Today is the Day!

Pointyhead · Feb 27, 2016

After a week of howling winds, today is perfect for flying! I'll be meeting at a friend's 5 acre field at noon. The temp should be 57 degrees, sunny and only 4 mph winds. I've got all my batteries charged, camera and tripod, as well as gopro for the head. Got my checklist, and even found a plastic soda crate that seems perfect to launch from. I think I'm ready for the maiden voyage.

Anything else I should take?

LamboH · Feb 27, 2016

Extra clean undies , remember to set fail safe rth height , leave on beginner mode , and set a max distance mode . Take it easy and learn orientation. Face the camera to u and fly each and every way and then face camera opposite(away)and move around .

gklugie · Feb 27, 2016

Fly with your eyes. Except for an occasional glance, do not look at your monitor. Learn to fly the craft.

Pointyhead · Feb 27, 2016

OK, I'm back from my first flying experience. First impression-This sucker can move! When you watch the videos, and look at the camera view on your receiver, because of the distance and perspective, it looks like it creeps along. Go full stick and this puppy really hauls, um, butt. That caught me a little off guard. I need to be very gentle on the controls. Flying it is a piece of cake. Having other RC aircraft and quads, I didn't have to learn the controls, and when you remove the input it just stops. That's so cool.

Now, I did have a few problems. What would life be without them.

1. Auto-take off. I went to use the auto take off, and it's not there! The top button on the left side showed auto land! Clicking it brought up the "slide to auto land" feature. Shut it down and restarted, and got it again. Never saw the auto start feature. What's up with that!?!

2. I bought a folding shade that won't work with my iPhone 6S plus because the cable plug juts out 1/2 inch and so the right side won't fold down correctly. I'm going to have to modify it.

3. I had a problem seeing the screen a bit. Even with the shade, and the brightness turned up all the way, it was still dim. Only after I packed up did I realize that my glasses are photochromic lenses (darken in bright sunlight) so I'll have to work on that!

4. I did most of the flying just by watching the quad. At one point I looked down and panicked because I saw the red bar that said "Lost Signal" The bird was right in front of me at 12 feet so I moved the controls and all worked OK. I noticed that my connector cable had made a loop around the right antenna so I uncoiled it and got the signal back right away. I am using a 3' cable, so I need to get a shorter on.

Other than that I had a great time for my first experience with the Phantom.

LWC1496 · Feb 27, 2016

Pointyhead said:
OK, I'm back from my first flying experience. First impression-This sucker can move! When you watch the videos, and look at the camera view on your receiver, because of the distance and perspective, it looks like it creeps along. Go full stick and this puppy really hauls, um, butt. That caught me a little off guard. I need to be very gentle on the controls. Flying it is a piece of cake. Having other RC aircraft and quads, I didn't have to learn the controls, and when you remove the input it just stops. That's so cool.

Now, I did have a few problems. What would life be without them.

1. Auto-take off. I went to use the auto take off, and it's not there! The top button on the left side showed auto land! Clicking it brought up the "slide to auto land" feature. Shut it down and restarted, and got it again. Never saw the auto start feature. What's up with that!?!

2. I bought a folding shade that won't work with my iPhone 6S plus because the cable plug juts out 1/2 inch and so the right side won't fold down correctly. I'm going to have to modify it.

3. I had a problem seeing the screen a bit. Even with the shade, and the brightness turned up all the way, it was still dim. Only after I packed up did I realize that my glasses are photochromic lenses (darken in bright sunlight) so I'll have to work on that!

4. I did most of the flying just by watching the quad. At one point I looked down and panicked because I saw the red bar that said "Lost Signal" The bird was right in front of me at 12 feet so I moved the controls and all worked OK. I noticed that my connector cable had made a loop around the right antenna so I uncoiled it and got the signal back right away. I am using a 3' cable, so I need to get a shorter on.

Other than that I had a great time for my first experience with the Phantom.

The auto take off button starts the engines and takes off, if you have already started them with CSC you won't get the button, I had exactly same concern first flight, worked it out eventually.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Trackman1 · Feb 27, 2016

Buy some cheap reading glasses to replace the shades. Add them to your drone kit.

WetDog · Feb 27, 2016

Congrats! You're still in one piece. Now is a good time to sit down and make a quick 'preflight checklist' of things you need to do every time (check the RTH height for example). Dozens of them here. Mine is fairly short but I have it taped on the outside of my backpack so I can quickly glance at it. It's amazing what you can forget....

phantom3guy2016 · Feb 27, 2016

I also flew mine today, for the third time. This was my first flight with my new galaxy tab 4. Had a app hiccup at the start, but quickly fixed it. Had an awesome time flying.

Phantom751874 · Feb 27, 2016

Don't use auto take off, most don't, learn to take off and land smoothly.

Pointyhead · Feb 27, 2016

Phantom751874 said:
Don't use auto take off, most don't, learn to take off and land smoothly.

Actually, I did do all manual takeoffs, simply because I started the motors spinning up before trying to use the auto takeoff function. Once I got home and recharged the batteries, I saw my rookie mistake and went outside and did an auto takeoff just to see how to do it. I did do one RTH to see how the function would work. Great, btw.

GadgetGuy · Mar 1, 2016

Auto-Takeoff is useful for handlaunching by yourself when you need it. With the transmitter hanging from a neckstrap, you can hold the bird in your right hand, and press the Auto-Takeoff icon, and then slide with your left index on the screen to complete it. Gently let go of the aircraft, after the motors power up, and you have successfully handlaunched!