Top distances for Phantom 2

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Hello everyone!

I'm a bit curious about the ranges the Phantom 2 can fly.

I've gone about 295 metres up at the movement but only around 190 metres away.

I'm wondering how far and high the Phantom can go without losing connection with the controller, and how I can increase this range (e.g what gear/antennas to buy).

Thank you in advanced!

(P.S, I do understand the dangers of this but 1. I live in a town where there are virtually never any aircrafts flying above. 2. I know this because I always check flight radar before my flights!)

Edit: I have an FPV system too. 5.8ghz fat shark 600mw transmitter. If I need to upgrade this, what do I need to get?
 
Hello Fluxy88
I have a Phantom 2 with Zenmuse gimbal and Gopro Hero 4 camera, using a immersionrc 600W 5.8 Ghz A/ tx and fatshark spironet cloverleaf antennas, DJI IOSD Mini.
I have flow without problems out to a distance of 600 meters, but I fly out on the moors, where there is not a single feature of the landscape that could disrupt the signal, no trees no buildings no cell phone antennas, no power lines, mobile phone not switched on in my pocket, camera wifi not active.
I could probably have flow further but from where I fly the landscape becomes featureless after about 1/2 a mile, so there is no point, plus I can't see the phantom after 500 meters anyway, I got the distance from my OSD.
I would highly recommend the DJI IOSD Mini, it becomes invaluable if you loose sight of the craft, look it up online for the cost and the benefits it's well worth it.
Have Fun
Waylander
 
Hello Fluxy88
I have a Phantom 2 with Zenmuse gimbal and Gopro Hero 4 camera, using a immersionrc 600W 5.8 Ghz A/ tx and fatshark spironet cloverleaf antennas, DJI IOSD Mini.
I have flow without problems out to a distance of 600 meters, but I fly out on the moors, where there is not a single feature of the landscape that could disrupt the signal, no trees no buildings no cell phone antennas, no power lines, mobile phone not switched on in my pocket, camera wifi not active.
I could probably have flow further but from where I fly the landscape becomes featureless after about 1/2 a mile, so there is no point, plus I can't see the phantom after 500 meters anyway, I got the distance from my OSD.
I would highly recommend the DJI IOSD Mini, it becomes invaluable if you loose sight of the craft, look it up online for the cost and the benefits it's well worth it.
Have Fun
Waylander

Hey Waylander! I have the exact same setup as you! Where I live is very much like that! Whats the highest you've gone? And what was your battery when you got back from that distance? I might give it a go :)
 
If guess flying up to 697 ft. altitude you don't have altitude restrictions where you fly. Ops I'm sorry the UK flight restriction is 400 ft. I guess that is only written for those pilots who follow the rules. Don't want to sound dogmatic but there are aircraft the fly at that altitude and you are taking a really bad chance. Don't want to read about your drone flying into a private plane.
We don't care if you do check he radar, a plane flying at several hundred miles an hour can get there fast. Do yourself s favor and play by the rules.
Fly out as far as you can see around 2,225 ft. But stay below the 400 ft.
 
Hi Fluxy88
Well as for the battery power, a lot depends on the prevailing wind, when I fly out a long way, I usually fly into the wind on the outward flight, so as to have reserved sufficient capacity for the in bound flight, I generally try to return to Home with 20% capacity remaining, I have on occasion gone slightly below that level, and if you do so, prepare to switch into atti mode, where you will get slightly longer flight time, but beware of getting down to 15% or lower, it could just come down where ever it is, it's happened to me, but I was only up at 10 meters, and the heather on the moor is really thick so no damage when it dropped.
Also I am on the edge of the no-fly zone around my local airport, and whilst I don't fly over 400 feet, I don't want to cause any hassle.
PS on the 600 meter flight I came back with around 35% capacity remaining.
Regards
Waylander
 
Hi Fluxy88
Well as for the battery power, a lot depends on the prevailing wind, when I fly out a long way, I usually fly into the wind on the outward flight, so as to have reserved sufficient capacity for the in bound flight, I generally try to return to Home with 20% capacity remaining, I have on occasion gone slightly below that level, and if you do so, prepare to switch into atti mode, where you will get slightly longer flight time, but beware of getting down to 15% or lower, it could just come down where ever it is, it's happened to me, but I was only up at 10 meters, and the heather on the moor is really thick so no damage when it dropped.
Also I am on the edge of the no-fly zone around my local airport, and whilst I don't fly over 400 feet, I don't want to cause any hassle.
PS on the 600 meter flight I came back with around 35% capacity remaining.
Regards
Waylander

Hey Waylander,

Thanks for your response! I'm shocked to hear about the Phantom dropping if it's on around 15% - I thought it would at least go into return to home mode.

As winds are always very strong here, lowest being about 12mph with gusts reaching 30+mph, I think I'll defiantly have to keep an eye on how high I'm going as I don't want it to randomly drop!

Regarding height, what do you think the phantom is capable of? And do you know of any ways I can increase it? I have seen people going above clouds on YouTube, which I find crazy but also inclined to try.

Best regards,

Fluxy88
 
If guess flying up to 697 ft. altitude you don't have altitude restrictions where you fly. Ops I'm sorry the UK flight restriction is 400 ft. I guess that is only written for those pilots who follow the rules. Don't want to sound dogmatic but there are aircraft the fly at that altitude and you are taking a really bad chance. Don't want to read about your drone flying into a private plane.
We don't care if you do check he radar, a plane flying at several hundred miles an hour can get there fast. Do yourself s favor and play by the rules.
Fly out as far as you can see around 2,225 ft. But stay below the 400 ft.
Hey,

Im aware of those rules as I have looked it up on the CAA website. Im generally just interested in how high it could go without loosing connection really.

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it :)

Fluxy88
 
Hello Again
In the software I have set the "Return to Home" limit to trigger when capacity falls below 20%, on the occasion that I lost control I had been flying in strong wind (above 10 Knots), the bird was probably 150 meters away at around 60 meters high, it went into FS mode and began it's autonomous return flight, I had cancelled that and switched into atti to fly her in myself, I had lowered the altitude to around 10 meters for the return flight, she got to within 20 meters of me when she came down, I won't say she dropped from the sky, but it was not a controlled decent, and she did not respond to the throttle stick, it's not happened since, but I am more careful with the battery capacity.
I have flow her up to the point that I could not see it, but then I am a bit short sighted, probably 450 - 475 feet, if I fly well away from restricted zones I might try higher, depending on how you set the software I'm sure it will go up a lot higher, I think you might loose video feed before you loose RC control, due to the different frequencies involved in both, and the directional effect of the antennas
Regards
Waylander
 
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Hey,

I think you're right about losing video feed before RC connection. When I went my highest I still had a very good video feed with only small interferences here and there but nothing too serious.

Im still so curious as to how other people have managed to get their birds up past clouds!

Fluxy88
 
...I'm a bit curious about the ranges the Phantom 2 can fly.

I've gone about 295 metres up at the movement but only around 190 metres away.

I'm wondering how far and high the Phantom can go without losing connection with the controller, and how I can increase this range (e.g what gear/antennas to buy)...
In the remote mountains of Oregon over 1,000 feet AGL has been achieved. A distance over flat rural terrain of over a mile has been done. Lost the video at about .75 miles, but RC connection was still fine.
 
In the remote mountains of Oregon over 1,000 feet AGL has been achieved. A distance over flat rural terrain of over a mile has been done. Lost the video at about .75 miles, but RC connection was still fine.
That's awesome! Do you know of any ways to extend this range? For the video feed mainly?

Thank you,
Fluxy88
 
Hi Fluxy88
There are different problems with antenna depending on where you are in relationship to the bird, some antenna are good for distance some for height, if you have a diversity receiver, then you could get the best of both worlds.
Look at this guy's video on youtube he gives a good explanation.
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Regards
Waylander
 
That's awesome! Do you know of any ways to extend this range? For the video feed mainly?

Thank you,
Fluxy88
I've played with various tx and rx antennas, and what I have in my signature below is about as good as I can get it.
 
I'm using a similar set up and my furthest flight was 750 meters over open farmland I could just make out the red lights to technically I was still LOS [emoji2] battery power was over 40% when I returned to land FPV was holding up quite well but this weeks I've tweaked the set up adding a flat panel to the FPV and added a right angle connector to lower the TX on the UAV to strengthen FPV I'm thinking of moding my TX control antenna to allow further flights up to around 2km as I have a film in mind that will require that travel but I'm testing in stages to ensure my battery can last that journey and back again as I don't want to risk a fail safe flight and the battery dying in the way back. A common reason for crashes I seem to see
 

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