A long weekend, over-water flights, bad crash and bulletproof P3S

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I finally got to the campground... most of the reason I got into flying in the first place. Gorgeous countryside, great weather Saturday and a chance to capture the boating and lake shots I've been dying to get at.

All went well Saturday, and friends that we only see in the summer were amazed, most had no idea of the capability of these things. Even the campground owner, a pilot with a plane on the grounds, was curious, amazed and now considering his own.

I'm working on video and a presentation, but here is a teaser, chasing a friend's boat at 250' and just over 30mph, backwards:

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And the campground itself:

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The range was exceptional... even more than printed on the box. The boat pic was taken at 1042m away, just over the 1km quoted max range.

Sunday was less cooperative... overcast and rainy on and off.

I was looking over the pictures and found roads and trails that I didn't know existed so during a break in the rain went up to take a look.

I'm taking off in a clearing and GPS is spotty until I get above the tree line... and I clipped branches because the rise was not 100% vertical. Rather than get into everything else I could have done, I'll just say it resulted in a crash. It pinballed down through the tree until a 20' drop to a gravel sidewalk, while I tried to CSC and collect the remains.

What I picked up was a bird with a broken prop, two badly chipped ones, and a camera that was one a wickedly strange angle and in a violent, vibrating twitch that looked like the toe on ED-209 after Robocop took it out (you know what I mean). I immediately knew I'd be here looking for camera repair advice...

BUT... I did a complete shut down and battery removal, gently rotated the camera back to normal, replaced all four props and restarted.

And it flew again as normal as any other flight, camera and all.

I am so thoroughly impressed with this AC I have nothing at all bad to say about any experience I've had with it.

Range is beyond expectation.
Interference errors have all but disappeared.
RTH demos have all be 100% successful, including one demo from 3000' out and RC shutdown.
Low battery RTH has been 100% successful.
All batteries, store bought and eBay "used twice" (but all OEM) function perfectly.
A crash produce zero ill effects.

And I now have 100% confidence flying over water... while those around me are nervous!

I absolutely love this thing.
 
Great post. I'm glad you are enjoying this wonderful hobby. Isn't it fun introducing folks to this hobby for the first time. I find that they are generally amazed at the technology. It's probably what it must have been like to be the one with the first television in the neighborhood many years ago.
 
Well I've been looking for a good news story after watching Rossi crash out in the MotoGP and I found one. Thanks for sharing and there is nothing like a happy ending. Nice place!
 
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It's a lot of fun being surrounded by people that are generally fascinated & interested... two of my friends had to leave early and both of them have been sending me screenshots of Best Buy web sites asking opinions of the various models.

It's a refreshing change from the posts of people being harassed or getting the evil eye... watching the screen, asking questions...

It's nice that a crash isn't always devastating.

It's great when a small plane pilot is fascinated and supportive while we share the same air space.

Oh, and the best part? The park owner/pilot was so amazed by the aerial footage he wants to have a poster made to put on the wall in the lodge!

That's the bast part because he's also the guy that could have taken the opposite approach and told me he doesn't want that dangerous noise maker in his park!
 
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Some fun stats:

e60049b37a5e4c70b6c72aa6ab062274.jpg


That's the point I was leading the boat, backwards...

I was pleased and found this impressive for a stock P3S, 3000+ feet, 30mph, no range warnings.

Seconds later I went into battery RTH, which is where the straight line home comes from.

A flawless flight and I was more surprisingly confident over the water than I thought I'd be.
 
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I guess the mutual appreciation when visiting places like that is also a result of you having the right attitude and presentation and everybody gets a little something out of it. You've probably made it easier for the next crew that turn up with a drone and hopefully it will continue. I live on a lake in a very small community with the only drone for probably 50 klms and had to spend a bit of time reassuring people that I wasn't spying or creating a nuisance of myself. I have since made a short video of the only pub in town that the owners have put up in their website, made another one of the lake and community for their website and have zero issues with anyone. It's the right thing to do.
 
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...I have since made a short video of the only pub in town that the owners have put up in their website, made another one of the lake and community for their website and have zero issues with anyone. It's the right thing to do.

That kind of stuff is awesome. That pub owner will tell countless people...

And here, yes, people have often looked to me for the fun summer photography with a DSLR and good lenses, and this just adds that extra element you can't capture any other way. I plan on having an end of season slideshow, big screen, projector...

We always have a Fall family day here (it's a small park, 25 sites) and as nervous I was how it would be received, it's been 100% positive and continuing to fly conscientiously will keep it that way...
 
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Some fun stats:

e60049b37a5e4c70b6c72aa6ab062274.jpg


That's the point I was leading the boat, backwards...

I was pleased and found this impressive for a stock P3S, 3000+ feet, 30mph, no range warnings.

Seconds later I went into battery RTH, which is where the straight line home comes from.

A flawless flight and I was more surprisingly confident over the water than I thought I'd be.
My first phantom was a PS3 which worked a treat until I moved to live amongst the trees and water which severely restricted my flight range, now have a modded P4 which gives me serious distance and penetration through the forest. You'll need to post up a video to share amongst the city slickers that are stuck with flying in the local park or up and down their street :)
 
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My first phantom was a PS3 which worked a treat until I moved to live amongst the trees and water which severely restricted my flight range, now have a modded P4 which gives me serious distance and penetration through the forest. You'll need to post up a video to share amongst the city slickers that are stuck with flying in the local park or up and down their street :)

I'll post pics of my site and the range I'm getting through the trees when I get a sec... I'm thoroughly impressed versus what I expected!
 
I'm getting 1.9km range in a fairly populated area with plenty of trees and cellphone stations... so much interference. I have P3S with Argtek range extender. I'm getting good range and believe I would go over 2.2 km.
I also had few crashes myself... Once I got the drone stuck to tree in my land that I had to shoot it down since there wasn't any other option. I shot the branch that it was stuck to... used 12 gauge slug to avoid the spread and accidentally shoot my drone. I placed a trampoline underneath the tree and my plan had worked out just fine. After the bullet hit the branch, the drone came down like a shot duck...so bad I didn't have it on the video since I gave zero chance that my plan will work. Hilariously, it had worked and now I missed my chance to shoot an epic drone video... the drone had survived and works flawlessly just like in your case...
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I placed a trampoline underneath the tree...

That's funny... because mine pinballed around in the tree just long enough for me to put the remote down and position myself under it, before I thought better of trying to catch a craft with four spinning rotors on it... but I thought about it...
 
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It just keeps getting better... the park owner/pilot friend that I was most concerned would be apprehensive about sharing his air space (given that he takes off and lands from the water, which qualifies the area as an aerodrome) has asked me to take footage of him taking off, as well as aerial footage of his planes on ground and in the water.

He's totally captivated, and wants posters made of the shots... and has offered flights in his planes as trade! One is a biplane... that should be cool...
 
Started to second guess what the stats were reporting... whether the range was total flight range or if that's really as far as I was, so I used the flight replay to plot the GPS coords in google earth.

Yup... I was a legit 1048 meters from home point... 48 meters further than the rating on the box.

Again, not a bad thing to say about DJI, my AC, interaction with CS, crash resilience... faith reinforced.

I feel like a giddy little kid... it's such a different experience than sneaking around in closed school parking lots hoping no one comes along with attitude spouting regs and feeling like I'm doing something dirty.
ef5366ec1997076ef5ff427c9aab10d8.jpg
 
I clipped a tall pine tree about 60 feet up landing once with a sudden wind change. At my house lots of trees so straight up and down through a 30 foot shaft.
Anyway it did a cartwheel, righted itself, and proceeded to land normally.
Then I exhaled. Video was normal-normal-WTF-normal
 
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Started to second guess what the stats were reporting... whether the range was total flight range or if that's really as far as I was, so I used the flight replay to plot the GPS coords in google earth.

Yup... I was a legit 1048 meters from home point... 48 meters further than the rating on the box.

Again, not a bad thing to say about DJI, my AC, interaction with CS, crash resilience... faith reinforced.

I feel like a giddy little kid... it's such a different experience than sneaking around in closed school parking lots hoping no one comes along with attitude spouting regs and feeling like I'm doing something dirty.
ef5366ec1997076ef5ff427c9aab10d8.jpg
I feel the same way, just got a new P4p and worried about getting complaints from people. Just found a small field today that I see from the highway during my commute. I was able to get some good practice in and fly in sport mode, so fast. Nobody bothered me, what a relief. Coming from a P2, so the whole app interface is new to me.
 
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Started to second guess what the stats were reporting... whether the range was total flight range or if that's really as far as I was, so I used the flight replay to plot the GPS coords in google earth.

Yup... I was a legit 1048 meters from home point... 48 meters further than the rating on the box.

Again, not a bad thing to say about DJI, my AC, interaction with CS, crash resilience... faith reinforced.

I feel like a giddy little kid... it's such a different experience than sneaking around in closed school parking lots hoping no one comes along with attitude spouting regs and feeling like I'm doing something dirty.
ef5366ec1997076ef5ff427c9aab10d8.jpg
So great hear someone else is having an experience like I have had the last 2 weekends at the campground I stay at. We are on the backwater of a dam. It's a very scenic, beautiful area with lots of nature, woods, fishing, boating, etc. I recorded a fly by of the entire campground on Mother's day. It was a big hit. The camp manager put it on the campgrounds Facebook page. Now everyone that sees me flying ask if I was the one that recorded it. Everybody is very interested it, and ask questions about it. Very positive experience for them, and me, and for drones in general.
 
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I feel the same way, just got a new P4p and worried about getting complaints from people. Just found a small field today that I see from the highway during my commute. I was able to get some good practice in and fly in sport mode, so fast. Nobody bothered me, what a relief. Coming from a P2, so the whole app interface is new to me.

Isn't it the greatest feeling?!
 
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So great hear someone else is having an experience like I have had the last 2 weekends at the campground I stay at. We are on the backwater of a dam. It's a very scenic, beautiful area with lots of nature, woods, fishing, boating, etc. I recorded a fly by of the entire campground on Mother's day. It was a big hit. The camp manager put it on the campgrounds Facebook page. Now everyone that sees me flying ask if I was the one that recorded it. Everybody is very interested it, and ask questions about it. Very positive experience for them, and me, and for drones in general.

Awesome... that's the level of interest that makes it some much more enjoyable!

I'm expecting that next... the campground owner using it for publicity. He's into his planes first, wants aerial shots of them... it's fun to be asked for shots of stuff!
 
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Nice photography ... but well beyond your VLOS. This rule is an attempt to assure you can see any manned flight in time to get out of the way ... even if the manned flight is under the 500' ceiling, you would be at fault if your drone caused an accident. Many lakes, in my area of NH, have emergency landings even if not designated for that. There are also UltraLghts from time to time. The drone is the lowest on the pecking order. You are responsible for staying withink the VLOS of not just your drone, but the area around your drone that could be approached by a manned aircraft.
 

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