Trusting the technology

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As a relative newbie I'm starting to trust flying further and further out.

I've practiced using RTH and know it works well but I still get more nervous as it gets further from me.
I'm sure this is normal but how long did take for you to start feeling comfortable?
 
It took me a while. At first I didn't even want to take it very far. I've flown it lots of times and only once pushed it to it limits and took it 1.3miles. I was very nervous. And still am taking it a quarter of a mile. It takes time. Just remember, don't take it farther than you are comfortable taking it.

Happy flying and fly safe!
 
It took me a while. At first I didn't even want to take it very far. I've flown it lots of times and only once pushed it to it limits and took it 1.3miles. I was very nervous. And still am taking it a quarter of a mile. It takes time. Just remember, don't take it farther than you are comfortable taking it.

Happy flying and fly safe!
I have my max distance set around 300 meters and that distance starts to get me nervous.
I'm sure I'll get better and it's fun trying. [emoji4]
 
Love to take mine to the max, it was about 3 months in when I sent my P2V out to 2000ft, then I got an extender and sent it out to 6000ft, was a nervous thing that one, I've since upgraded to the P3A and within a month I had it out to 7000ft then 8000ft and yesterday I went out to over 10000ft, I would have gone further but litchi had a panic attack so I came home

Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones
 
It all boils down to practice and repetition and knowing how RTH works.

I bought my first drone --- a Phantom 2 Vision+ --- in July 2014 and didnt want to fly it more than 200m from me when I first flew it. Eventually, once I got comfortable with the controls and flying by FPV live video, I was able to fly out a mile or more using my FPVLR booster kit. Once I got my P3P, I was fully hooked on long-distance flying and now I can fly out 3 miles and back on a calm day without breaking a sweat, and that's using stock batteries. Of course, there are extremists out there with battery mods flying out 10 miles and back, so the long distance addiction can get nuts! :p

The most important thing is to always survey your surroundings to look for hazards, as well as do pre-flight research on Google Maps. Any time I fly somewhere new, I always check the anticipated flight path on Goog Maps and see where the cell towers and high-voltage power lines are. Also look for small airports since they can be hidden away from main roads. Once you know where those are, then you can confidently head out into the great blue yonder and trust your FPV and telemetry to guide you home.

If you get hooked on long distance, then I would suggest buying a real-time GPS tracker such as the Flytrex Live 3G. Sometimes when I fly out really far I will lose FPV and telemetry, even when RTH is activated and I'm confident the bird is on it's way home. It can be really nerve-wracking when you are 12,000 ft. out and you have NO info. that the bird is flying on a straight line back to you! At least the Flytrex Live 3G will tell you it's coming home and you can breathe easier :D
 
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Took me about 3 weeks. I went from a P3s and the rth worked all the time. But with the P3s range sucked, so I sent it back and purchased the p3p with Alfa panels went 11k rth worked perfect every time. Could have gone further but was flying around the forest before I took her further.

Just make sure as part of your flight check to make sure the app is set to RTH if disconnected and you should be fine.
 
P3S took it out last weekend and made it 7000 feet before return the home kick in rth is great I use it all the time
 
As others have noted, if you have confidence in your RTH settings and don't panic when you have a signal disconnect event, you will be fine. I started out with a PS3 and was excited going out 1.8 klms and seeing it come back on RTH controller disconnect. I now have a modded P4 that has no trouble with 12 Klm round trips, but you still get nervous with one eye glued on the battery level and the other on the horizon. You need a lot of faith in the technology but it's there and you may as well use it.
 

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