it on eBay when my P3P arrives Monday.
Just put new Tmotors in the thing!!
If you are looking for a good dealer/repair center with good turn around time, that answers their phones & emails, try UAVDIRECT in Liberty Hill Texas.
Just put new Tmotors in the thing!!
If you are looking for a good dealer/repair center with good turn around time, that answers their phones & emails, try UAVDIRECT in Liberty Hill Texas.
Hey its only money? LOL
I think a psychological desire to push the copter to its limits overcomes some folks because it flys so well. kinda like when you get a motor performance enhancement on a vehicle to power it up, you end up getting a little more heavy in the pedal.
Don't let those instincts overwhelm you and stay in a happy medium area and thins should be fine.
I think a psychological desire to push the copter to its limits overcomes some folks because it flys so well. kinda like when you get a motor performance enhancement on a vehicle to power it up, you end up getting a little more heavy in the pedal.
Don't let those instincts overwhelm you and stay in a happy medium area and thins should be fine.
Dealers, don't be doing demonstrations around a lot of people without the proper safety nets.
You didn't see them flying drones without safety nets at the convention.
True dealing with DJI is a PITA but the fraction of complaints here to the number of total owned is very small. And of those complaints how many are operator fault? I would say the majority. Lessen your chances of problems by reading everything you can get your hands on, watch YT videos, and ask questions.
My P3A rocks. Only issues have been very minor and all pilot error. Aircraft has been faultless so far. My only advice from a newbie...learn to fly on something cheaper first.
DJI has shipped hundreds of thousands of these things. Like with a lot of products, happy customers don't post much. No one has data, but if problems like you see here were common, DJI would be out of business already. If it's any help, David Wang was building and selling flight control systems out of his dorm room for years before founding DJI. That said. it's easy to skip or forget a setup step, fly in noisy areas, and fly outside the design limits. I've had a 100% positive experience. No crashes, no loss of signal or control, and great photos and videos. I made a preflight checklist on paper that I use every time I fly. I suggest you do the same.
There is always the chance of an accident. In auto racing they say never take a car to the track you are not okay with crashing. Same with this hobby, don't buy one and fly it if you are not okay with it crashing. Try and find a hobby that is cheaper and potentially less problematic.
I have all the manuals printed out and in a binder that I bring along, a pre-flight checklist, a quick reference sheet, and a flight log that I fill out before and after each flight. I spend more time preparing to fly than I do flying. I read the manual front to back before I even got my P3P. Things like this will prevent newbie mistakes and take a lot of the risk out of flying. Practice is open areas and take extra caution flying in foreign areas. The list goes on.
In the end if mine goes crazy and crashes, it was a risk I was willing to take. If you don't want to take the risk there is no problem with that. Maybe start with something cheaper and smaller. Take baby steps.
I have all the manuals printed out and in a binder that I bring along, a pre-flight checklist, a quick reference sheet, and a flight log that I fill out before and after each flight. I spend more time preparing to fly than I do flying. I read the manual front to back before I even got my P3P. Things like this will prevent newbie mistakes and take a lot of the risk out of flying. Practice is open areas and take extra caution flying in foreign areas. The list goes on.
In the end if mine goes crazy and crashes, it was a risk I was willing to take. If you don't want to take the risk there is no problem with that. Maybe start with something cheaper and smaller. Take baby steps.
Agreed. I would add that DJI has works class horrible customer service. If you decide to buy, do it through a dealer. That will "help" insulate you from a company with a really bad customer culture.
To the OP...
So, Shrekpower, you convinced yet? After six pages of posts you've pretty much seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Time to chime in on the thread you started. Are you ready to buy and fly? If so, get ready to have more fun than you can possibly imagine. If not...well, you'll just have to wait for the flying car we were all promised fifty years ago. (no, I don't count the "flying Pinto" as a flying car.)
So, Shrekpower, you convinced yet? After six pages of posts you've pretty much seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. Time to chime in on the thread you started. Are you ready to buy and fly? If so, get ready to have more fun than you can possibly imagine. If not...well, you'll just have to wait for the flying car we were all promised fifty years ago. (no, I don't count the "flying Pinto" as a flying car.)
Similar threads
