Frozen Phantom

[DrJoe]

Finally replacing my P2V+ which was lost due to a compass/GPS error, I have been gradually stretching the P3 Pro’s legs. Today I felt it was ready for a real test.

Flying firmware 1.6 and with DJI GO 2.4.3. Calibrated R/C, IMU and compass. No antenna mods done, but I did add a Polar Pro gimbal guard, ND filter, Killer RC gimbal clamp, a Trackimo and a Getterback. Not one of things would have helped me much if the Phantom decided to land/crash on the ice.

I looked up the weather on uavforecast.com, all was green except kp index, which was a 5 (higher than I usually see), so I was concerned about interference with GPS, but it proved to be no issue. I flew out from the shoreline of mainland Toms River, New Jersey out across the frozen bay to the barrier island town of Lavallette, NJ just shy of 2 miles across the water.

I flew at an altitude of 50-100 feet. Even at this low altitude, I never lost signal (not even a stutter) and the bird flew beautifully, with none of the vibration or oscillations I have read about (It is a newer model with the –A designation).

The gimbal performed well, with no shake or jello, but it does have that DJI “loss of level” when turning… disappointing. I haven’t calibrated the gimbal, but I plan to and will try and get it better. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

I’m not usually a distance flyer and I do like to stay in LOS, but the bay at this time of year is devoid of anything to hit, and I did want to test the distance limit to fail, but I never reached a distance that provided any stutter or loss of signal! I still can’t believe it went 2 miles away out of the box! The battery was over 52% when I landed back on shore after the round trip.

All that is left is to play with the camera settings until I find the sweet spot for editing… I’m going to upgrade my graphics card to allow better editing of 4K… I guess I’ll shoot in 4K now so that I will have it as time goes on, though I did record the flight today at 1080P 60fps, which my old Premiere Elements likes. I might have to upgrade that to Premier CC, but $29/mo is steep. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

All in all, I have to say I am pretty impressed with the P3 Pro platform, I just hope DJI doesn’t screw up this GEO implementation, and that FAA goes after all the local municipalities trying to restrict the airspace. Adventure awaits!

 

[RedHotPoker]

What was Frozen?

RedHotPoker

 

[DrJoe]

My fingers, my legs, the bay I flew over and the Phantom! It didn't have a battery issue or a slow down in performance, but I was shivering by the end of this flight. 30 degrees.

 

[RedHotPoker]

Thermal undies, polar fleece gloves, wool toque, got you covered... Hahaha, if you can't stand the cold, get out of the deep freeze. ;-)

I can certainly relate, living in mid N. Central Alberta.
Spring is just around the next bend...of the ice road.

RedHotPoker

 

[Phantom751874]

4 miles straight out is about the limit of the battery to 10%, some get a little more, I never lost RC or Video signal, it's an amazing piece of tech.

 

[DrJoe]

Ok, I can't even compete with that level of cold. Can't wait for the Alaska people to chime in. For us East coast, mid-atlantic US residents, its cold.

 

[SCGENE]

Just shared your flight on my Facebook page, maybe I will get the nerves to make a distance flight soon with P3A, a little more favorable weather here in South Carolina if only we could get a dry weekend.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Sweet & nice video.! Things have come a long way since the Vision+!

Finally replacing my P2V+ which was lost due to a compass/GPS error, I have been gradually stretching the P3 Pro’s legs. Today I felt it was ready for a real test.

Flying firmware 1.6 and with DJI GO 2.4.3. Calibrated R/C, IMU and compass. No antenna mods done, but I did add a Polar Pro gimbal guard, ND filter, Killer RC gimbal clamp, a Trackimo and a Getterback. Not one of things would have helped me much if the Phantom decided to land/crash on the ice.

I looked up the weather on uavforecast.com, all was green except kp index, which was a 5 (higher than I usually see), so I was concerned about interference with GPS, but it proved to be no issue. I flew out from the shoreline of mainland Toms River, New Jersey out across the frozen bay to the barrier island town of Lavallette, NJ just shy of 2 miles across the water.

I flew at an altitude of 50-100 feet. Even at this low altitude, I never lost signal (not even a stutter) and the bird flew beautifully, with none of the vibration or oscillations I have read about (It is a newer model with the –A designation).

The gimbal performed well, with no shake or jello, but it does have that DJI “loss of level” when turning… disappointing. I haven’t calibrated the gimbal, but I plan to and will try and get it better. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

I’m not usually a distance flyer and I do like to stay in LOS, but the bay at this time of year is devoid of anything to hit, and I did want to test the distance limit to fail, but I never reached a distance that provided any stutter or loss of signal! I still can’t believe it went 2 miles away out of the box! The battery was over 52% when I landed back on shore after the round trip.

All that is left is to play with the camera settings until I find the sweet spot for editing… I’m going to upgrade my graphics card to allow better editing of 4K… I guess I’ll shoot in 4K now so that I will have it as time goes on, though I did record the flight today at 1080P 60fps, which my old Premiere Elements likes. I might have to upgrade that to Premier CC, but $29/mo is steep. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

All in all, I have to say I am pretty impressed with the P3 Pro platform, I just hope DJI doesn’t screw up this GEO implementation, and that FAA goes after all the local municipalities trying to restrict the airspace. Adventure awaits!

 

[shorttimer]

Ok, I can't even compete with that level of cold. Can't wait for the Alaska people to chime in. For us East coast, mid-atlantic US residents, its cold.

Growing up in northern WI we would always say WI has 4 seasons: Summer, almost winter, winter and still winter.

 

[KAOS Imagery]

@DrJoe - Nice video! BTW, there are alternatives to Premiere Pro CC - you can do quite a bit of video editing in Photoshop and the photographer's CC subscription is $9.99 for PS and LightRoom (great for stills). There is also a free version of DaVinci Resolve which is supposed to be very good. If you or anyone in your household is a student, you can get the whole Adobe CC for 29.99. And there are other options, suggest you google some video forums.

 

[dtitus6297]

Finally replacing my P2V+ which was lost due to a compass/GPS error, I have been gradually stretching the P3 Pro’s legs. Today I felt it was ready for a real test.

Flying firmware 1.6 and with DJI GO 2.4.3. Calibrated R/C, IMU and compass. No antenna mods done, but I did add a Polar Pro gimbal guard, ND filter, Killer RC gimbal clamp, a Trackimo and a Getterback. Not one of things would have helped me much if the Phantom decided to land/crash on the ice.

I looked up the weather on uavforecast.com, all was green except kp index, which was a 5 (higher than I usually see), so I was concerned about interference with GPS, but it proved to be no issue. I flew out from the shoreline of mainland Toms River, New Jersey out across the frozen bay to the barrier island town of Lavallette, NJ just shy of 2 miles across the water.

I flew at an altitude of 50-100 feet. Even at this low altitude, I never lost signal (not even a stutter) and the bird flew beautifully, with none of the vibration or oscillations I have read about (It is a newer model with the –A designation).

The gimbal performed well, with no shake or jello, but it does have that DJI “loss of level” when turning… disappointing. I haven’t calibrated the gimbal, but I plan to and will try and get it better. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

I’m not usually a distance flyer and I do like to stay in LOS, but the bay at this time of year is devoid of anything to hit, and I did want to test the distance limit to fail, but I never reached a distance that provided any stutter or loss of signal! I still can’t believe it went 2 miles away out of the box! The battery was over 52% when I landed back on shore after the round trip.

All that is left is to play with the camera settings until I find the sweet spot for editing… I’m going to upgrade my graphics card to allow better editing of 4K… I guess I’ll shoot in 4K now so that I will have it as time goes on, though I did record the flight today at 1080P 60fps, which my old Premiere Elements likes. I might have to upgrade that to Premier CC, but $29/mo is steep. We’ll see what the forums have to say about this.

All in all, I have to say I am pretty impressed with the P3 Pro platform, I just hope DJI doesn’t screw up this GEO implementation, and that FAA goes after all the local municipalities trying to restrict the airspace. Adventure awaits!

Nice flight, I am also located in nj. I have done some cool flights from ocean city nj but I don't go over the water too much...only small spots and such, never large areas like that I don't have the balls for it.
The cold weather really stinks to fly in, I hate gloves while flying but it's almost a necessity sometimes

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[robinb]

Bloody hell the sea has ice bergs on it.

Thats cold

Love the music track as well.

 

[Wolfiesden]

My fingers, my legs, the bay I flew over and the Phantom! It didn't have a battery issue or a slow down in performance, but I was shivering by the end of this flight. 30 degrees.

Rofl! 30 degrees? I wish it was that warm on my first flight! Ambient was 12F.

Take a look at about 0:35. At 12F, its not cold enough yet for me to wear long pants Yea, I am that crazy

Second flight:

During the first flight the granddaughter in this video was in the shower. After this video when we went in, her hair where it was sticking out of her coat was frozen solid. From warm wet to frozen solid...~3 minutes.

 

[Wolfiesden]

Growing up in northern WI we would always say WI has 4 seasons: Summer, almost winter, winter and still winter.

Kidding me? We only have 2 seasons here....
8 months of Winter and 4 Months of Road Repair

 

[shorttimer]

Kidding me? We only have 2 seasons here....
8 months of Winter and 4 Months of Road Repair

Yea, I was a lot north of there, about 300 miles. About 60 miles north of Eau Claire. Used to work in Milwaukee, actually Waukesha for DEC - Digital Equipment back in the dark ages, in the 70s.

 

[shorttimer]

Bloody hell the sea has ice bergs on it.

Thats cold

Love the music track as well.

Better the sea have the icebergs than your P3A.