Long distant flights??

reALIGNed · Jan 1, 2014

I've seen videos of people flying above clouds, some say they are hitting the 3000 ft. mark. My question is, how far can the stock Phantom fly (distance between the tx and rx) before it looses its signal?
My understanding is it only has a 1000 ft range and once lost, the quad will rth. Btw, I'm not getting into any discussions about FAA, "shouldn't be flying so high", exceeding the AMA 400' rule, nor fly-aways, etc. I'm just curious how these altitudes are obtainable. Thanks

LandYachtMedia · Jan 1, 2014

If you are going to talk about what is possible you need to reference "density altitude". That gives you a number that is corrected for temperature and elevation above sea level.

As a practical discussion if you were near sea level you could certainly make it to 3000 based on the prop loading of a Phantom. If you were at Vail Colorado you may struggle with much of anything more than a basic hover.

I expect based on the stated performance something in the range of 11,000' density altitude would be the limit for one of these. And then it wouldn't fly well nor would the battery last long.

Edit:
It wouldn't be difficult to do some antenna hacking to make multi-kilometer possible for the control link.

hjscm · Jan 1, 2014

well i got out a little over 1.5 miles and up about 2,725 feet AGL. started out at 6,085 ASL. this was with a P2 stock rx but bonded to a futaba 8fg. 600mw 5.8vtx and 9 turn helical antenna on goggles. hit fail safe at around 2435 meters. using iosd thats why its in meters. can't change to feet.

reALIGNed · Jan 1, 2014

distance was the question. I realize air density and the ability for the props to "pull" through it, but when they exceed the assumed 300m distance (and beyond), why doesn't the qaud rth? And I'm referring to a stock Phantom, no antenna mods.

LandYachtMedia · Jan 1, 2014

I've read a good bit of discussion that the consensus is around 1000 meters is the limit for the control link.

hjscm · Jan 1, 2014

stock P1 1000m is pretty close. i have one and i have gone around 3,900 feet away at 150 ASL. sometimes i get less sometimes i can get a little more. but with having go pro and vtx i am only getting about 7.5 minutes of flight time. with stock tx on P2 i was able to get about 1 mile, but it has 2 antenna and diversity rx.

reALIGNed · Jan 1, 2014

so if dji is saying its communication distance is 1000m, its most likely for safety's sake? so now I wonder what the true "distance" is before it goes to the failsafe mode. No way am I going to test it, but some of the on board videos are pretty impressive.

Driffill · Jan 2, 2014

LandYachtMedia said:
If you are going to talk about what is possible you need to reference "density altitude". That gives you a number that is corrected for temperature and elevation above sea level.

As a practical discussion if you were near sea level you could certainly make it to 3000 based on the prop loading of a Phantom. If you were at Vail Colorado you may struggle with much of anything more than a basic hover.

I expect based on the stated performance something in the range of 11,000' density altitude would be the limit for one of these. And then it wouldn't fly well nor would the battery last long.

Edit:
It wouldn't be difficult to do some antenna hacking to make multi-kilometer possible for the control link.

I somehow don't think many people really care about temp or sea level when they are watch a high altitude video on YouTube.

If you look around this forum enough you'll find a v1 phantom has been flown at 11,000ft and the op of that thread said he felt it could go higher.

Again, browsing around will also show the thread of those who have modified the tx antennas to achieve extreme range.