New pilot asking for some advice

[Fyod]

Hey guys! Nice to meet the Phantom gang!
I recently bought a PII H3-3D and after some flights I have some woes and questions. I know I could find most answers here, but I'd like to be sure any answers are in regards to my setup:
Phantom II with H3 3D gimbal
GoPro H3+
ImmersionRC 600mw Tx
Black Pearl diversity TFT/Rx
iOSD mini
Xoodee landing gear

My first flights were admittedly a bit of a mess. I first scraped a prop starting too slowly, although I'm probably not the only one who's done that. But I decided to get some prop guards just in case. After some playing around, the Quad was flying really well, but I ran into prop wash upon descent and hit my car, which sent my car's roof antenna flying
I ran into prop wash again a couple times and the last time I hit concrete pretty darn hard from about 10 feet. The top shell got slightly out of place,but snapped right back in place. I have to say that the Phantom is very well built!
So my first question is if prop wash is that common even when descending slowly (~2ft/s) and if this could've been caused by the guards.
I decided to take the gaurds off because I had a notion they could be the culprit (plus they're 75 grams).
I also hated the landing gear (although very tough) because when the gimbal resets or the Phantom is off, I don't like the GoPro hitting the ground, and also the landing gear seems too centered to me. I was going to buy the wider/higher DJI gear, but found the cool carbon Xoodee(?) replacement instead. I just installed that today and it is very stiff, yet allows some outward flex (for harder landings), so it seems really good. I couldn't find much info about this gear, maybe because it's also sold under another product name is the US/UK.
I have also done all firmware uprgrades and the software is nice and easy to work with.
Oh and I plasti-dip sprayed the top shell to give it some character :twisted:

An important question regarding the new gear is having to placed the compass in a different postion. It isn't vertical like it was on the old gear and also higher up (closer to the body). I placed it on the side of the adjustible landing gear arm (picture above, but other side). Will this be an issue? I did a software compass recalibration today in hope that that would do the trick, but I can place the compass vertically if needed.

Most importantly though, I have to admit I'm a chicken. How do you guys that have never flown aerial RCs get over that gut feeling you shouldn't have $1500 buzzing above your head? How do you gain maximum faith that nothing should go wrong? I've been watching youtube videos with PII's flying 2 miles away and over water and those clips make my brain itch

I appeciate any suggestions

 

[Haze]

Prop Wash from itself at 10 feet? Its not that powerful to effect the wind that much at 10 feet, even so at 3-5 i dont notice much at all? I have had some small little hickups in landing and Nicked a few props. and one tight area flying i crashed into a wall lol but from 1 foot up so its all good lol. but no 10 foot drops from so called pro wash.

my tips to u for fly high For my first flights with monitor, I just Flew Up and Down For a While to get used to Not Having to look at the phantom 2 and then just go straight up watching telemetry and video signal and GPS will hold u in Position and today my new record is 400 m 1350 feet straight up and thats small to most people. in my area for video signal with the 600mw immersion i get 400m then video signal is pretty bad. If you have gone in and activated Home lock and Course lock i know some people that have flown for 8 -10 mins in 1 direction(with good height), lose video signal at about 2 min or like 700m and fly on with out video signal after 8-10 min then turn on home lock and come home and have got pretty darn far like 2-3 kilometers and such. (I havent done it).

I am About to upgrade my system with lightbridge and that should be fun with full hd signal for like 1.7 k- Learning futaba 14sg controller is lots to learn though before i fly it with Lightbridge.

Next i want to see someones video Getting as high as they can with the battery like 1-2 kilometer high if it can. and just before battery is about to go red turn off props drop for a bit to save battery and then turn back on level out and land lol it will self level itself so lol

I FLy the P2- 600mw Immersion -Black Pearl Diversity -iOSD Mini -h32d Gimbol gopro hero3+ - Carbon Fiber Props (as of today).(New Owner of lightbridge just not setup yet)

 

[pc_porter]

Do you have a link for where you found the landing gear, looks nice.

 

[Fyod]

http://shop.rc-now.com/products/Multico ... OM-V2.html
Looks like I bout the last set. 85 grams is pretty close to stock weight iirc.
I have to say it is very well made and really light (thin walled carbon). Except they forgot some leg endings, or I may have left them in the package.
Also like the angle adjustment. This landing gear could be modded to be electronically lifted after takeoff.

Problem is whenever I google it, no more info comes up. There are some very similar sets ou there that have less angle adjustment.

I've read up on the compass and will fab a compass mount using the old landing gear to keep the compass at stock position, being unsure of the possible errors.

 

[pc_porter]

I would not think it would make a difference, as long as you calibrate I would think it should be fine. Of course I am new as well so don't take my word for it. I just got my Phantom 2 hd3d and gopro last weekend so I am also very nervous about thousands of dollars floating in the sky. I think the more you fly the more comfortable you will get... I hope so at least.

 

[WessexWyvern]

You can get wind shear or mechanical turbulence at any altitude. Without seeing what happened I would guess that was the cause of instability that you describe as prop wash. If you hit your car does that mean you were near a building? Obstacles messing up the laminar flow of air can cause mechanical turbulence - it's happened to me more than once but I have been high enough up that it recovered before being problematic and as you suggest, the prop guards may have contributed as they increase the Phantoms profile into the wind. I don't think it should put you off using them though if you think they might be useful.
If you don't do this already, try deciding on an altitude above the ground that you are going to descend to (say 6-8 feet), give the aircraft a moment to stabalise and then make a slow descent to the ground.

I'm not entirely convinced that calibrating the compass will offset it being at an angle. There is a compass error called magnetic dip error which occurs when an aircraft (and therefore compass) banks and it varies depending on which heading you are turning on to. It effects floating compasses but I can't honestly say whether it effects digital compasses but I am unsure enough to be a little hesitant to try out the extended landing gear that I purchased recently. I've no doubt that when it is calibrated it will be correct for the heading that the calibration started and finished at but there could be some errors on other headings but that is pure speculation on my part. That said there seem to be people who are using extended landing gear successfully. I plan to test it with some low level flying over grass and gradually increase the height and intensity of maneuvers. Hope that helps.

 

[ianwood]

An important question regarding the new gear is having to placed the compass in a different postion. It isn't vertical like it was on the old gear and also higher up (closer to the body). I placed it on the side of the adjustible landing gear arm (picture above, but other side). Will this be an issue?

Yes. The compass needs to be aligned in all three axes. It needs to be away from the body where there are electro-mechanical and ferrous interference risks. You are at serious risk of a flyaway with the compass as you have it.

There is a compass error called magnetic dip error which occurs when an aircraft (and therefore compass) banks and it varies depending on which heading you are turning on to.

This is correct. All compasses are effected by attitudinal position. You can apply tilt compensation to the readings of a digital compass assuming a given orientation. Moving the compass independently of the vehicle will cause the tilt compensation to no longer be accurate.

 

[RoyceSims]

The easy solution for avoiding the hard landings and tipping over on the ground is bring it down to about 4' to 5' off of the landing spot and then reach out and grab it by the landing gear and then power it down . I picked this trick up from a phantom pro from the california .

 

[N017RW]

The easy solution for avoiding the hard landings and tipping over on the ground is bring it down to about 4' to 5' off of the landing spot and then reach out and grab it by the landing gear and then power it down . I picked this trick up from a phantom pro from the california .

Well you really should learn to land.

It's not hard and if you can't safely approach the ground why would you put yourself in it's place?

 

[Fyod]

Here's my new compass holder:

Did a software compass recalibration.
Did a test flight half an hour ago with some slight wind and the quad is VERY stable. No problems at all.
So at this point I'm very happy with the setup. The landing gear even provides slight downward flex.