Questions About Flying a P4 Indoors

Joined
Sep 18, 2016
Messages
50
Reaction score
11
Age
64
Location
Morehead City, NC
I have never flown my P4 indoors. I have been scanning the internet for comments by experienced flyers to see what they have learned. It seems that there is no definitive answer as to what to do. P or Atti mode seems to be the biggy. I would assume that the ability (or rather inability) to lock into enough GPS continuously would cause one to stay in Atti mode. I would also think that prop guards would be a must, but realize that disables the avoidance system.

Anyway-I’d love to get input from those who fly inside with a Phantom 4.

God Bless!

Bill
 
I would also think that prop guards would be a must, but realize that disables the avoidance system. Anyway-I’d love to get input from those who fly inside with a Phantom 4.

I'm lucky or rather was lucky for a while flying indoors - there was an empty, unused old hockey/skating arena near me and it was wide open as to entry. Flew in there a few times with and without prop guards in Attii mode. I ended up removing the prop guards so I would have the OA operating although I never came close to hitting anything.

Flying indoors is different in a way since it is "dead air" so to speak and the P4 seemed to handle even better than when outdoors (kinda makes sense). One thing for certain flying in such a wide open indoor area really sharpened my skills as to flying in other modes and GPS free!

I say "lucky" for a while flying indoors due to the fact they have closed the entry up and next step is to tear it down. I don't think I would attempt indoor flying unless it was in a large open indoor area like I had for a while - just too many risk factors involved in an area that is smaller or cluttered.

Happy and safe flying BH19599!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BH1959
Yesterday I had the opportunity to test my P4 indoors (I had a friend holding the RC while I made the photo with my phone, telling him not to touch the sticks under any circumstance!!!). It was a metallic/glass/concrete hall used to make conferences and some events. In P mode, at the floor, it found 3 GPS satellites, and after warming up it let me fly, but with the upper yellow band showing no GPS available. In fact, when flying, the number of satellites went down to zero. As you can see, no propguards, and obstacle avoidance only worked in two out of the four walls! Flight was smooth, very stable (see also the floor without any contrasted marks or references). Apart of the obvious lack of wind, the only main difference with flying outdoors was that when centering the sticks, the Phantom did not remained at the place, and it continued "skating" a bit in the air, maintaining perfectly the altitude. ADVICE: fly very, very smoothly, braking very, very slowly.
ccfe532ecfa5c68263d021d0a84980e2.jpg





Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
  • Like
Reactions: BH1959
So the primary issue is the inability to lock into enough/any GPS consistently, right? Atti mode is free form flying with no auto correction, with the exception of altitude via barometer. So the primary thing about flying indoors is the remote pilot's ability to literally fly by the stick? Am I painting the picture correctly?
 
I have a P4 also. Is there any way to adjust the "skating"?

I know on some cheaper drones you can adjust them so they will stay in place better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I had a second flght in the same place last Friday ecening. Weather outside was horrendous: rain, winds and dropflows could be seem through the glasses... But inside was ( of course) amazingly quiet. I told the responsible people of the place to switch off the heaters wich were blowing hard. And in few minutes I coud take off, OPTI mode. Only 3 satellites were found by the drone. The flights were, to my personal opinion, much more controlled than first time ( see my November 11 comment above), and I have to recognice that the sensation of skating was not one of my primary fears inside. Probably I came already mentally prepared, or simply I moved controls in a smoother way, but fact is that I cannot recall tha Phantom skating as much as first time.
Maybe the reason was that this time the place had an audience watching the flight, or that I am now a more experienced pilot...LOL [emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers