Comparing my Phantom to my Blade

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I thought I'd throw out this simple comparison of my Phantom 1, versus my Blade 350 QX. Not a big super detailed comparison, just a few observations. I like my phantom, but I gotta say I like the Blade better. I flew both of them just 30 minutes ago and found the comparisons shown below. Both birds are tip top, with balanced props and same day compass calibrations. Phantom is running stock props with stock gains. Upgrades on the phantom include taller landing gear similar to stock, cf 9" blade guards and cf battery extensions in case I want to run dual batteries. Blade is pretty much stock, except for Walkera props on CNC adapters.

Trouble or Return to home Mode
Phantom return to home has to be accomplished by turning off the tx or flying out of range, which I'm not doing. Once turned off it starts the process, but it's very slow to return. It finally came down within 5-7 feet of where it took off from. If after turning off the tx and initiating RTH you decide you don't want to land yet, your stuck with it. They won't reconnect unless you unplug the battery and restart the bird. Kinda tough to do in mid flight ;)
Blade return to home is accomplished by a spring loaded switch. Pull it and it starts the process. It gets about the business of returning pretty quickly and also lands within 5-7 feet of take off point. If you decide you don't want to RTH just release the spring loaded switch and you've got full control again. Kinda nice if you get that, "Oh crap!" mode followed by the "Ok, I'm alright now!" mode.
Manual landing for both is accomplished pretty easy and I'd say neither is tougher or easier than the other.

IOC or Smart Mode
This might be my own issue, but when my Phantom was in HL or CL mode, forward stick was not always forward motion. It was dependent upon the birds orientation. My understanding is, in HL mode it's supposed to go in stick direction regardless of orientation/yaw. CL is similar it just goes in a straigt line per the stick orientation.
Blade in smart mode or photo mode is pretty darn dummy proof. Push the stick forward and it goes forward, regardless of orientation. It'll even do a continuous yaw left or right while in forward, left, right or back direction without going off course. Like I said, maybe that's a ME issue.

In Flight Stability
Phantom hangs on to the GPS like a dog with steak bone. Just a bit more twitchy in a breeze and winds aloft.
Blade holds on to GPS as well, just a lot smoother when correcting against breeze and winds aloft.

I'm not bashing my Phantom. She's a fine fun to fly bird and a keeper. Blade 350 is my go to though and she's the one that will be trusted with the, in my opinion over priced $400 Gopro, particularly when she'll be carrying it over cliffs and waterfalls at Lake Tahoe, where a catastrophic landing or crash will be **** expensive.
 
Please check the wording of your In Flight Stability paragraph. Who's the steak eating dog, Phantom or Blade?
 
RenoReno said:
Phantom return to home has to be accomplished by turning off the tx or flying out of range, which I'm not doing. Once turned off it starts the process, but it's very slow to return. It finally came down within 5-7 feet of where it took off from. If after turning off the tx and initiating RTH you decide you don't want to land yet, your stuck with it. They won't reconnect unless you unplug the battery and restart the bird. Kinda tough to do in mid flight ;)

Hey there. Sounds like there are a few things to brush up on about the Phantom.

You actually have several options for failsafe on the Phantom. You can set RTH on your flight mode switch, which you can flip in and out of. Regardless of how you get into RTH, it's easy to get out, simply flip the same switch to ATTI, and you're back in control. If you've triggered FS by turning off the remote, just turn it back on and flip to ATTI. No need to wait for it to land and definitely no need to power cycle.

RenoReno said:
This might be my own issue, but when my Phantom was in HL or CL mode, forward stick was not always forward motion. It was dependent upon the birds orientation. My understanding is, in HL mode it's supposed to go in stick direction regardless of orientation/yaw. CL is similar it just goes in a straigt line per the stick orientation.

I think you may be confused about how CL and HL work. CL locks "forward direction" to the direction the Phantom was pointing when it started up. So if it was facing east at startup, east is always forward elevator, west is always back elevator, etc. All of this is INDEPENDENT of the bird's current orientation.

HL maps forward position as "away from home" and backwards as "towards home." So no matter where the Phantom is, if you pull elevator full back, it will fly towards home. Again, this is independent of what direction the Phantom is currently pointing.

The Blade sounds like a fine quad. But I bet you'll get more enjoyment out of your Phantom if you spend a little time brushing up on how the functions work :)
 
Buk said:
Please check the wording of your In Flight Stability paragraph. Who's the steak eating dog, Phantom or Blade?

Thanks for catching my typo. I fixed it.
 
ElGuano said:
The Blade sounds like a fine quad. But I bet you'll get more enjoyment out of your Phantom if you spend a little time brushing up on how the functions work :)

Big thanks for the tips! I did set the atti switch to rth in the naza assistant software. I didn't realize flipping the atti switch down all the way was what activated it.
 
I started with the blade. I did my upgrades on it before my first flight and had issuers with the flight board.
The phantom is much easier to upgrade and ever better you really don't need to make upgrades to have fun flights.
 

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