No more Phantom for me.................unless..........

[charlieb4]

Hi All,
Brought a Phantom 3 SE, and love it. Like everything else, u have to fly it and practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Yes, someone told me, u will crash it. Everyone will, at one time another. It's all in a learning experiences. Have had crash my drone three times. First one was so minimal, just a scratch, putting an two inch slash into my window screen. And the first (hurted ego). No problem with the drone. Second one, had to change the 4 props, as a little clip to the branch of the tree, and fell to the ground on top of a concrete driveway. that was RTH flight. Ouch!!! The third one, was the killer. Most damage. Were able to get parts for the drone and fix myself. Left leg damage to hard landing. The gimbal was an issue. Just one gimbal bent. Everything else is ok, including the camera. On the third crash, everything I did wrong was to what contribute to the crash. Failure to check the battery, failure to check the wind speed, learned to increase battery percent from 25% to 30% for RTH. Learned to check everything on the DJI Go App for anything no matter what. My conclusion is, since the camera and the gimbal combination is over $300 dollars a pop. It's expensive to keep repairing.......lol. So, I have to sent the camera/gimbal to New Jersey, so they can sent it to DJI in California for repair. So, my conclusion of what I've learn here, is not to ever buy an DJI Phantom drone again,........unless DJI makes the legs on the Phantom's drone minimal 1 inch longer, and stronger, to help protect gimbal camera. Than, maybe I'll think of buying a Phantom........... That's my two cents.

 

[Mark The Droner]

You can buy accessories such as leg extensions and guards for the gimbal. Hope this helps.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Hi All,
Brought a Phantom 3 SE, and love it. Like everything else, u have to fly it and practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Yes, someone told me, u will crash it. Everyone will, at one time another. It's all in a learning experiences. Have had crash my drone three times. First one was so minimal, just a scratch, putting an two inch slash into my window screen. And the first (hurted ego). No problem with the drone. Second one, had to change the 4 props, as a little clip to the branch of the tree, and fell to the ground on top of a concrete driveway. that was RTH flight. Ouch!!! The third one, was the killer. Most damage. Were able to get parts for the drone and fix myself. Left leg damage to hard landing. The gimbal was an issue. Just one gimbal bent. Everything else is ok, including the camera. On the third crash, everything I did wrong was to what contribute to the crash. Failure to check the battery, failure to check the wind speed, learned to increase battery percent from 25% to 30% for RTH. Learned to check everything on the DJI Go App for anything no matter what. My conclusion is, since the camera and the gimbal combination is over $300 dollars a pop. It's expensive to keep repairing.......lol. So, I have to sent the camera/gimbal to New Jersey, so they can sent it to DJI in California for repair. So, my conclusion of what I've learn here, is not to ever buy an DJI Phantom drone again,........unless DJI makes the legs on the Phantom's drone minimal 1 inch longer, and stronger, to help protect gimbal camera. Than, maybe I'll think of buying a Phantom........... That's my two cents.

I flew a $54.00 No Gps or a decent camera for 5 months and i had 8 batteries and it flew for 5 to 6 mins on a battery.....I had a blast with that "Toy Drone"......i crashed it a few times low down But never broke a prop or broke the parts that hold the engines....I got really good at controlling it ALL THE time...then the day come when i was ready to a REAL DRONE......i bought a Super Great Dji P-3SE and have near 12 hours of Flight times and Too date I Have No crashes and i have to admit......That itty bitty Toy drone was quite a large part of how i maintain my flights so nicely on the P-3SE..especially the reversed controls when its heading back to YOU......well thats my 2 cents worth ! Some people can tear up a iron anvil with a rubber hammer !

 

[N017RW]

Longer gear won’t eliminate the risk of damage from a crash or loss of entire aircraft.

Like many hobbies there are costs.

When you play Golf... you pay Greens’ fees, rent carts, buy & damage equipment, and lose balls.

When you fly R/C aircraft, you, well you know.

 

[Mark The Droner]

I flew a $54.00 No Gps or a decent camera for 5 months and i had 8 batteries and it flew for 5 to 6 mins on a battery.....I had a blast with that "Toy Drone"......i crashed it a few times low down But never broke a prop or broke the parts that hold the engines....I got really good at controlling it ALL THE time...then the day come when i was ready to a REAL DRONE......i bought a Super Great Dji P-3SE and have near 12 hours of Flight times and Too date I Have No crashes and i have to admit......That itty bitty Toy drone was quite a large part of how i maintain my flights so nicely on the P-3SE..especially the reversed controls when its heading back to YOU......well thats my 2 cents worth ! Some people can tear up a iron anvil with a rubber hammer !

I learned on a toy drone too. No GPS and no altimeter. Just the gyros. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience! Cheers!

 

[Doug Rosevear]

1 inch won’t do it [emoji106]

 

[mavicn00b]

If you find landing your drone in tough conditions, just hand-catch it instead of trying to land it all the way to the ground. I found this the hard way when my Xiaomi drone props collected the veranda railings and got damaged hard. Since then in even some windy conditions, i just hand-catch the drone. Same with my P3SE which I just received. Hand-catch it in windy conditions.

I find in windy conditions, drones with any sort of drag (things dangling like legs, camera/gimbals etc) in high winds tend to get the drone tossed around. The Mavic/Spark seem to be more stable in this regard and make landings a little easier in the high winds. Flown the Mavic/Spark few hundred times, Xiaomi and few dozen and Phantom just a handful but the trends are there.

 

[BigAl07]

There is NO excuse for learning to fly the drone safely. Those who look for shortcuts and excuses are doomed to continue to repair/pay day in and day out.

The ONLY way you don't crash is to never fly.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Your So Right BigAl and all the others too ^ Up Their ^......That drone right outta the shipping box and activated sure is Not Going to Fly its self..and " Be safe " ! these drones are high Tech and demand the owners to Follow Instructions and new owners can ask for help when you take the drone out for a first flight !....We drone owners are always learning and teaching new owners what we have learned...and very highly promoting Drone safety too !

 

[charlieb4]

You can buy accessories such as leg extensions and guards for the gimbal. Hope this helps.

Yes, I’m aware of that. I have seen them. I’m just afraid of keep adding more weight to the drone itself. The more stuff I add to the drone, the more it weights. Loosing less time with the battery.

 

[charlieb4]

1 inch won’t do it [emoji106]

1 1/2 or longer...........lol

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

Yes, I aware of that. I have seen them. I’m just afraid of keep adding more weight to the drone itself. The more stuff I add to the drone, the more it weights. Loosing less time with the battery.

OK.........i'd much rather lose flight time and add things that will prevent damage..a few grams is not going to s l o w down the flight times and i got them and i notice No less flight times per battery !..... gee your losing a drone to a severe crash why worry about added weights that would " help keep things protected "... !

 

[charlieb4]

I flew a $54.00 No Gps or a decent camera for 5 months and i had 8 batteries and it flew for 5 to 6 mins on a battery.....I had a blast with that "Toy Drone"......i crashed it a few times low down But never broke a prop or broke the parts that hold the engines....I got really good at controlling it ALL THE time...then the day come when i was ready to a REAL DRONE......i bought a Super Great Dji P-3SE and have near 12 hours of Flight times and Too date I Have No crashes and i have to admit......That itty bitty Toy drone was quite a large part of how i maintain my flights so nicely on the P-3SE..especially the reversed controls when its heading back to YOU......well thats my 2 cents worth ! Some people can tear up a iron anvil with a rubber hammer !

Started off on a Syma X5 SC Explorer 2 Carbon Edition. Learned all of the mistakes and crashes. Never into a tree tho. Until I got very confident to buy the so called, “big guys!”

 

[macoman]

I never crashed my phantom 3 standard in a year of ownership. Why? Because I have common sense. If it's windy, I don't fly. If it's raining, same thing. If you really want to fly a drone in a bad weather condition... Just buy a small one, cheaper drone and fly indoor. If you crashed it. You will not feel terrible about it, that was just a $30 dollars drone.

 

[charlieb4]

If you find landing your drone in tough conditions, just hand-catch it instead of trying to land it all the way to the ground. I found this the hard way when my Xiaomi drone props collected the veranda railings and got damaged hard. Since then in even some windy conditions, i just hand-catch the drone. Same with my P3SE which I just received. Hand-catch it in windy conditions.

I find in windy conditions, drones with any sort of drag (things dangling like legs, camera/gimbals etc) in high winds tend to get the drone tossed around. The Mavic/Spark seem to be more stable in this regard and make landings a little easier in the high winds. Flown the Mavic/Spark few hundred times, Xiaomi and few dozen and Phantom just a handful but the trends are there.

On my error part, wasn’t paying attention to the battery life, so when battery went down to 25%, it clicked into the RTH flight. By that time, I was to far from the home point. So I had to walk fast back to the return home point, so I can catch it by hand, as I found out, it was the best way to land ur drone without any chances of any potential damage. That is when I have learn, it was too windy to fly ur drone in. Because while descent down to the home point, the wind was pushing the drone in one direction to the north, (further away from me). So, what that was telling me, is the drone was fighting to keep the straight downward force (hence the windy day) making the battery go down faster. By the time the drone got to 20’ from above ground, the battery had died on me. Drone took a hard fell down from that point. ****!.........lol

 

[charlieb4]

There is NO excuse for learning to fly the drone safely. Those who look for shortcuts and excuses are doomed to continue to repair/pay day in and day out.

The ONLY way you don't crash is to never fly.

You are so right! That is the reason of going out to practice. To get that experience. To learn, and learn from ur experience. Learn from bad experience.

 

[charlieb4]

OK.........i'd much rather lose flight time and add things that will prevent damage..a few grams is not going to s l o w down the flight times and i got them and i notice No less flight times per battery !..... gee your losing a drone to a severe crash why worry about added weights that would " help keep things protected "... !

I also have on, is my prop guard. Another object that the wind loves holding onto to move. That day, was just an learning experience for me.

 

[charlieb4]

I never crashed my phantom 3 standard in a year of ownership. Why? Because I have common sense. If it's windy, I don't fly. If it's raining, same thing. If you really want to fly a drone in a bad weather condition... Just buy a small one, cheaper drone and fly indoor. If you crashed it. You will not feel terrible about it, that was just a $30 dollars drone.

I couldn’t tell it was windy at the time. What I’ve learn that day, is I failed to check one of my Apps, that would have told me the wind speed, before I took on the flight. The way I knew it was windy, is when the drone descent down, it went kinda sideways, not straight down. Failure on my part.

 

[charlieb4]

Also from this experience, I want to buy a hand held device, that u hold up into the air, and it gives you the air speed. Don’t know what they r called, but know what I am looking for. Thanks to u all, for ur comments.

 

[With The Birds]

Also from this experience, I want to buy a hand held device, that u hold up into the air, and it gives you the air speed. Don’t know what they r called, but know what I am looking for. Thanks to u all, for ur comments.

What your looking for is an anemometer. It probably won’t be much help- you can get a sense of ground conditions without one and it won’t tell you anything about what conditions are 100ft up. You can launch your AC and switch to atti mode and see the speed displayed drifting to get an accurate indication of the wind at a particular altitude.