Newbie Questions

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I am a drone newbie and am trying to educate myself.
I have few questions that hopefully someone can answer for me.
1) I am looking at getting the Phantom 3 Standard, is this a good starter drone?
2) Does the DJI pilot app use data from your cell phone, so do I need a larger data plan with my provider.
3) Suggestions for best mobile device to use
4) You must register with the FAA, the cost is 5$ for 3 years?

Thanks for any and all help,
 
its awesome bird easy to due dji go app eats up battery in phone fast best mobile I use a niveda shield k1 works great what dji suggest and yes must register with faa
 
Yes the standard is good starter drone but if it's your first I would buy a small quadcopter first just to get familiar with actually flying it. In GPS mode the Phantom is actually quite easy to fly. You can practice in ATTi mode but it can be an expensive crash.

Yes the DJI Go uses cellular data. It's used by the maps and it is minimal. Many pilots put their tablet in airplane mode when they fly. This prevents that from happening. You should also kill all the other apps that are running on your phone when flying, BTW.

Tablet recommendations for the Phantom 3 can be found here.

On the FAA registration, yes. Here is a a good thread about that
 
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On the tablet, many people have recommended the Nvidia Shield K1 (Android). It's about $200 and comes with the necessary GPS for "Follow Me" mode
 
I don't have cell service on my tablet so it doesn't use any at all
 
I used wifi from home router to load dji app after that deleted home setting bird only hooks thru wifi thru bird not cell service
 
Welcome aboard RJBJ - you will find tons of info related to flying, filming and all the do's and don'ts on here....

As to increasing your data plan - your Phantom, the RC and your device when connected don't use chargeable data - its more or less a private link-up

Videos or pictures streamed to your phone from the Phantom won't be using your cellular signal (you can turn on Airplane mode also when flying). They are transferred from your Phantom's onboard micro sd card then through the range extender to tablet or phone. Therefore, no cell towers are involved - you can even fly without your sim card in the phone since it is not needed. If you check your data usage at all for your phone regularly - you will see usage by DJI - it is recorded, but it is NOT chargeable data!

EDIT: The only cellular data being used is the map caching and data transfer - but that is very minimal!
 
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The P3S is a great starter drone (I can attest to that, as it was my first quad larger than about 60mm! However, if your budget allows, I would step up to a P3 Advanced, as I constantly regret not doing so. :(
 

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