Out of sight? Really?!?

[reimomo]

Hi all

Like a lot of people, I've been blown away by the You Tubes and I've put my order in for a Phantom 3. It arrives next week.

I'm aware of how far these can be controlled and it's something I can't really get my head around....

2 examples:

I live nextdoor to a large wood, and I understand that if I wanted to (and I do) I could fly the P3 over the wood, out of sight.

Or I can visit the coast and fly my P3 out over the sea, taking footage of cliffs etc.

My question: How on earth do you trust the P3 not to have a temporary malfunction and and just ditch?

Sure, they're reliable enough, but it would only take a split-second power loss.

There would be zero chance of recovery, so that's £1000. GONE. In the sea for obvious reasons, and in the wood because I'd never find it if I looked for years!

Do you just fly more and more and eventually come to trust it enough?

Apologies if it's a stupid question, but I see these videos of people flying them out over water and they just astound me!

 

[msinger]

I have a Trackimo GPS tracker installed on my P3P just in case. That way I don't have to worry if it does decide to ditch.

If interested, you can find all of the other commonly used trackers here:
DJI Phantom Accessories & Tips - Phantom Help

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

If your phantom is 100m away from you at 100m in height in plain sight and it has a hiccup and smashes into a million pieces, what's the difference if it's out of sight. Same result.

 

[reimomo]

@ PH, Thanks for the GPS link - I didn't realise such a thing existed.

@mal Well, yes, but there's always a situation where it just snags some branches on the way down and is mostly unharmed. But then lost forever because the woods near me are huge.

And over water it may not be the crash that hurts it, but the fact that it would presumably sink fast...

 

[750r]

Welcome to the forum .
You are right when you fly Rc's one little problem can be catastrophic been like that since day one . You can not be worried all the time or you will have no fun . Do preflight checks get her up in the air make sure she takes commands then go fly . Just remember forums are loaded with problems no one post about all the great flights they have only when something goes wrong 90% human error . Read the manual let the bird warm up find its position . Most just turn it on and fly then it flys away you'll hear I did everything but they won't admit they didn't let the bird get its HP/lock .

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

If you fly her be prepared to lose her, fly her like you stole her and treat every flight as your last. Very simple motto, otherwise to me it's like locking a bird up in a cage.

 

[landmannnn]

The simple answer is that there is indeed a possibility of losing the phantom.

Do we trust the software not to fail? Yes

Do we trust ourselves to do the preflight checks and not crash into something? No.

You are correct that the approach is to fly to gain confidence, just that the confidence is in your abilities not to f#ck up!

 

[Clipper707]

Maintain your equipment, learn as much about it as you can, and then trust it.

You trust your bicycle when your cruising down a steep hill, your car at 100kph, and a random elevator in a tall building.

At least if your Phantom decides to take a dump, you only lose money.

 

[Cacc]

Start slow, push her, and learn. I used to baby my first quad and not push the sticks all the way, have constant readouts of the cell voltages on the screen, never fly around or above something that would take away my sight. Eventually you get used to it and you push it more and more and you learn what the signs of an impending issue are. It is a mechanical device so something COULD always fail, and my recommendation is to fly it like it will fail until you get comfortable enough with it. Don't fly over the trees at first, but fly over a straight piece of land away from you until you get weak signal warnings. In a safe open area, you might even want to play with it in ATTI mode just to get the hang of flying without GPS just in case you lose a signal during a flight. Plan for the a not-fun case and turn your tablet off mid-flight just so you get the hang of flying without that aid.

This will not help you in a "worst case" scenario, but it will help you get out of (and have you prepare for) a bad situation as well as help build your confidence in flying your expensive machine.

 

[Youngbill]

Risk=Reward. Some high risk locations will sometimes reward you with awesome footage. If you don't have the money or mindset, don't fly it in risky locations.

 

[SteveMann]

If your phantom is 100m away from you at 100m in height in plain sight and it has a hiccup and smashes into a million pieces, what's the difference if it's out of sight. Same result.

It hurts less.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

It hurts less.

Well said!