Buying a Phantom was my planned second step but I found out shipping lipos from overseas is near impossible so my hobby grade trainer quads got skipped. Bust buy had P4 refurbs for about a grand right in line with my first phase budget, it was in my hands 2 days after ordering and appeared brand new, felt robust, looked as good or better than any hobby grade RC I've ever owned.
Day one was a few hops in my yard, I was just mesmerised by the ability to just park it in the air, I've had slow fly RC planes that I could trim into a holding pattern to talk to curious onlookers but to just stop and wait mid air, amazing. Day two I decided to amaze my neighbour with my super easy amazing flying machine, I hoped up to about eight feet above my driveway pointed the camera at us and started recording my buddies amazement as I put the controller down, calmly waked into the house to get a couple beer from the fridge and returned to explain about all the Phantom 4's idiot proof systems. He'd flow toy helies and quads and I'd put it in beginner mode so I gave him the controller, I was marvelling at how smooth he was flying it like an airplane when I saw him drifting backwards towards my house. I screamed stop got my left hand to the controller trying to slap the stick froward and almost caught the landing gear with my right but it was too late, one prop broken and 3 damaged but no other damage from a four foot fall. I put a new prop on did a quick hover/test and I put it away for the night.
I went to the "city" to spend time with my weekend family and did a nice evening fly video shoot in a quiet mostly empty park maintaining 75m clearance from anyone or thing outside my party. No drone hate, no LEO, one "nice drone, my dad wants one, what's that one called?" my years of RC in public taught me how not flying like an a-hole can save headaches and improve the image of the hobby. Early the next morning the wife dropped me at my old flying field on her way to the gym, a large baseball park that can only be seen from one road to avoid getting mobbed by nosepickers while I started trying the automated flight modes. After the initial trust issues with a robot flying for me I was amazed, my heart stopped on the first RTH test as the flight path was also the way back to China but I started breathing again when it stopped and landed right where I took off.
I love this thing so much I'm already planning to buy a second P4 just for the spare battery and airframe, Here's the shot that sold it for me, I'd been envisioning this shot for months since I first got this idea to get me and junior away from the X-Box/computer.
Day one was a few hops in my yard, I was just mesmerised by the ability to just park it in the air, I've had slow fly RC planes that I could trim into a holding pattern to talk to curious onlookers but to just stop and wait mid air, amazing. Day two I decided to amaze my neighbour with my super easy amazing flying machine, I hoped up to about eight feet above my driveway pointed the camera at us and started recording my buddies amazement as I put the controller down, calmly waked into the house to get a couple beer from the fridge and returned to explain about all the Phantom 4's idiot proof systems. He'd flow toy helies and quads and I'd put it in beginner mode so I gave him the controller, I was marvelling at how smooth he was flying it like an airplane when I saw him drifting backwards towards my house. I screamed stop got my left hand to the controller trying to slap the stick froward and almost caught the landing gear with my right but it was too late, one prop broken and 3 damaged but no other damage from a four foot fall. I put a new prop on did a quick hover/test and I put it away for the night.
I went to the "city" to spend time with my weekend family and did a nice evening fly video shoot in a quiet mostly empty park maintaining 75m clearance from anyone or thing outside my party. No drone hate, no LEO, one "nice drone, my dad wants one, what's that one called?" my years of RC in public taught me how not flying like an a-hole can save headaches and improve the image of the hobby. Early the next morning the wife dropped me at my old flying field on her way to the gym, a large baseball park that can only be seen from one road to avoid getting mobbed by nosepickers while I started trying the automated flight modes. After the initial trust issues with a robot flying for me I was amazed, my heart stopped on the first RTH test as the flight path was also the way back to China but I started breathing again when it stopped and landed right where I took off.
I love this thing so much I'm already planning to buy a second P4 just for the spare battery and airframe, Here's the shot that sold it for me, I'd been envisioning this shot for months since I first got this idea to get me and junior away from the X-Box/computer.
