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stehsegler said..

Mark _australia said..
But you mentioned sensitivity, do these not have adjustable expo around centre on the sticks though?

You can tweak exp, gain and sensitivity in software. Seems to be no way of saving them as presets though.

You can't adjust the mechanical feel of the sticks. Apparently it's possible to do minor adjustments by opening the controller and tightening some screws. I sometimes find yaw creeping in while throttling up or down.

I do wish though DJI would implement a "minimum altitude" setting. I talked to them about it and apparently quite a number of people have asked for it but there are currently no plans to implement anything. The idea is to prevent you from accidentally slamming into the ground or water while flying very low.

How easy are these things to fly and how easy would it be to lose control in say 18 - 23kts? I'm guessing if it falls into the water it's a bin job?

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Zed said..
How easy are these things to fly and how easy would it be to lose control in say 18 - 23kts? I'm guessing if it falls into the water it's a bin job?

You don't really "loose control" with a drone unless you there is a signal loss. Products like the DJI have an intelligent flight controller. Unlike say an RC helicopter, that will drop out of the sky, a drone will more or less hover in place using GPS once you let go of the controller.

That said there are a few things to watch out for when flying in wind. Firstly take off and landing need a bit of pre-planning. It's easy to flip the drone on landing so it's usually better to "catch" it. The maximum wind it can fly in is roughly equal to it's top speed. Exceed that and it will start drifting down wind.

Once you hit the upper limit the drone will also fly at a significant angle. I found this can sometimes lead to regular loss of GPS signal. At that stage you are flying manually and the drone will only be able to hold altitude but not position.

Look at it this way. To hire a helicopter depending on size is around $1600 an hour. For not much more you get a drone.

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stehsegler said..

Zed said..
How easy are these things to fly and how easy would it be to lose control in say 18 - 23kts? I'm guessing if it falls into the water it's a bin job?

You don't really "loose control" with a drone unless you there is a signal loss. Products like the DJI have an intelligent flight controller. Unlike say an RC helicopter, that will drop out of the sky, a drone will more or less hover in place using GPS once you let go of the controller.

That said there are a few things to watch out for when flying in wind. Firstly take off and landing need a bit of pre-planning. It's easy to flip the drone on landing so it's usually better to "catch" it. The maximum wind it can fly in is roughly equal to it's top speed. Exceed that and it will start drifting down wind.

Once you hit the upper limit the drone will also fly at a significant angle. I found this can sometimes lead to regular loss of GPS signal. At that stage you are flying manually and the drone will only be able to hold altitude but not position.

Look at it this way. To hire a helicopter depending on size is around $1600 an hour. For not much more you get a drone.

Cool thanks for that info. I'm keen to get one.

Is this the same as yours? Is $819 a good price?
https://www.modelflight.com.au/dji-phantom-3-standard-rtf-drone.html

Don't get the Phantom 3 Standard. The minimum you want to get is the Phantom 3 Advanced. The main difference between the advanced and the pro is that the pro can record 4k video the advanced records 2k. Both the Advanced and Pro have a Sony Exmore camera sensor. The Standard has a low cost sensor. The resulting video footage is not as good.

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stehsegler said..
Don't get the Phantom 3 Standard. The minimum you want to get is the Phantom 3 Advanced. The main difference between the advanced and the pro is that the pro can record 4k video the advanced records 2k. Both the Advanced and Pro have a Sony Exmore camera sensor. The Standard has a low cost sensor. The resulting video footage is not as good.

yup cool, thanks. Probably aim for the Advanced, 2k will probably be fine, quality wise.