How do you fly your phantom?

I bought it first and foremost for photography. It's fun to fly, but it's so stable that flying is the easiest part of using it. It pretty much flies itself once you tell it what to do. If I wanted to really become the most skilled quad pilot I'd probably build a FPV-specific quad (camera on front, no gimbal), which I still might do.

When I fly, most of my practice is in framing shots and getting camera settings right. I do practice in my neighborhood but it's mostly just practice. I work on flying smoothly, keeping props out of shots, and getting close to targets without freaking out too badly. Having no depth perception when FPV flying really makes me nervous! Once I'm done practicing, the next step is to practice editing in Lightroom or in video editing software to get color grading right. This is all really helpful to me because when I get out into the field I know I have limited time to get a good shot and the more practiced I am, the better the odds that it will turn out well.

So far I have shot off boats, climbed 1KM up a mountain with the P3 on my back, and taken the P3 to the beaches and Mayan ruins of Mexico. When I'm on a boat, I want to minimize the time out over the water in case something goes wrong and when I'm in another country I want to get my shots before I attract too much attention. I still feel like a beginner with this hobby even after all that, so I keep reading tips and keep practicing! Happy flying!
 
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So far my three flights with my P3 have always followed the same format:

1. take off, do a controls check
2. fly to a distant local landmark (last night I flew to a point 1.5km away)
3. come back
4. burn the battery down to 30% by practicing maneuvers - banked turns, figures of 8, panning circles with me at the centre, hard stops etc.
5. get annoyed that I only have one battery

I used to do the same with my P2. I've noticed that the controls are much more 'fine'. This is probably down to the upgraded motors & reduced response times, but it's still noticeable, It's also much easier to pull off nice co-ordinated banked turns. It's a very satisfying thing to fly.
 
After few hours of training, property developer friend asked us to fly on island, take off and landing from boat, hand catch

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Went to a National Park last weekend, into the deep woods where there is not satellite signal to pick up. Realized it when the drone started drifting to the left when it should have been (in my mind) hovering in place. I almost hit a tree. Be careful. I am also very nervous when flying it closer to the ground because the perspective makes it appear it is getting lower when it is flying away from me. I certainly don't want to crash my baby.
 
Don't worry so much - there have been over a million personal drones sold in the past two years and the number of crashes is relatively small. People don't generally come to these forums to say "I had three more uneventful flights today".

I haven't flown a P3, so based on my experience with the P2, fly a few hours in ATTI mode. Then get some practice in Manual mode. (Throttle up when you switch to manual). When you can take off, fly and land in manual mode, then you are a better pilot.

Although I prefer to do my manual flying with the X5C. $65 I wouldn't want to lose, but $1k i wouldn't want to lose more.
 
Using the little stick thingies... :)

In all seriousness my attitude is that its already lost, so any time i get flying it is a bonus. Its kind of like the spaceships i fly in EvE... undock it and assume its lost... if it comes home its a bonus...

When our indoor cat got out and took flight on Tuesday night, and was AWOL for 24 hours, I wrote her off, too. Lucky for us, she did her own Return to Home Point, and drifted slowly back inside after 28 hours, for a safe landing with 10% battery left! Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the video to record her 28 hour "flight!" Now, that would have been a keeper! ;)
 
85% of my flying is just relaxing and what non-flyers would call "boring". 10% is trying new things like figure eights around soccer goal posts with the camera always aimed at the center or just other random flights to build my skills and confidence flying. 5% is either a paid gig or an attempt to land a paid gig.
 
85% of my flying is just relaxing and what non-flyers would call "boring". 10% is trying new things like figure eights around soccer goal posts with the camera always aimed at the center or just other random flights to build my skills and confidence flying. 5% is either a paid gig or an attempt to land a paid gig.


Just like real life pilots... except they get paid for the 95% boring routine and 5% sheer terror.
 

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