Shouldn't I be getting more range?

[Scratch]

I have a P3A new enough to have the new motors on it. Today I thought I'd try to see how far I could go with it. I live out in the country, at the top of a large hill about 120 feet higher than the rest of the fields and stuff around me to the north. There are some tall trees, on the edge of my yard that starts to go downhill. The hill slopes fast so the tree line is about 100' or so until the branches are low enough be out of the way. With the fall leaves being gone, I can easily see the far off horizon for at least 5 miles.

Yes there are branches of those tall trees in the way, but they're at the tops of those trees, so they're pretty thin and sparse and it's not long before the trees are below the horizon line.

I flew to just over 6000 feet away at a height of about 250 feet (from my home point).

The signal was poor, it kept glitching out, and the lag times were horrible. Shouldn't I be able to get more than this?
I know the advertised range of it is about 1.2 miles, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but I see videos of people flying them at over x20,000 feet away?

Are they using range extenders or something?

 

[transmetaman]

There are lots of posts about distance and many folks smarter than me who can comment but in your case it looks like you are at the low to mid point of the Phantom range. There are many ways to improve your distance including the simple proper orientation of the stock antennas. I live in the mountains so for me height is very important having the quad higher up usually will help your overall video and RC signal strength. Finally I added a set of the 3D printed windsurfer signal boosters and that was the best $15 I ever spent! Keep digging there are lots of ways to make her go farther and this a great place to learn about them.