Phantom 4 - Dirty Thoughts

Battery Life was calculated by the same guy who calculate the MPG on my F150 Fx4 Ecoboost. 22mpg. Ha! I would have to be a 110lb soaking wet Horse Jokey driving on Alligator Alley at sea level running 53mph at night.

P4 28 minutes flt time. sea level hovering in cool weather with no stick input.
 
Its late & I'm just getting in but wanted to mention I did have a chance to fly a couple of flights today to test battery runtime in P-mode. Ran two flights, purely in P-mode. Not a whole lot of wind to deal with & running in P-mode you are only hitting 22 mph so nothing strenuous happening here. This was the second battery cycle.

21:30 & 21:10 with the battery down to 15%.

Still nearly 25% below 28 minutes & a full 6.5 minutes less.

Next time out I will test ATTI mode.
 
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Its late & I'm just getting in but wanted to mention I did have a chance to fly a couple of flights today to test battery runtime in P-mode. Ran two flights, purely in P-mode. Not a whole lot of wind to deal with & running in P-mode you are only hitting 22 mph so nothing strenuous happening here. This was the second battery cycle.

21:30 & 21:10 with the battery down to 15%.

Still nearly 25% below 28 minutes & a full 6.5 minutes less.

Next time out I will test ATTI mode.

Turn off crash avoidance sensors and you'll be going the same speed as the P3 in P-mode.
 
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I live on a SMALL Island so I to am over the water all the time if she goes down its over. I got my P4 on the 15th and have been flying it as much as possible. I spend a lot of time in sport mode and I have not got over 45 mph range and even there when you let off the stick it stops so hard it worries me those plastic parts holding the props on just don't seam that strong with my $1400 bird over the pacific. I have learned to ease off the stick to prevent this or at least ease it up a bit. Dose any one know if that is what the brake setting dose in the sensitivity settings? I read above that the gps is what causes this so that makes me think that iT is just the way it is. Dirty Bird I think you got blessed with a extra fast bird for your long runs! I will have to look but seams like I have been getting a bit better flight time. Have your test all been on the same battery or do you have multiple? Good luck out there
 
Its late & I'm just getting in but wanted to mention I did have a chance to fly a couple of flights today to test battery runtime in P-mode. Ran two flights, purely in P-mode. Not a whole lot of wind to deal with & running in P-mode you are only hitting 22 mph so nothing strenuous happening here. This was the second battery cycle.

21:30 & 21:10 with the battery down to 15%.

Still nearly 25% below 28 minutes & a full 6.5 minutes less.

Next time out I will test ATTI mode.


DB, do you think that pushing your bird to 78 MPH on the FIRST battery cycle, was a good idea ??

On your 1st flights with your new battery you got ---- 17 --18 --19 minutes, for an average of--------- 18 MIN--- 1st charge

Your 2nd flight with the same new batteries ------- 21:10 --- 21:30 minutes, for an average of -----21:20 -----2nd charge

That's a nice increase in flying time.

Please continue to log flight times for these batteries, and we will be better able to determine a good base line..
 
Hi DB ... hmmm ... that's significantly faster than the 45 mph in the specs.
Is that wind assisted and does Sport mode pick up whatever wind speed there is like atti mode?
Or is it just a lot faster than the specs?
DB is a bit north of me - maybe 20 miles. I checked uavforecast yesterday and it reported a forecast of 24 mph winds at 400 ft. That was a forecast for mid-afternoon, which is why I flew around 11 am and quit.
 
Not only do I believe it was a good idea, but it turned out to be an extremely fortuitous one! This morning there was a knock on the door from FedEx who presented me with two unexpected packages. One was very large. I opened the smaller package to find a dozen Phantom 4 batteries. The large box contained a huge black case. Inside I found an Inspire Pro Black Edition, six TB-48 5700 mAh battery packs, four 64GB memory cards, & a brand new iPad Air! The following note was included & left me speechless:

Dear Phantom 4 Pilot,

We trust you are enjoying your new Phantom 4 and sincerely hope it is meeting with your expectations. Your recent flight achievement has been brought to our attention. We here at DJI would like to extend our congratulations on being the first Phantom 4 pilot to exceed 75 mph in controlled horizontal flight! This is truly an impressive feat.

As a token of our admiration and respect for your accomplishment you have been awarded with "Batteries for Life" for your new Phantom 4. The first dozen batteries are included. Drop us a line whenever you need fresh batteries for your Phantom 4. We have also included a complimentary Inspire 1 Pro Black Edition with 6 extended-run battery packs, four 64GB Micro-SD cards, and a Special Edition matte black 128GB iPad Air. Thank you for your support and Safe Flying!

Frank Wong and the DJI Engineering Team


DB, do you think that pushing your bird to 78 MPH on the FIRST battery cycle, was a good idea ??
 
In all seriousness, yes I think engaging Sport Mode was a perfectly fine & safe idea. I flew around for over 4 minutes testing the aircraft before engaging Sport Mode. The P4 is designed for Sport Mode & the speed achieved under Sport Mode is what it is. I was flying over water so there was no risk to people or property.

I suspect there may be a bug in the aircraft logging or Android version of the App in the "78.1 mph" reported speed. It may possibly be displaying KMH instead of MPH even though I have the app set for Imperial units. I will be posting my flight log so one of the flight log wizards can check out what is up.

With P3/P3 battery packs I have never detected any noticeable increase in run time with increased cycles. I doubt the P4 packs will be any different. I suspect the 2-3 minute increase in flight time is simply because the second flights were performed strictly in P-mode & Sport Mode was never engaged. Even at 21 minutes this is still a full 25% less than the stated 28 minutes. This is the one area of the P4 where I am left disappointed. Next time out I will fly a couple of packs in A-mode as a run-time test.

DB, do you think that pushing your bird to 78 MPH on the FIRST battery cycle, was a good idea ??

On your 1st flights with your new battery you got ---- 17 --18 --19 minutes, for an average of--------- 18 MIN--- 1st charge

Your 2nd flight with the same new batteries ------- 21:10 --- 21:30 minutes, for an average of -----21:20 -----2nd charge

That's a nice increase in flying time.

Please continue to log flight times for these batteries, and we will be better able to determine a good base line..
 
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In all seriousness, yes I think engaging Sport Mode was a perfectly fine & safe idea. I flew around for over 4 minutes testing the aircraft before engaging Sport Mode. The P4 is designed for Sport Mode & the speed achieved under Sport Mode is what it is. I was flying over water so there was no risk to people or property.

I suspect there may be a bug in the aircraft logging or Android version of the App in the "78.1 mph" reported speed. It may possibly be displaying KMH instead of MPH even though I have the app set for Imperial units. I will be posting my flight log so one of the flight log wizards can check out what is up.

With P3/P3 battery packs I have never detected any noticeable increase in run time with increased cycles. I doubt the P4 packs will be any different. I suspect the 2-3 minute increase in flight time is simply because the second flights were performed strictly in P-mode & Sport Mode was never engaged. Even at 21 minutes this is still a full 25% less than the stated 28 minutes. This is the one area of the P4 where I am left disappointed. Next time out I will fly a couple of packs in A-mode as a run-time test.

I'm curious if running with the crash avoidance sensors off with increase flight time. I plan on testing this soon.
 
In the UK the P4 has shipped unflyable and you have to perform a firmware update! Have anyone else had this issue?
 
Correct. I would like to see a setting where you could disable CA while manually flying, but it would be automatically engaged during RTH or autonomous flight modes.

Yes I am aware.

I'm talking about flying in P-mode with crash avoidance off. The P4 goes from flying 20 mph to 35 just like the P3.
 
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