A few questions

[Jamsta]

1. How close do you have to be to water to start worrying about turning off VPS (if necessary?) Is it a good idea to turn off VPS if you are within, say, 10 feet?

2. Flew my P3A out about one mile over water at 300'. I had five bars the entire time, but at about one mile I started to get flashes of "RED - signal issues." I would have assumed I would have a decrease in bars before I started seeing that message. Any ideas?

3. Over water and in clear line of sight at highish altitudes (300'-400'), what can I expect as to a maximum range (given #2 above).

4. If homepoint is set and in P-GPS, I understand if the drone loses radio signal it will go to failsafe mode. So am I safe to assume that I could push the drone as far out as humanly possible and it will come back when signal is lost (assume full battery at take-off).

Thanks for your help!

 

[SouthernPhantom]

I don't think you need to disable the VPS over water. I frequently fly over a small lake and have had no problems. I believe it automatically disables over a certain altitude anyway.

 

[alokbhargava]

1. How close do you have to be to water to start worrying about turning off VPS (if necessary?) Is it a good idea to turn off VPS if you are within, say, 10 feet?

2. Flew my P3A out about one mile over water at 300'. I had five bars the entire time, but at about one mile I started to get flashes of "RED - signal issues." I would have assumed I would have a decrease in bars before I started seeing that message. Any ideas?

3. Over water and in clear line of sight at highish altitudes (300'-400'), what can I expect as to a maximum range (given #2 above).

4. If homepoint is set and in P-GPS, I understand if the drone loses radio signal it will go to failsafe mode. So am I safe to assume that I could push the drone as far out as humanly possible and it will come back when signal is lost (assume full battery at take-off).

Thanks for your help!

1. VPS range is 10', that means it has practically no effect at higher altitudes. If you are flying below 10' over water, it's advisable to turn off VPS as water has no steady patterns.

2. If LOS was clear if obstructions, the other possibility could be that antennas were not at right angle to the aircraft signals.

3. As per specs it should be 3.1 miles

4. Yes drone will return to home point if the signal is lost for 3 seconds and you have enough battery power left for it to return back.

 

[Oso]

So am I safe to assume that I could push the drone as far out as humanly possible and it will come back when signal is lost (assume full battery at take-off).

As noted earlier, yes it should come back if it's a control signal loss. It's important however to be careful about wind. A tailwind going out can sometimes lead to a tense moment if the headwind on your return trip causes the use of more power than the Phantom has calculated.

 

[Meta4]

1. How close do you have to be to water to start worrying about turning off VPS (if necessary?) Is it a good idea to turn off VPS if you are within, say, 10 feet?

VPS has a range of 10 feet but it's practically no use outdoors anyway so many flyers leave it off permanently.

2. Flew my P3A out about one mile over water at 300'. I had five bars the entire time, but at about one mile I started to get flashes of "RED - signal issues." I would have assumed I would have a decrease in bars before I started seeing that message. Any ideas?

There is video signal which goes first, and control signal and telemetry which is still there after you lose video.
You can lose (video) signal and still fly back yourself.

3. Over water and in clear line of sight at highish altitudes (300'-400'), what can I expect as to a maximum range (given #2 above).

Lots .. Probably more than your battery is capable of in perfect conditions.

4. If homepoint is set and in P-GPS, I understand if the drone loses radio signal it will go to failsafe mode. So am I safe to assume that I could push the drone as far out as humanly possible and it will come back when signal is lost (assume full battery at take-off).

Don't assume anything.
RTH will almost certainly work as it should but you must study the 3 pages of RTH in the manual and try it out so you know what it will do, how it works and how you can control it and resume control.
Test RTH in a large open area. Fty out more than 60 feet and initiate RTH .
Do it again and switch your controller off to simulate loss of signal.

 

[Jamsta]

I can't imagine flying 3 miles. Is that really possible? Are people really doing this???

 

[tcope]

Those bars are like a cell phone's bars... you almost always get 5 or 0. I've almost never seen mine drop. They go from all bars to 1 and/or 0.

A good GPS lock over-rides all VPS. So as long as you have a good GPS signal it should not matter if VPS is on or off. Turn it off it it makes you more comfortable.

 

[m0j0]

1. How close do you have to be to water to start worrying about turning off VPS (if necessary?) Is it a good idea to turn off VPS if you are within, say, 10 feet?

I turned mine off as I fly outside all the time. Flying over water lower than 10 feet there have been problems. I would just turn mine off if I was going to be over water.

2. Flew my P3A out about one mile over water at 300'. I had five bars the entire time, but at about one mile I started to get flashes of "RED - signal issues." I would have assumed I would have a decrease in bars before I started seeing that message. Any ideas?

I will surmise it had something to do with the orientation of your
antennaes

3. Over water and in clear line of sight at highish altitudes (300'-400'), what can I expect as to a maximum range (given #2 above).

5 KM I think

4. If homepoint is set and in P-GPS, I understand if the drone loses radio signal it will go to failsafe mode. So am I safe to assume that I could push the drone as far out as humanly possible and it will come back when signal is lost (assume full battery at take-off).

Yes safe to assume but realize that just because you lose video doesn't mean you have lost transmitter connection. There was a mistake reported here where the aircraft didnt return because... it didn't lose signal. Just stayed waiting for commands.