Not flown in a while...

danphantom402 · Feb 22, 2019

Hi,

I've got the trusty Phantom 4 standard here, had it for a while, along with my other DJI drones.

It's not been flown since September 2018 and I'm thinking of taking it out. All firmware is up to date, everything's charged etc.

But I was wondering if I should give it a gentle spin for 10 mins first before I go full throttle? What's your thoughts on this?

DJI say as long as the battery's warm, it's good to go. But surely, after that many months in a bag, it needs some warm up flight?

Let me know what you think

tevek · Feb 22, 2019

I’ve pretty much done the same thing after switching to racing drones for quite a few months. I spent time going over the quad itself checking props, general body inspection and looking for anything that looked out of place despite my quads having dedicated storage areas. Charged up the controller and batteries, opened up the app and checked the status of the batteries and checked my previous settings were still the same. Took it outside and flew nearby for a bit, checked RTH and all the controller functions and decided to send it. No problems.

MotorCycle-Man · Feb 22, 2019

damphanthom : Are you in a cold area....with snow and ice ect ?

danphantom402 · Feb 23, 2019

MotorCycle-Man said:
damphanthom : Are you in a cold area....with snow and ice ect ?

No, not really

Meta4 · Feb 23, 2019

danphantom402 said:
DJI say as long as the battery's warm, it's good to go. But surely, after that many months in a bag, it needs some warm up flight?

You're talking about electronics and electric motors.
They aren't going to slow down over time. DJI is correct.

NM_Quad · Feb 23, 2019

Your P4 should be good to go. Sitting on a shelf for awhile shouldn't hurt anything. My main concern would be the battery. Thus, I would fly it around close to home (fully charged batteries) just to ensure as it discharges, you don't have a bad cell or something that would cause a premature low battery landing. Don't want that to happen if out at a far distance. If you get a good 20 minute flight and no serious deviation in cell voltages, everything should be fine.