My DJI Phantom 2 arrived today

[Yelgir]

My DJI Phantom 2 arrived this morning only 18 hours after buying it online. Of course I hadn't ordered a gimbal or GPS tracker so I stuck on my GoPro Hero 3 (Black Edition) onto my P2 with a standard GoPro mount.

I did a manual calibration before my first flight and to my amazement it actually took off and landed in one piece. I haven't been able to get the Home Lock to work and when I switch to CL (Course Lock) nothing changed. This may have been due to poor GPS reception but I'll experiment more tomorrow.

I'm a qualified pilot and have a few hours under my belt in Ultralite Aircraft so I'm familiar with terminology and the physics of flying but my biggest problem is orientation, I keep loosing my orientation of the UAV. Does anyone have any useful tips to help me figure out which way my UAV is pointing? I can't see the tape or lights once it's more than 50M away.

I have ordered a gimbal, GPS tracker and a Fat Shark Vision System which I believe will help me see where my Ps is pointing but I'd be grateful for any hints until the Fat Shark arrives.

 

[Ton4]

I have PPL and 500 hrs on a Cessna 182, it didn't help

Actually having flown a "normal" aircraft works against you. Normally throttle is on the right, and attitude is on the left (hand).

With mode 2 tx's its the other way around.

I find myself doing the wrong thing when I need to react quickly. A RC quadcopter simulator (I use Phoenix RC) helps to rewire the brain a bit and with the orientation thing.

If you have GPS reception, IOC is enabled in the firmware (have to do that!) and you are somewhat away, Home Lock and Course Lock should work. If the Phantom comes near you, it switches IOC off.

to my amazement it actually took off and landed in one piece

I know the feeling :lol:

Take it easy with the FPV, its easy to get "carried away", and wires are not always easy to spot.

 

[Ton4]

Oh and a benefit of the fatshark is that you can mount it on a carbon fpv tx holder at the back, so your phantom gets a little tail. So, even when you are not using the fatshark, it can help a bit with orientation

 

[ElGuano]

The brighter it is, the harder it will be to make out the orientation of the quad.

There are a few solution people use--you can add a really bright LED puck to the front or back. You could also take the big leap to going FPV (I imagine a lot of real pilots like this approach). A marginally effective, low-tech option is to paint the front or back half of the quad a really high-contrast color (like black front, white back). I'm not a fan of the aesthetic, but it gets you a few dozen more meters.

I don't recall if the P2 has IOC controls, but if Naza mode supports it, you can flip the quad into home lock and pull back on the stick until it gets close enough to see the blinking LEDs.