Night flight, I'm addicted

[Hovtech]

I'm addicted to night flights. There is nothing like sending my bird up and no matter how high or far, you can still see it. The other great benefit is you can see and read your screen perfectly. I take her up to about 6-700 ft and go left, then when I think it has gone far enough turn 180 degrees and let it rip across the night sky. It looks so cool in the dark.

Last night it got 2000 ft away and lost signal (for some reason the signal does not go as far at night). It was in return home mode, but not coming back as I looked at the screen numbers. Oh, oh, battery down to 50% and it's just a dot in the night sky. When it's RTH it does not give itself a lot of forward speed so a strong wind was taking it away according to my readout. I have to reestablish control to give it full throttle back to me. The radar is soooo helpful at this point. Flicking S1 to try to reconnect as I also moved the extender up and down a bit. It would reconnect for 10 seconds, and then lose again. I could tell I was fighting a strong wind. Battery 45%, yikes I better get this bird home. By the grace of the drone gods I got a connection long enough to give it full throttle home and get a strong enough connection to get it back to safe distance for the connection. Battery 33% (never go up with less than a full battery. You don't know what winds you will encounter). When it landed I gave it a hug. Close call, but what a rush.

BTW, I live out in almost the country so I'm not bothering anyone. Cool videos though.

 

[jodaddy23]

so whats a few thousand calls about a ufo gonna hurt ..

 

[Hovtech]

so whats a few thousand calls about a ufo gonna hurt ..

This area needs a little excitement

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

My mother in law writes for the Astronomy Ireland magazine and she gets lots of reports of flashing red and green lights moving so erratically across the night sky that there is no way it could be a plane or helicopter. Straight away her reply is "I bet it's a phantom" she then points them to a few links to my night time videos. Most reply thats what they saw. To be honest I know a few of the reports that came into her were caused by me on the northside of Dublin

 

[pyrophantom]

I love flying at dusk, it looks like a UFO. I have just fitted a navigation strobe but havent tried it yet to see how it looks at dusk

 

[midwestjeff]

Yikes!! These stories make my stomach hurt!! Has anyone tried using course lock to bring them back when they are far instead of RTH? Its alot faster and then you can use RTH if needed once closer.

 

[thall17]

Don't know how you guys feel comfortable flying over 400'. I have gone 350' once and almost crapped myself. I also agree that 3500' while impressive is just not safe....

 

[Aqeel200]

hi guys. got a Q from a newbie.

For night flight video, what is the camera setting u guys use? I tried several manual camera setting and it still not up to mark. I set the ISO was set to 400 for night video. Appreciate the opinion/guidance.

 

[CRankin]

3500ft??? Not see something wrong here??? Do you have an IQ of 12???
Its idiots like you that make me want proper and full regulations to govern our hobby and in cases livelihoods. Hopefully you will lose or destroy your phantom soon an not bother getting another one because we dont need your kind ruining it for everyone else.

I'd take no regulations and a country full of people doing this over having any government get involved. It's bad enough here in the states with the FAA thinking they have some right to deny people the ability to use their UAVs for commercial use. The last thing we need to do is empower the bureaucrats, when we should be firing them.

That said, I'd agree that the story you commented on is an example of reckless/irresponsible use of the the Phantom. Some might call me risk-averse, but I get a bit nervous every time I take mine up over a couple hundred feet. I don't like the thought of having something that expensive crashing down and breaking into little bits, so I'm generally fairly cautious when flying.

 

[golgotha]

I know of a large population of the RC hobbyist community regularly doing 12k feet altitude FPV with modded skywalker's and no spotter.

Time to get off your high horse methinks.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[golgotha]

Its idiots like you that make me want proper and full regulations to govern our hobby...

You're not a representative of "our hobby" and calling other hobbyists idiots is proof of that.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Hovtech]

Both sides are right about this issue. And I agree with both sides. So I guess that leaves me in the middle. :roll: I'm sure we will see a day where government drones patrol the sky and shoot down any of our drones they see. Pretty much as our government does overseas. How long before they hunt people here with armed drones? My point is I'm going to have fun with my drone, cautiously, until they shoot me.

 

[sting808]

To stay closer OT...

I use these for night flying.
http://www.centuryheli.com/products/pro ... nm=HWC2044

This version has a controller to change pattern, brightness, & duration. Usually, I leave it on a slow pulsing("breathe") pattern. Makes it a lot easier to fly LOS. Small and "big" kids like to watch. Defuses the paranoia about "drones" and privacy when they see the quad brightly lit and general received perception as a "toy".

Caveats...
1) Need to solder a main power supply connection for P2V & P2V+. I used a 3-pin micro Deans I ran next to the compass cable on the landing skid.

2) The 3rd party prop gurads that comes with the kit has narrow rims. The LED strip doesn't fit well. I swapped the prop guards with OE DJI ones and the led strip fits much better. 3M multi-use tape(red) helps hold the strips in place.

3) Run time with 20% battery left was around 16-18 minutes for both P2V & P2v+.

 

[Hovtech]

OK for sure UFO calls to the police with that set up :lol:

 

[Double-D]

@Hovteck your comment 'by the grace of the drone gods' got me laughing. The rest of your story had me on the edge of my seat.

Sent from my GT-I9305T using Tapatalk

 

[Sasquatch]

A very interesting thread and subject indeed. These drones DO look like UFO's with all their bright and flashing lights! I love the idea and concept of night flying, but I'll probably never attempt it. Maybe at dusk or close to sunset for a bit though. I've watched several very cool and risky videos of phantom flyers piloting their birds at night, in big cities. Of course this is frowned upon too by many enthusiasts for being unsafe and drawing unwanted attention to the aircraft and hobby.

Still, fun to think about and try using extreme caution and making sure you're at least a seasoned and professional flyer.

 

[Hovtech]

Went up last nite using V+ Booster. Up about 400ft made it out to our downtown area at around 4,000 ft. Even in the dark of nite this makes a decent video. Can still see the red lights on my bird LOS. Brought her back just in time to go for landing with the klaxxon going off at about 200ft. Plenty left for a smooth landing. With the klaxxon going the bird is now all lights red. I'm sure some people see this coming thru the sky and believe the devil is coming for them :lol:

 

[sergekouper]

hi guys. got a Q from a newbie.

For night flight video, what is the camera setting u guys use? I tried several manual camera setting and it still not up to mark. I set the ISO was set to 400 for night video. Appreciate the opinion/guidance.

What cam is it?
GoPro 3+ has an ON/OFF low light option and an iso limit at 6400

Don't know about V and V+.

 

[andrewket2]

Video or didn't happen

 

[colonelangus]

night flying rocks.. I find flying during the day that my eyes are bleeding tears literally .. early morning or just a dusk is better for seeing what your doing .. the light show the phantom makes at night is awesome