Scared to Fly

Hello all. I've had my P3P for 4 days now and have flown it twice without any issues. On my downtime I've been reading here on the forum to learn everything I can about the P3P. I've concluded that I've got the only working DJI drone! Now I'm afraid to fly because it may......crack, lose the FPV, have firmware issues, fly off on its own with no looking back, stall, lose its GPS signal, have battery lose power instantly, have battery not plugged in properly, have battery that's had too many charges, have battery not charged enough, have wrong app version, need iPad updated to iOS 9, no now iPad needs back to iOS 8, .......and the list is growing with every read! Maybe I'll leave it on the coffee table as a conversation piece. [emoji15]
I certainly share your concerns. I started with a P1 and spent a fortune (to me) upgrading it. Flew into trees and buildings too often and finally the gimbal was bent past fixing. So, I used that as an excuse to upgrade to the P2. Moved a lot of my expensive add-ons (ground station, bluetooth, better tranmitter, better gopro, FPV, etc) over to the P2 and had a blast for about 3 months. Then, after installing an upgrade and not having enough brains to check it out in a safe area, I flew it over a river getting some awesome footage of my friends in a ski boat. Some of the best video I have ever shot - at least based on the FPV. I'll never know since about 10 minutes into the flight the P2 went nuts and I had no right stick. It is now in the Brazos River and has been since June. I pouted for about three months (swearing off of UAV's) but started reading about the P3 which I eventually ordered. My wife has resigned herself to the fact that when it comes to flying these things my normally fiscal conservatism is missing. I'm trying to enjoy it but it is a little tougher given how much time and money I have poured into this hobby. I'm nervous almost every time I fly it. Reading all the posts about unexplained disasters really aggravates the issue - even though I have had almost none of the problems listed on this board. What has helped me the most is 1) if things are working well now avoid upgrading until the messages on this and other boards indicated the "bugs" in the upgrade have been identified and fixed. This seems to take 3 to 6 weeks as a rule. The upgrades have always been good - once the kinks are worked out. 2) Don't cut corners on the preflight. 3) Spend a lot of time learning the features of the system flying in a wide open safe place before you fly in risky environments. There is a tremendous temptation to fly over water, in mountains, in forests, and so on since the videos and stills are truly amazing. Unfortunately, the crashes are just as extraordinary. 4) Finally, as others have said, the risk of failure is part of the hobby given it's cutting edge technology. Although I still get nervous flying my P3, it is so amazingly cool that the occasional setbacks are worth it. Have fun!
 
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I thought you were joking or mocking at first but I am not sure if you are making a serious comment! lol. So here are my thoughts. I have over 100 flights and only lost signal once due putting it behind a parking structure with a windsurfer on it. My other bad experiences have all been pilot error as well but I have always retuned my phantom back to the starting point. I have put it in my head that at some point I will lose this phantom and I have accepted that is a learning experience and I will be buying another one at some point. So just have fun with it.

In reality though you are not losing anywhere near $2k. You can pick up a replace phantom and still use your old controller props, charger, extra batteries, etc.
 
DJI is selling over 30,000 units a month, so there's probably a whole lot of people who have never had an issue and never go on a forum to not ask for help for an uneventful flight.

Just fly.
 
Just get a tracker and go fly. These sensational threads crack me up. My birds have no cracks and I've flown hard for hundreds of flights. Have fun man.

That's the problem, just because you haven't had any of the problems others have, it doesn't mean those of us that have had our phantoms develope cracks (to the point where someone even posted pictures that he had a motor actually depart his phantom in flight) aren't for real. Consider yourself lucky. The problem isn't just with the P3, I had to replace shells on two of my P2's due to cracking around the motors. Balancing props didn't matter, they still developed cracks. So far, since I have only flown my P3 a couple times, it still looks ok. But if I ever get my Flytrex P3 version tracker to work I will be flying it more often and you can bet I will be inspecting it carefully.
 
Yea I'd say it's pretty common to have those feelings. But they are good ones. It means you want to learn enough about your P3 to take good care of it and maintain a healthy relationship. I have read a lot of horror stories, but from each of them you usually learn what someone did wrong and know what to avoid/how to treat your quad. Getting too comfortable with it may lead you down the path of pilot error! Being observant and able to recognize issues beforehand could save you a headache, and some money!
 
Look at it this way, like so many forums on the internet, satisfied users have much less incentive to post about their experiences then unsatisfied users and/or users looking to solve a problem they are having. So the unsatisfied or troubled few are always going to outnumber everyone else on forum posts by a very wide margin.

If my P3P crashes or does strange things I might come on and post to try to find out why, or to vent about it. But I probably won't post about how great my P3P is.

I have a P3P and a P3A. No major issues with either so far and have been very happy and they continue to amaze me. I come here to increase my knowledge and learn a bit more about them, mostly to learn about what has caused troubles for other people so I can avoid it. Yes the "FLEW AWAY" and "WENT BERZERK AND CRASHED INTO THE SCHOOL" posts are concerning but I realize these are very rare!
 
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