Took the P3P for a joy ride! 10k out!

Hey I took mine out for my longest flight today as well, not near as impressive a distance as yours but it was almost 2x as far from home as I had ventured yet. I came back in and ordered one of those reflectors for the antennas off ebay, i lost contact most of the time after I was out toward the end as you can see from the Healthydrones signal map, it was a bit nerve racking but I was using the IOS version of Litchi so I was pretty sure it would just keep going on the plan if I lost signal. Only real bummer was I got back and realized I forgot to put the SD card in so no video ugh, the DJI app I think gave a bit more warning about that, the Litchi I guess does not...

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xardoz said:
Hey I took mine out for my longest flight today as well, not near as impressive a distance as yours but it was almost 2x as far from home as I had ventured yet. I came back in and ordered one of those reflectors for the antennas off ebay, i lost contact most of the time after I was out toward the end as you can see from the Healthydrones signal map, it was a bit nerve racking but I was using the IOS version of Litchi so I was pretty sure it would just keep going on the plan if I lost signal. Only real bummer was I got back and realized I forgot to put the SD card in so no video ugh, the DJI app I think gave a bit more warning about that, the Litchi I guess does not...

HealthyDrones.com - Innovative flight data analysis that matters
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Look on the right side on litchi. There will be a icon of a broken SD card. Forgot to load the SD card in it yesterday when I had family over to go flying. Meh, oh well.
 
Wolfiesden said:
So the litchi CSV file is same format as flytrix?
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I haven't used Litchi (yet). Actually, to get this to work, I had to grab the flight log off my iPad DGI GO app, dump it up to healthydrones, then download the CSV and it worked. There may be an easier way, I haven't put a lot of effort into researching it.
 
No log in GO (Pilot). Log in Litchi is CSV so I think I will try it once Premiere gets done chewing on it.
 
Maybe I am missing something or I am just too new, but DJI says the drone can go 3 miles. We are talking about 2 miles here. Is it really not a good idea to try to go 3 miles with stock equipment (rural area over water).
 
Wolfiesden said:
Yes. Bone stock. The only difference from stock is using Litchi instead of GO.
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Litchi has the 32 ch mod built in. What channel were you on to get that range?
 
I'll have to come down and see ya. Right up the road in West Bend. Just got my P3A about a month ago. Doing some mods, etc. and have a couple other projects. Not much to go out in this weather.
 
If you have little interference it shouldn't matter. Same goes for the regular 8 channels. If it finds one of the 8 with low interference (often channel 20), the rest of the channels are superfluous.
Most people who add back the 32 channels don't understand this. It makes no difference in and of itself.


Mako79 said:
Litchi has the 32 ch mod built in. What channel were you on to get that range?
Click to expand...
 
I, too, did my first "long" flight today with my P3A - only about 2100 meters (about 1.3 miles) to the turn-around point, but it was cool to take the trip entirely using the FPV. Total distance was 4338 meters (2.7 miles). I experienced a bit of video weakness at the far point; increasing altitude to above 100 meters helped. I also needed to compensate for a headwind on the return. Still, I landed with 49% battery power.

I'm planning a few more cross-country jaunts in the near future. For these practice runs, I am fortunate to have a place out in the rural desert, far north of Palm Springs (see attached photo). The terrain is relatively flat and open.

My goal is to build experience and confidence for an expedition to the Florida Keys, where I will do some photography and videography of offshore islands and lighthouses. For me, this is a bit weird - I used to fly real airplanes, and yet it is a battery-powered drone that challenges my nerves these days. That, too, will pass... :)
 

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Congrats! 1.3 miles is an impressive distance too. 100m (300'?) is a decent altitude. I headed out at about 250' and dropped down to 100' for a peeksee before climbing back up for the rest of the return home.

Ralph M said:
For me, this is a bit weird - I used to fly real airplanes, and yet it is a battery-powered drone that challenges my nerves these days. That, too, will pass... :)
Click to expand...

Aye! When I got to 5k I had a bit of trembling. When I got to 10k and the video cut out, my heart was pounding so hard I thought I was gonna bust an artery. When you see the video, you can see I tried a spin (360) to see if video would come back. When it didn't, I wasn't taking any chances, I poked the RTH and let her come back a couple hundred feet. Once I got a solid feed I canceled the RTH and brought her back manually. She picked the worst place to drop signal. Right near a freeway interchange. I had planned on going around it but it dropped just as I got to the edges of it where I was going to make my decision on which way around to go. I really didn't want it out over a clover leaf.

I don't think I have had sweaty palms and pounding since the first touch-and-go in the 152.

Now that I got that out and over with, I think pushing her out farther will be less nerve racking now that I see what to look for and expect with signals and alerts in the software.

Can't wait to see the Florida Keys videos you shoot! I haven't been down in decades. Areas are going to be limited up in the panhandle due to Eglin AFB there.
 
Wolfiesden said:
Can't wait to see the Florida Keys videos you shoot! I haven't been down in decades. Areas are going to be limited up in the panhandle due to Eglin AFB there.
Click to expand...

I've been looking at the NFZ in the Keys. For most of the off-shore stuff, it looks ok - there aren't many airports in the Keys. Marathon and Key West are the big exceptions. The latter technically makes it impossible to fly anywhere within the city limits of Key West, and I hope that is something that can be addressed with a call to the tower for the public airport. As for the Navy's air station, I guess I will just need to stay away.

One other locale I want to fly is Fort Jefferson, in the middle of the Florida Straits, about 70 miles west of Key West. It is administered by the National Park Service. I need to see if they enforce a no fly rule for the area.

Stay tuned...
 
Congrats and awesome!! I'm looking fwd to seeing the Keys footage.



Ralph M said:
I, too, did my first "long" flight today with my P3A - only about 2100 meters (about 1.3 miles) to the turn-around point, but it was cool to take the trip entirely using the FPV. Total distance was 4338 meters (2.7 miles). I experienced a bit of video weakness at the far point; increasing altitude to above 100 meters helped. I also needed to compensate for a headwind on the return. Still, I landed with 49% battery power.

I'm planning a few more cross-country jaunts in the near future. For these practice runs, I am fortunate to have a place out in the rural desert, far north of Palm Springs (see attached photo). The terrain is relatively flat and open.

My goal is to build experience and confidence for an expedition to the Florida Keys, where I will do some photography and videography of offshore islands and lighthouses. For me, this is a bit weird - I used to fly real airplanes, and yet it is a battery-powered drone that challenges my nerves these days. That, too, will pass... :)
Click to expand...
 

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