First flight experiences where all went well.

Joined
Dec 15, 2013
Messages
294
Reaction score
0
Location
Laguna Hills, Orange county, CA 92653
Good Flights, where the P2V performed exactly as it should.

My first real Phantom 2 Vision flights today, in our severe 75 degree
winter weather. A beautiful day, about 7 liftoffs and landings, with
3 return-to-home (failsafe) landings, recovering control on the 3rd RTH.

The P2V behaved well, with 9 to 11 GPS satellites locked.
Easy to fly in Vision mode, but it does not need to be very far
away for one to lose any sense of depth perception... as in
will it hit the wall, lamp post, tree, etc. I can see that FPV will
be important here, needing better Android screen brightness
in sunlight, and possibly a hood. Even with the sun behind me,
it was difficult to see the video.

In all, a fun start, and I an so very pleased to join the many others
of you very helpful Phantom 2V Fliers.
Thanks for your encouragement, and kindness.
Cheers, Gary
 
Is this not absolutely the coolest??? Flying my PV is the most fun I've ever had while upright!!! Glad you had a great maiden flight !
 
Don't turn it off, then Shrimpfarmer - just fly it away from you in a straight line until you lose control signal. It'll start to do the RTH for you, then as soon as you come back into range just flip S1 to retake control if you want, or watch it do its thing and land where it took off.

Slightly less nervewracking than switching the tx off...!
 
Pull_Up said:
Don't turn it off, then Shrimpfarmer - just fly it away from you in a straight line until you lose control signal. It'll start to do the RTH for you, then as soon as you come back into range just flip S1 to retake control if you want, or watch it do its thing and land where it took off.

Slightly less nervewracking than switching the tx off...!

Every time I start that process, my nads tighten and the pucker begins. Maybe I'm too much of a control freak?

I dunno. I was fearless with this thing until I nearly lost it due to impatience and noobness. Now... whenever it gets so far out that I lose orientation, I very quietly freak out, just a bit, and slowly reel it back in.

This is just not like me. Once the weather breaks and I can get in a bunch of flights in a row, I'm sure I'll break out of this, and get back to my usual, slightly gonzo, exuberant self. (So... I should probably just buy another one and keep it in the box, for the inevitable moment when I auger this one in at full speed...)

-slinger
 
Pull_Up said:
Don't turn it off, then Shrimpfarmer - just fly it away from you in a straight line until you lose control signal. It'll start to do the RTH for you, then as soon as you come back into range just flip S1 to retake control if you want, or watch it do its thing and land where it took off.

Slightly less nervewracking than switching the tx off...!

He will likely loose FPV Range before loosing Control Range, so maybe not the best suggestion :p Turning the control off is a good enough test of the Return to Home function and should something to awry he'll at least have the bird in visual range.
 
Another half dozen flights, totaling 70% of a full battery, on a baseball field's outfield.
Just practicing going forward and back, left and right, doing a circle with some forward stick,
and a bit of slow yaw, my second coordinated maneuver. The first was a descent from
about 150 feet, sliding a bit L, R, F, B to avoid descending directly down into turbulent air.

Coming down slowly was very smooth, but descending a bit faster seemed to cause a side to side
wobble, which I have read can result in a full tumbling of the P2V if it is allowed to continue.
So, I tried slipping while descending, which is also part of better controlling the landing location.

With a more speedy traverse, but not nearly as fast as is possible, the P2V seemed to skid when the
traverse was halted. To minimize the skid, a momentary bit of reverse traverse, to kill the P2V's
momentum, seemed to be a substantial help in getting it to stabilize in the new location.

Seeing the small smartphone screen is difficult.

So, I am learning slowly, with a lot of more experience needed.
 
Congratulations Garygid - it is really surprisingly FUN isn't it. P2V is my first RC too - so far 13 successful flights. I have tested RTH quite a few times by turning the Tx off, but haven't yet just flown away. I had a couple times where I was high and a little far (600') and got the control signal lost message but it reacquired quickly before triggering RTH.

Now you can update your sig!
 
Sig updated, Thanks,

To prepare for risking the P2V, I bought a much less expensive HPHELI Quad from
http://www.hobbypeople.net/index.php/qu ... -heli.html
to give me some practice at the controls of a Quadcopter.

Apparently this modest size Quad is similar to other popular Ready to Fly quads,
and I have crashed it about 30 times so far. It is much more difficult to fly than
the P2V in Vision mode, probably similar to the P2V's Manual mode.

However, it is fun, non-trivial, includes battery, charger, and transmitter,
and 4 spare propellers. This could be flown indoors, and will not tolerate
very much breeze, lest it totally be swept away. However, it has a RTG
failsafe, which is just turn off the propellers and let it fall. Yes...
Return to Ground.
 
Using mini/micro quads to learn/practice is a great idea. As you say they are much trickier than Phantoms as they have no aids except a gyro (same as Vision in manual mode) and they need to be constantly flown in a hands-on way. It makes transitioning to a Vision, say, seem very straightforward! With a bit more practice they are also excellent tools for learning to fly nose-in - i.e. with the aircraft front facing you. When you do that the control response is effectively reversed - you push right, and from your point of view it moves left. Comes in handing when you are flying the Vision for video and it's coming towards you, you instinctively make corrections or turns in the proper direction because you got the nose-in muscle memory from the little quad.

Above all that, it keeps you sane and flight-practised when like me you've had no Vision time for almost 3 weeks due to nearly constant gales and rain. :(
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,359
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers