Official P4 Range Leaderboard

[Fallguy]

I'm sure most of these long range uploads are from flying over water or out west over barren plains. Unfortunately I have to wait till these 25 mph winds die down again (this weekend) before I can get a better chance flying over farm land with my stock setup.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Did you fly in Sport mode, ATTI, or P-mode with CA disabled?

I'm happy to announce I have broken my record! Completely calm conditions this morning. Max distance was 19,335.7 feet at ~175 feet. 3.66 miles!!! Is that a world record for stock P4? Total flight distance was 38,839.1 feet with a total flight time of 14 minutes 41 seconds. Landed with 30% battery.

Controller signal was full scale and HD downlink was -1 bar when I turned around. I believe I could have pushed it farther but didn't want to risk having to land in the water.

Completely stock P4 and controller running auto channel mode. Any questions? Just ask! Photo of me was after I completed the flight.

 

[Kman]

Did you fly in Sport mode, ATTI, or P-mode with CA disabled?

P-mode with CA disabled. I didn't have forward throttle at 100%. I need to review the log to see what I had it at. I can in a few. iPad is in my car.

I figured if I flew not at 100% I could save the batteries a little bit.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Speaking of battery efficiency I noticed something in my flight last night. Flying P-mode with CA disabled. Outbound I had the wind in my face about 45 degrees from the right so I was fighting it. On the turnaround I now had a 45 degree tail wind from the rear left aiding me along. It didn't take long before my H indicator was back in the green & I knew I had plenty in the tank. Along the way I switch to Sport Mode & it didn't take long for my H to wind up back in the red zone. Flipped back to P-mode & back down into the green. Point being P-mode would appear much more battery efficient than Sport mode.

P-mode with CA disabled. I didn't have forward throttle at 100%. I need to review the log to see what I had it at. I can in a few. iPad is in my car.

I figured if I flew not at 100% I could save the batteries a little bit.

 

[Air Ontario]

What kinds of battery temps are being seen? any issues?

 

[Kman]

What kinds of battery temps are being seen? any issues?

No issues. I haven't looked at the battery temps. I can next time I fly.

 

[Kman]

Speaking of battery efficiency I noticed something in my flight last night. Flying P-mode with CA disabled. Outbound I had the wind in my face about 45 degrees from the right so I was fighting it. On the turnaround I now had a 45 degree tail wind from the rear left aiding me along. It didn't take long before my H indicator was back in the green & I knew I had plenty in the tank. Along the way I switch to Sport Mode & it didn't take long for my H to wind up back in the red zone. Flipped back to P-mode & back down into the green. Point being P-mode would appear much more battery efficient than Sport mode.

Makes sense. Less RPM = less power drain.

 

[adambfarmer]

I got 20,100 stock. P mode with obstacle avoidance on. Could of gone further but I had some wind and I didn't feel like walking too far in the desert. 24.5 min out of the battery.

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Kman]

Nice job what your total distance on your phantom 4.
My phantom 3 just hit 1,000,000 ft after 40 flights. Lol

12 flights with a total flight distance of 137,514 feet or 26.04 miles.

 

[Sinisalo]

Stock but had some hard headwinds and my battery alert went off so I turned around (low battery warning is set at a conservative 35%), didn't have any signal dropouts the whole time. Of course this is over a flat area of uninhabited land so I would say the conditions were ideal for range tests other than the wind. I did the same flight on the same channel right before this but had my bitrate set to 10 so I only made it 1 mile and had many signal dropouts.

 

[JakeMaxxUAV]

Stock but had some hard headwinds and my battery alert went off so I turned around (low battery warning is set at a conservative 35%), didn't have any signal dropouts the whole time. Of course this is over a flat area of uninhabited land so I would say the conditions were ideal for range tests other than the wind. I did the same flight on the same channel right before this but had my bitrate set to 10 so I only made it 1 mile and had many signal dropouts.View attachment 48544

Nice job! Added to the board!

 

[GadgetGuy]

More money does not exactly equal more range. It depends on the skill of the pilot and flight conditions. For instance, my result was 11,386 feet and I had a amplified setup. Keith's flight was just the antenna and he reached 25,135.7 feet.

Keith definitely has the skill and experience to squeeze every drop out of any setup!

 

[GadgetGuy]

It definitely does. Auto allows the app to select the best channel while you fly. It will jump around to the best channel while you're flying. If you set it to manual it will stay on that one channel.

Except Auto cannot use the channel hack, which will only work with a Custom channel selection. Better to use a known clean Custom channel selection in the hack, than to be hopping around among the already overloaded limited channels in Auto.

 

[Kman]

Except Auto cannot use the channel hack, which will only work with a Custom channel selection. Better to use a known clean Custom channel selection in the hack, than to be hopping around among the already overloaded limited channels in Auto.

I completely disagree. You're flying on 8 channels instead of 1.

You take off on channel 30 because it's clear. You fly your phantom out a couple thousand feet. Channel 30 in the location of the Phantom could now be busy. Flying in auto is actively scanning the the channels and moving to the best open channels.

I'd fly on 8 channels over 1 channel any day of the week. My 3.66 miles flight would agree with this.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Speaking of battery efficiency I noticed something in my flight last night. Flying P-mode with CA disabled. Outbound I had the wind in my face about 45 degrees from the right so I was fighting it. On the turnaround I now had a 45 degree tail wind from the rear left aiding me along. It didn't take long before my H indicator was back in the green & I knew I had plenty in the tank. Along the way I switch to Sport Mode & it didn't take long for my H to wind up back in the red zone. Flipped back to P-mode & back down into the green. Point being P-mode would appear much more battery efficient than Sport mode.

...and certainly better than Atti mode, which fried my battery in 12 minutes!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I completely disagree. You're flying on 8 channels instead of 1.

You take off on channel 30 because it's clear. You fly your phantom out a couple thousand feet. Channel 30 in the location of the Phantom could now be busy. Flying in auto is actively scanning the the channels and moving to the best open channels.

I'd fly on 8 channels over 1 channel any day of the week. My 3.66 miles flight would agree with this.

When flying on a custom selected channel, you can monitor the interference throughout the flight. Whenever I have done so, all 8 of the Auto default channels are heavily congested with interference, while channel 30 is always clear. It's not the number of channels, but the quality of the signal on each that matters. Better to have one clean one, than 8 congested ones! Further, the P3P on the same channel 30 is solid out to 5+ miles, while my now returned P4, on the same channel 30, over the same area, at twice the elevation experiences dropouts, and unreliability past 3 miles. I can't argue with your results, nor can you argue with mine. Both are valid, but neither prove your point. Try the channel hack on 30, and your range will be just as good, and in most locations, better than on Auto. That's why all experienced long range flyers use the channel hack.

 

[Stealthmatt]

...and certainly better than Atti mode, which fried my battery in 12 minutes!

something is wrong with your phantom 4, take it back man. I get 54% battery remaining at 10 minutes, thats with atti/gps and sports mode

 

[Stewkur]

• 16,680.9 ft -- 3.16 mi
• SKYREAT Copper Windsurfer
• Auto Channel
• Recorded Flight @ 4K

Turned around after reaching the advertised range and it already getting late-ish in the day; flew right at sunset. Feel like I definitely could of pushed it further as signal wasn't too much of an issue. Also, due to me being paranoid/conservative when I fly I've always let my drones hover for a full minute after take-off, so I can let the motors warm up (its still around 32F here) and to make sure everything is good to go. If I skip that step, use a manual channel, and additionally "cold calibrate" my IMU so warm-up doesn't take as long, pretty sure I'd be able to get at least a couple thousand more in distance (maybe more).

Hopefully this weekend!

 

[richardseguro]

Hi everyone, just did my first long range test on P4. Total one way was 13,426 ft. Take Off @ 98% battery. Stock antennas no mods.

Wind SE@10-12mph. 10+ miles visibility. 4/8 cloud coverage.

Full flight at 26,743 ft. At 358' altitude. Landed with 12% battery with OAS on. And full video filming. Full flight time 17min 59 sec. 1st leg in GPS P mode and 2nd leg in GPS Sport mode.

1st leg was 13,426 ft (2.54) @ 359' feet altitude. 9min. 12 sec. Downwind. GPS P Mode
2nd leg 13,317 ft @ 359' altitude. 8 min. 7 sec. Upwind GPS Sport Mode

SkyPixel

 

[rhoffart]

Nice job guys ... I guess your putting the range issue to bed.