Reliable?

King Luff · Jul 29, 2015

All,

Looking at purchasing a new quadcopter next month and, of course, the phantom is in contention (along with a q500+). Have also researched the Solo but that thing is expensive once you get a proper setup.

How reliable is the P3? I have read posts on here about fly aways, obviously this is a possibility for any gps quad but is it usually down to user error? The Phantom is so popular i can imagine there are a people out there that have just bought them and have no idea what they are doing with it but for the hobbyist, who takes time to learn and does the proper checks before flights, are fly aways still a reality?

The thought of seeing £900 just flying off in the sunset scares the hell out of me!

Meta4 · Jul 29, 2015

Flyaways (or what was incorrectly reported as flyaways) was much more common with the Phantom 2 series.
The Phantom 3 is very different and largely immune to the problems of the P2.

King Luff · Jul 29, 2015

That's good to hear, nearly bought the Phantom 2 a while back. So is it safe to say that the flyaway risk is fairly low with the Phantom 3?

Justgregg · Jul 29, 2015

I have owned may copters, from hexes to octos to quads. Im leaning back to DJI products after purchasing 3 of the 3dr products.2 of the iris's and an x8. Not impressed with the flight controllers in them. Had near crashes from weirdness in the GPS locks and attaining satellites. Definitely had to be in a very open clear spot and still took a while to lock on to enough sats to lift off. The Naza/wookongs flight controllers in my octos and hexes locked up quickly and was very stable in GPS mode. The Iris had a problem of dropping out of the sky on hard turns and after a firmware upgrade it seemed okay. Sold it while in one piece. Seems the solo had its issues on the first roll out, but getting better. Everybody is still waiting on the camera gimble for it. I still would not buy one. 3dr's customer service was great until the solo came out, then it tanked. You can get solo parts but if you have and iris or the x8 forget it. I have given up trying to get extra motors for my x8. I recently bought a DJI inspire which I love and have had great luck with it. Yes it can fly away just like all of them can, but if you really learn how to fly with GPS turned off you can save your butt. Keeping your ship calibrated is a must for safe flights. People will say that DJI service sucks, which in the past it has. They have expanded their offices and hired more people to assist in repairs/customer service and I never have a problem getting parts!!! The inspire is on of the most stable ships I ever flown and one of the most pricy. The phantom 3 models are great ships and share the same features as the $2900 inspire for much less than the inspire. They both have the light bridge video transmission feature and range is amazing and I dont care what peeps say it kicks *** on the solo as far as quality and range. The sonar feature on both is great for flying indoors when GPS drops out. I have ordered a phantom 3 pro as a back up ship for my inspire, and even though it is not quite as stable, its pretty **** close and the video quality is excellent.
And yes, it you do your preflight checks, imu and compass calibrations, watch what environments you are flying in, you will have very successful flights. If you do have a flyaway you can always track it in the pilot app that records your flight on a ios or droid tablet and shows where it flew on google maps.
So there you have it..dont let the fear of fly aways stop you from enjoying one of the best hobbies around! No matter what you fly, enjoy it! Hope my 2 cents worth helps you out!
Gregg

King Luff · Jul 29, 2015

Gregg, many thanks for the detailed reply. I am hoping that by flying non-gps quadcopters for a while has given me an advantage by teaching my to fly without the gps aid. Have people successfully claimed on warranty for a gps malfunction resulting in a crash?

kdrak · Jul 29, 2015

Justgregg said:
I have owned may copters, from hexes to octos to quads. Im leaning back to DJI products after purchasing 3 of the 3dr products.2 of the iris's and an x8. Not impressed with the flight controllers in them. Had near crashes from weirdness in the GPS locks and attaining satellites. Definitely had to be in a very open clear spot and still took a while to lock on to enough sats to lift off. The Naza/wookongs flight controllers in my octos and hexes locked up quickly and was very stable in GPS mode. The Iris had a problem of dropping out of the sky on hard turns and after a firmware upgrade it seemed okay. Sold it while in one piece. Seems the solo had its issues on the first roll out, but getting better. Everybody is still waiting on the camera gimble for it. I still would not buy one. 3dr's customer service was great until the solo came out, then it tanked. You can get solo parts but if you have and iris or the x8 forget it. I have given up trying to get extra motors for my x8. I recently bought a DJI inspire which I love and have had great luck with it. Yes it can fly away just like all of them can, but if you really learn how to fly with GPS turned off you can save your butt. Keeping your ship calibrated is a must for safe flights. People will say that DJI service sucks, which in the past it has. They have expanded their offices and hired more people to assist in repairs/customer service and I never have a problem getting parts!!! The inspire is on of the most stable ships I ever flown and one of the most pricy. The phantom 3 models are great ships and share the same features as the $2900 inspire for much less than the inspire. They both have the light bridge video transmission feature and range is amazing and I dont care what peeps say it kicks *** on the solo as far as quality and range. The sonar feature on both is great for flying indoors when GPS drops out. I have ordered a phantom 3 pro as a back up ship for my inspire, and even though it is not quite as stable, its pretty **** close and the video quality is excellent.
And yes, it you do your preflight checks, imu and compass calibrations, watch what environments you are flying in, you will have very successful flights. If you do have a flyaway you can always track it in the pilot app that records your flight on a ios or droid tablet and shows where it flew on google maps.
So there you have it..dont let the fear of fly aways stop you from enjoying one of the best hobbies around! No matter what you fly, enjoy it! Hope my 2 cents worth helps you out!
Gregg

well said !!!!! +10000

King Luff · Jul 29, 2015

Well i'm leaning towards the P3 over the Yuneec 500+ due to the very limited range of the 500 so look forward to joining discussions on here, hopefully success stories!