Milestone: 200th P3P Flight & some stats

[Sky King]

Just reached the 200th flight threshold today! I've had 2 crashes, into trees, my fault. (no camera damage) 1 shell swap. Zero flyaways. (always use Trackimo just in case) 1 international trip to Israel and flew it there over the Sea of Galilee with no problems. No problems checking it as baggage.

Battery break down:

#1a 52 charges (a couple of extremely low voltage warnings)
#1b 43 charges (zero low voltage warnings)
#2a 8 charges
#2b 4 charges

No cracks and only tightened a few screws once as needed.
MANY flights over water both low and high altitude.

 

[R2-D2]

Congrats Sky King, how do those numbers add up to 200? Did you get 200 flights on about 100 charges?

 

[III% Streve]

A "flight" is a power cycle. Not a recharge. And a charge is not plugging in a 60% battery and charging to 100%. Its a cumulative charge equaling 100%. The math is never right, somewhat unfortunately.

 

[Sky King]

Congrats Sky King, how do those numbers add up to 200? Did you get 200 flights on about 100 charges?

Yes. Not all flights were on one complete battery charge. Some were multiple flights on one battery. Some flights were more stationary taking time lapse pics, POI shots etc.

I have 30 hrs 15 min flying time
Total distance is 623,000ft (118mi)

 

[R2-D2]

Right on!

I hope to see more posts like these with well over 200 flights and less, 'I crashed my P3P posts'. What you said is kind of what I had figured. I only have about 15 flights, I had 15 more but they got deleted when I rolled back my IOS software. I usually try to land the bird around 40% so I have that extra time on the battery to later run video tests, simulator and other stuff. After reading about all of these crashes where the pilot took off around 53% and it went crazy. I'm only taking off with full batterys from now on.

 

[RoyVa]

Good pre flight check lists pay off. Full battery is #1

 

[Sky King]

Good pre flight check lists pay off. Full battery is #1

My main flight check list is: Start up Trackimo & stick it to current batt; Turn on P3P & WAIT until I have at least 14-15 sat.; Listen for the "Home point has been set" prompt; Check batt percentage; Auto take off & hold for about 15-30 sec; Climb to about 20-30ft and hold for about 15 sec; Check sats again and then commence my sortie. I've never had a problem since using this procedure.

 

[phantomlova]

no compass calibration ?!?!?!

 

[johngussman]

I am around 250 flights with the P3P over the last 5 months with no big surprises, and never an issue that would cause a crash. I have a lot of faith in this little bird now, but in the back of my mind always worry a bit with all flights and suppose this is a good thing to keep me from getting sloppy.

 

[Sky King]

no compass calibration ?!?!?!

I don't unless I my location changes many miles.