"Training" on a FC40

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This may be a little weird, but I ordered a Phantom 2 Vision+ and then decided to order an FC-40 to develop my skills. My thought was that at about 1/3 the price, a major crash on the FC-40 is a much smaller deal. However, the basic platforms are almost the same, with the exception of the quality of the video. I figured that I would either total the FC-40, or get bored with it and then sell it.

I have a little experience with quads, flying a Hubsan and a couple of other small quads. I'm pretty comfortable with basic flying, and orientation (except nose in). I have found the FC-40 ridiculously easy to fly compared to the other quads I have tried.

I though I would ask here and see what people might suggest in terms of developing skills with the FC-40. I've been experimenting with some basic video approaches (trying to pan), IOC, monitoring the FPV, and smooth ascents/descents, I'm also trying to visit a few different places to get practice in different environments.

Can anyone suggest other things I should practice?
 
I have an FC40 (my son's), which got me to buy a P2V+ for myself!

I can confirm they have the exact same controls, with the exception, of course, of the camera & its range.

First of all, be sure you are flying in NAZA mode, not Phantom mode. Enable IOC. Set your height and distance parameters to what you are comfortable with (mine are 400 feet verical and 1500 feet horizontal (your FC40 camera will lose connection at 100-150 feet without a WIFI repeater like the Amped Wireless SR10000). Make sure your failsafe function is RTH and not just landing.

Practice:
Descents: don't develop a vortex ring state (look it up). Always carry some motion (forward, back, side) while descending.
Landing: Come down easy. Your Phantom won't tip over if you master the art of a 0/0 touchdown... 0 vertical descent/ 0 lateral speed. Also, just pull the throttle stick back to kill the engines, don't do a stick coordinated turn off for the motors.
Climbs: Not just straight up, but up & back, side, forward
IOC: Fly the various modes, and become familiar with them. HomeLock is handy when you lose orientation and want your bird to come straight back to you. You'll end up flying IOC off, mostly.
GPS & ATTI mode: Practice in both. ATTI mode will give you smoother shots, but in wind, the bird drifts. If in motion, it stays in motion, so practice in a BIG field at first. If she is drifting too much on you, or you need a break, switch back to GPS mode.
Coordinated flight: Practice circling 360 around an object while keeping it centered in the camera. I turned down the gain in the NAZA for rotation (left stick-left/right) since it was a little too responsive in default. Fly left or right while turning to keep the camera pointed at the object. When you can do this, your good. Easier for me in ATTI mode to keep it smooth. Watch out you don't get the sticks into a coordinated turn-off mode for the motors.
RTH: Enable the mode (return to home) and learn what to expect.
Altitude: Always fly higher than the highest object between you and your Phantom. If it goes into RTH mode, it only flies at 60 feet if your lower than that. Otherwise, it stays at its altitude until directly over its home point.
 
Awesome. Thanks for such a detailed reply.

Do you use FPV to orbit an object? Trying to orbit an object by looking at the quad seems like an orientation nightmare.
 
DrJoe said:
Practice:
Descents: don't develop a vortex ring state (look it up). Always carry some motion (forward, back, side) while descending.
Landing: Come down easy. Your Phantom won't tip over if you master the art of a 0/0 touchdown... 0 vertical descent/ 0 lateral speed. Also, just pull the throttle stick back to kill the engines, don't do a stick coordinated turn off for the motors.
Climbs: Not just straight up, but up & back, side, forward
IOC: Fly the various modes, and become familiar with them. HomeLock is handy when you lose orientation and want your bird to come straight back to you. You'll end up flying IOC off, mostly.
GPS & ATTI mode: Practice in both. ATTI mode will give you smoother shots, but in wind, the bird drifts. If in motion, it stays in motion, so practice in a BIG field at first. If she is drifting too much on you, or you need a break, switch back to GPS mode.
Coordinated flight: Practice circling 360 around an object while keeping it centered in the camera. I turned down the gain in the NAZA for rotation (left stick-left/right) since it was a little too responsive in default. Fly left or right while turning to keep the camera pointed at the object. When you can do this, your good. Easier for me in ATTI mode to keep it smooth. Watch out you don't get the sticks into a coordinated turn-off mode for the motors.
RTH: Enable the mode (return to home) and learn what to expect.
Altitude: Always fly higher than the highest object between you and your Phantom. If it goes into RTH mode, it only flies at 60 feet if your lower than that. Otherwise, it stays at its altitude until directly over its home point.

Great list of stuff to practice!
I wonder if any coders out there area able to program a flight sim on the computer that could use our Phantom 2 controller joysticks to control the sim (for those rainy days when we want to fly but can't, and want to get some practice) hmm...
 
DrJoe said:
I have an FC40 (my son's), which got me to buy a P2V+ for myself!

I can confirm they have the exact same controls, with the exception, of course, of the camera & its range.

First of all, be sure you are flying in NAZA mode, not Phantom mode. Enable IOC. Set your height and distance parameters to what you are comfortable with (mine are 400 feet verical and 1500 feet horizontal (your FC40 camera will lose connection at 100-150 feet without a WIFI repeater like the Amped Wireless SR10000). Make sure your failsafe function is RTH and not just landing.

Practice:
Descents: don't develop a vortex ring state (look it up). Always carry some motion (forward, back, side) while descending.
Landing: Come down easy. Your Phantom won't tip over if you master the art of a 0/0 touchdown... 0 vertical descent/ 0 lateral speed. Also, just pull the throttle stick back to kill the engines, don't do a stick coordinated turn off for the motors.
Climbs: Not just straight up, but up & back, side, forward
IOC: Fly the various modes, and become familiar with them. HomeLock is handy when you lose orientation and want your bird to come straight back to you. You'll end up flying IOC off, mostly.
GPS & ATTI mode: Practice in both. ATTI mode will give you smoother shots, but in wind, the bird drifts. If in motion, it stays in motion, so practice in a BIG field at first. If she is drifting too much on you, or you need a break, switch back to GPS mode.
Coordinated flight: Practice circling 360 around an object while keeping it centered in the camera. I turned down the gain in the NAZA for rotation (left stick-left/right) since it was a little too responsive in default. Fly left or right while turning to keep the camera pointed at the object. When you can do this, your good. Easier for me in ATTI mode to keep it smooth. Watch out you don't get the sticks into a coordinated turn-off mode for the motors.
RTH: Enable the mode (return to home) and learn what to expect.
Altitude: Always fly higher than the highest object between you and your Phantom. If it goes into RTH mode, it only flies at 60 feet if your lower than that. Otherwise, it stays at its altitude until directly over its home point.

With regard to the item "Coordinated Flight": Did you find that turning down the gain on rotation actually helped? Reason I'm asking is that I was told this gain is only effective when the Phantom is self-correcting in GPS mode. I tried turning the gain down on my Phantom to get smoother "manual" yaw but didn't seem to change it. Thanks for your info.

Edit: Also wondering what is "Phantom Mode" and "Naza mode"?
 
plasmo said:
Great list of stuff to practice!
I wonder if any coders out there area able to program a flight sim on the computer that could use our Phantom 2 controller joysticks to control the sim (for those rainy days when we want to fly but can't, and want to get some practice) hmm...


THIS is what i'm talking about! Would be great to practice this on rainy days with our controllers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt6h3DJ ... e=youtu.be
 
AlexKilpatrick said:
This may be a little weird, but I ordered a Phantom 2 Vision+ and then decided to order an FC-40 to develop my skills. My thought was that at about 1/3 the price, a major crash on the FC-40 is a much smaller deal. However, the basic platforms are almost the same, with the exception of the quality of the video. I figured that I would either total the FC-40, or get bored with it and then sell it.

I have a little experience with quads, flying a Hubsan and a couple of other small quads. I'm pretty comfortable with basic flying, and orientation (except nose in). I have found the FC-40 ridiculously easy to fly compared to the other quads I have tried.

I though I would ask here and see what people might suggest in terms of developing skills with the FC-40. I've been experimenting with some basic video approaches (trying to pan), IOC, monitoring the FPV, and smooth ascents/descents, I'm also trying to visit a few different places to get practice in different environments.

Can anyone suggest other things I should practice?
Will the Vision+ RC controller and range extender work with the FC-40 as well? I was thinking of purchasing a FC-40 for training as well; however, since I'm modifying the antenna on my Vision+ RC controller, I would like to use the increased performance of the Vision+ controller with the FC-40 if possible.
 
Hello ,

Is the DJI Phantom model for Phoenix R / C Flight Simulator to find somewhere.??
That's exactly what I'm searching.

Regards ,

Jack

plasmo said:
plasmo said:
Great list of stuff to practice!
I wonder if any coders out there area able to program a flight sim on the computer that could use our Phantom 2 controller joysticks to control the sim (for those rainy days when we want to fly but can't, and want to get some practice) hmm...


THIS is what i'm talking about! Would be great to practice this on rainy days with our controllers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt6h3DJ ... e=youtu.be
 

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