P3 standard at range?

[apollo64]

So far i have taken my P3s out to about 370 metres, is it truly safe to take it to the max 500 metres ?
i would not be able to see it at this range, and dont know if the camera link will hold up, really not sure if i should try it, would you guys max it out

 

[flpholt]

yep I would just make sure rth is set high enough so you don't hit anything I fly mine out all the time until I lose signal and watch it come back

 

[RodPad]

Yes, try it when your ready, RTH altitude above your obstacles. My trees around my house are 100' to 125', so I set my RTH to 61m (200').

 

[Storm]

Still a noob to my p3s, super nervous to take it out. I went a lil further each time. I'm up to 4200' now and feeling comfy with it thanks to this forum and babysteps.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[mikep2323]

Still a noob to my p3s, super nervous to take it out. I went a lil further each time. I'm up to 4200' now and feeling comfy with it thanks to this forum and babysteps.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using PhantomPilots mobile app

I think just about everyone feels the same in the beginning. Lol I to was like that. After you go as far as you can go and rth kicks in and it returns a few times you'll start to get more comfortable. Happy flying

Sent from my Shield Tablet using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[RodPad]

Yep, one thing that got a few of us, myself and know ugly pumpkin, is flying and not realizing how windy it is a couple hundred feet above you. So suddenly your battery level is dropping fast and that normal 20 mins in the air, ends up at 12 mins with a low battery warning and it doesn't make it back. So when I go up now, go to my height let off the controls, flip it to ATT watch the direction and the speed for few secs. Now you know what the battle is above.
Rod

 

[flpholt]

Yep, one thing that got a few of us, myself and know ugly pumpkin, is flying and not realizing how windy it is a couple hundred feet above you. So suddenly your battery level is dropping fast and that normal 20 mins in the air, ends up at 12 mins with a low battery warning and it doesn't make it back. So when I go up now, go to my height let off the controls, flip it to ATT watch the direction and the speed for few secs. Now you know what the battle is above.
Rod

yep my first one is still sitting in gulf of mexico live and learn

 

[flpholt]

Yep, one thing that got a few of us, myself and know ugly pumpkin, is flying and not realizing how windy it is a couple hundred feet above you. So suddenly your battery level is dropping fast and that normal 20 mins in the air, ends up at 12 mins with a low battery warning and it doesn't make it back. So when I go up now, go to my height let off the controls, flip it to ATT watch the direction and the speed for few secs. Now you know what the battle is above.
Rod

p.s its evil pumpkin lol

 

[apollo64]

So it sounds like when it hits the max range of 500 metrs the RTH will kick in on its own?, i always do compass and make sure home point is set before flying, will the camera view hold up to max range?
thanks for the replies

 

[RodPad]

So it sounds like when it hits the max range of 500 metrs the RTH will kick in on its own?, i always do compass and make sure home point is set before flying, will the camera view hold up to max range?
thanks for the replies

RTH is a type of fail safe meant to return to the (home point) if the Phantom looses signal from the remote control.

Max Range is setting that will stop you from flying past that distance, when you get to that distance you will get a warning and if keep trying to fly farther away it will hover. You only be able to fly back toward home position and keeping flying anywhere with in that limit. I have never used Max Range, so I am completely guessing on this. I am going off of testing with max altitude settings.

Lower your max range and test it, I should do that myself.

I will dig up some RTH stuff.

Rod

 

[RodPad]

This will give your a brain a fry!

Good through post #32
Lost signal (but not really)

Need help!!!

Best Method to RTH?

Only pay attention to my posts

What every you do don't search for RTH
Search Results for Query: RTH | DJI Phantom Drone Forum

Good Luck..

Rod

 

[Grady]

Please take the time to read what I learned and would have liked to know.
I have a p3s. Same exact shoes at one point. I'm proud to say I flew it to 5 times the rated limit! I got 3 miles in range (done with a passive extender. Just $20 for a dish on the antenna, doubles the range and on an open lake, otherwise it's like 1.5 miles without it) and back with 40-50% battery! Just turned off the distance limit and fly. I also set the height limit to its max (can't turn that off) it's a gorgeous view that high! What may help you is that the majority of times I fly, I fly to a point that the rth kicks in, very reliable. Just make sure you are at a height higher than surroundings or your rth altitude is set to a higher altitude. Also! One of the biggest causes of losing drones is that people don't pay attention to warnings. When you fly, turn your devices volume all the way up and make sure it's not muted, that way it will give you an audible warning, otherwise I wouldn't notice them. So besides interference warnings (you'll always find those and rth will save you if bad), you should always land. Ex: compass error, gps error, VOLTAGE LOW! You'll regret it if you don't but you can usually land before anything happens. Also before you take off tap the bar and make sure everything is good and normal. Make sure you have 6 satellites (I recommend 7 cause sometimes you can lose one) otherwise you won't have a home point set at take off for it to come back to. These are all very important.
One other thing I learned the hard way (never crashed or lost one though) is that when the phantom flies away (angled away from you), you can have a good signal at distance. But when you fly back or rth kicks in you can lose signal because it's angled towards you for some reason so don't worry as long as you have rth. Also make sure you don't leave the left stick locked down during this, haha! Usually I get signal back after at least half a minute, but I once had a big scare flying 10000ft away (got to 16000 before, same place) and have zero signal for almost 10 minutes. Was beside myself. Thought for sure it was at the bottom of the lake, cause after a minute I realized I had the left stick locked down. Luckily it didn't transmit and as I was walking away it flew over me. The wind was very strong from behind me (trees) and didn't know! So it was very angled towards me flying into the wind which is why it took so long to get a signal. So last lesson for me was be very aware of the wind! What you feel means very little. Use an app. Highly recommend "Hover" easily the best drone app! Checks everything for you.
So be aware of wind, obstacles' altitude, and watch your warnings!
And yes it's very safe to go beyond 500 meters! I went like 2500 meters. And the rth is smart, it engages rth sooner depending on how far it is! So kinda idiot proof.
Thanks for reading this ridiculously long response, hope it helps!

 

[RodPad]

Please take the time to read what I learned and would have liked to know.
I have a p3s. Same exact shoes at one point. I'm proud to say I flew it to 5 times the rated limit! I got 3 miles in range (done with a passive extender. Just $20 for a dish on the antenna, doubles the range and on an open lake, otherwise it's like 1.5 miles without it) and back with 40-50% battery! Just turned off the distance limit and fly. I also set the height limit to its max (can't turn that off) it's a gorgeous view that high! What may help you is that the majority of times I fly, I fly to a point that the rth kicks in, very reliable. Just make sure you are at a height higher than surroundings or your rth altitude is set to a higher altitude. Also! One of the biggest causes of losing drones is that people don't pay attention to warnings. When you fly, turn your devices volume all the way up and make sure it's not muted, that way it will give you an audible warning, otherwise I wouldn't notice them. So besides interference warnings (you'll always find those and rth will save you if bad), you should always land. Ex: compass error, gps error, VOLTAGE LOW! You'll regret it if you don't but you can usually land before anything happens. Also before you take off tap the bar and make sure everything is good and normal. Make sure you have 6 satellites (I recommend 7 cause sometimes you can lose one) otherwise you won't have a home point set at take off for it to come back to. These are all very important.
One other thing I learned the hard way (never crashed or lost one though) is that when the phantom flies away (angled away from you), you can have a good signal at distance. But when you fly back or rth kicks in you can lose signal because it's angled towards you for some reason so don't worry as long as you have rth. Also make sure you don't leave the left stick locked down during this, haha! Usually I get signal back after at least half a minute, but I once had a big scare flying 10000ft away (got to 16000 before, same place) and have zero signal for almost 10 minutes. Was beside myself. Thought for sure it was at the bottom of the lake, cause after a minute I realized I had the left stick locked down. Luckily it didn't transmit and as I was walking away it flew over me. The wind was very strong from behind me (trees) and didn't know! So it was very angled towards me flying into the wind which is why it took so long to get a signal. So last lesson for me was be very aware of the wind! What you feel means very little. Use an app. Highly recommend "Hover" easily the best drone app! Checks everything for you.
So be aware of wind, obstacles' altitude, and watch your warnings!
And yes it's very safe to go beyond 500 meters! I went like 2500 meters. And the rth is smart, it engages rth sooner depending on how far it is! So kinda idiot proof.
Thanks for reading this ridiculously long response, hope it helps!

Holy smokes, I fell a sleep twice.
Yes all good!, I would add to the hover part. Go up to your flying height, the flip to ATTI, and watch your speed and direction for a few seconds.

Rod

 

[Nuno Barreto]

So far i have taken my P3s out to about 370 metres, is it truly safe to take it to the max 500 metres ?
i would not be able to see it at this range, and dont know if the camera link will hold up, really not sure if i should try it, would you guys max it out

I have gradually flown farther and farther out always making sure that wherever I'm flying there are no obstacles in the way. Also, I make sure to set the RTH height to 50meters (~165 ft) which, for most cases where I fly is a lot higher than anything in the area. This way I ensure that, in the event that the signal is completely lost, that the Phantom will engage the return-home feature, go up to 50 meters and then fly back to where it started.

In the first couple of flights if can be quite unnerving to lose video signal and not seeing clearly where your drone is (if you're 300-500 meters away), the key is not to panic. Here are a few things I do as as I start losing either RC or video signal:

1) If you're uncomfortable, STOP. The drone will hover in place.
2) Read your telemetry: what is your altitude and distance. Make sure the drone is high enough to avoid hitting any obstacles if it needs to come back with you having no visuals. Usually 50meters high works for me.
3) Look at the map on the lower left corner. What is the drone orientation (shown by the little arrow) ?. Try to orient it back towards you (arrow should be pointing down if it's pointed back in your direction. Ensuring you have enough altitude, push the forward stick to bring the drone back to you
4) Read telemetry again. is the distance decreasing ? Is altitude maintained ? If distance is decreasing and you still don't see the drone or have a video feed, assuming it's high enough, then everything is fine, just wait for video signal to reconnect or for the drone to show up in the horizon.

5) Automatic RTH works, so if you didn't have time to go through steps 1-4, the only situation where RTH might end badly is if you don't have it set high enough, as the drone might find an obstacle on the way back.

6) Last but not least, don't go too far if you're battery is already low, you'll risk not having enough power to fly back at which point the drone will descend wherever it is and try to land automatically (in the water, above a tree, in open ground, etc.).

Hope this helps. Don't over extend the reach if you're not comfortable, practice makes perfect and make sure to read the telemetry and the map in case you lose line of sight or video feed.