First flight

Codacious · Jul 26, 2014

Had my first two flights today! Everyone was completely right about giving it full throttle on the takeoff. I had a little bit of wind, but I am on an island in the Pacific, so takeoff and landing was a little shaky. Here's the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4I3uY5 ... IVZG8Da-dA

Elwood58 · Jul 26, 2014

Nice job. My first flight was Thursday. What a feeling.

Codacious · Jul 26, 2014

Yeah I was pumped, I had been waiting on the weather to get better, we just had another typhoon pass by and give me some killer winds. I just kept thinking "don't crash" I crashed a few of the rc helicopters in the past. I was amazed by how easy it was to fly! I only took it up to 100 feet, I didn't want to get too carried away on my first day.

Brettly · Jul 26, 2014

Nice and cautious first flight. Hope to do exactly the same next week. Congrats!

Catalina36 · Jul 26, 2014

Well done. Your experience flying helicopters shows. You started by flying with the rig facing you which reverses controls. You also did a pivot around a point. Tough to do if you are a newbie to R/C.

DownunderPhantom · Jul 26, 2014

Well done, the first flight is always the hardest. I did notice that you still have FPV mode selected, well it looks like it. If you want a smoother video deselect it in the app.

Cheers

Codacious · Jul 26, 2014

DownunderPhantom said:
Well done, the first flight is always the hardest. I did notice that you still have FPV mode selected, well it looks like it. If you want a smoother video deselect it in the app.

Cheers

Yeah, I was hoping to use FPV to gauge distance from objects. It didn't help, I kept thinking I was close to something and wouldn't be. It was kind of deceiving, I guess it just takes a ton of practice to get the great shots that I see on YouTube.

Dirty Bird · Jul 26, 2014

Congrats on your first flight & video. To get a feel for how far things are when viewing FPV, fly up on things that are physically close to you so you can see for yourself how much distance you really have between what you see in the FPV view and how far you actually are from the object.

Codacious · Jul 26, 2014

Dirty Bird said:
Congrats on your first flight & video. To get a feel for how far things are when viewing FPV, fly up on things that are physically close to you so you can see for yourself how much distance you really have between what you see in the FPV view and how far you actually are from the object.

How much practice will that take? lol I used to fly RC helicopters like the E-Razor 450-3D, and I never really cared if I got close to anything. I had no need considering I just flew it for fun, not to film. The first time I flew one of those, I treated it like I've been doing it for years and had a $200 crash. Considering the Phantom is twice the price of my old RC hobby, I figured I should take everything slow and do more as I gain experience with it. I guess not everyone thinks that way, or we wouldn't see all these crashes on YouTube.

Phantom_Menace66 · Jul 27, 2014

Dirty Bird said:
Congrats on your first flight & video. To get a feel for how far things are when viewing FPV, fly up on things that are physically close to you so you can see for yourself how much distance you really have between what you see in the FPV view and how far you actually are from the object.

To get an idea of how close my Phantom actually is to an object, I started the camera recording (no props or motors running) and carried it around the backyard, close to poles, chairs and anything else I could find to see just how close it really was to objects. I discovered it was further away from things than it actually looked on the video.... And I didn't crash it lol

Codacious · Jul 27, 2014

To get an idea of how close my Phantom actually is to an object, I started the camera recording (no props or motors running) and carried it around the backyard, close to poles, chairs and anything else I could find to see just how close it really was to objects. I discovered it was further away from things than it actually looked on the video.... And I didn't crash it lol[/quote]

Sounds like a good idea, I have been amazed how people fly theirs so close to stuff and the copter not even be in line of sight.

happydays · Jul 28, 2014

Nice one. Plenty of tall obstacles around that field. Wouldn't have been my choice for a first flight! Just goes to show that experience counts! I'd have whacked every pole at least once!

Codacious · Jul 28, 2014

happydays said:
Nice one. Plenty of tall obstacles around that field. Wouldn't have been my choice for a first flight! Just goes to show that experience counts! I'd have whacked every pole at least once!

lol My options were limited. I am currently living in Okinawa, Japan on a Marine Corps base. I didn't want my first flight to be near the ocean and since the island is pretty narrow, I chose a baseball field in the middle of it on base. I didn't really feel like my experience counted for much. I could do the figure 8 that the manual mentioned and a pivot, but I couldn't judge distance for anything. I am just used to flying around, not trying to get close to anything. I have never had anything out of sight, and I sure wish I had the option to come home with RC helicopters! It seems so rudimentary now flying those things, constant adjustments to keep them in the air! The Phantom almost flies itself! The best money I've spent so far!