Can I trust Litchi & myself for 1st mission ?

[snamvar57]

Hi all,
I have had a P4P for 38 days now ! Besides flying it indoors at first ( not recommended) and on my front lawn a few times (~10), I have not had the nerves to really take it out for a real fly.
I have purchased a nano quad and a Syma X5C-1 to be able to practice flying it indoors and my front lawn without worries (toy class). I have also tried to read/watch as much as I can since there is quite a bit of unfamiliar tech involved.
Frankly I can't get hang of the joy sticks since coordination is not my strength. I could never attend the group aerobics at my gym I bang my nano and Syma around as soon as I yaw !
I have also purchased Litchi and have watched a few videos on how to create mission, POI and Waypoints. I want to fly my P4P up and down my street. I live in the middle of the block, so I start the mission from my front lawn, move to middle of the road, make a left and fly at 98 ft elevation along the road, go to the end of the block, make a U turn and go down the road to end of block, make a U turn and come back to my front lawn.Litchi says this mission takes 2 minutes. I leave in a suburb and the tallest things are trees. 98 ft is safe.
Any other settings I must check to make a safe mission ? I am staring taking video at the first waypoint in my front lawn and stop it and the last waypoint in my front lawn with various homes at different POIs.
I rather this be a successful mission to boost my confidence in this bird than a disaster. Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[snamvar57]

Few details I need to add:
Drone is registered with FAA with info tag inside the batter compartment.
B4UFly says it's safe to fly.
Privacy should not be an issue at that height (98 ft).
Speed is 10 mph all along.
Plenty of satellite signals.
Firmware updated to latest version. dji firmware issue fixed.

How would I get back control of the P4P if something goes wrong ?
Thanks.

 

[Dacon Productions]

Located where? Do you have any proficient flyers around you to get some help and confidence?

 

[drone dude#]

Keep practicing, its key!! Stay in safe / beginner mode until you gain the coordination & confidence mostly in your self, this will lessen the severity (and expense) if things do go a bit sideways.

 

[Alex Baxter]

For your first Litchi mission, I'd suggest you fly somewhere uninhabited, parkland/fields, as you're aware they make a LOT of noise, and you'd draw attention to yourself, which then becomes a 'flying under pressure' situation. Once you've loaded and started the mission, simply switch back to 'P' on the controller, it'll come to a halt

 

[snamvar57]

I actually met someone near me (San Francisco Bay Area/ South Bay/ San Jose) which has a P4 and we flew both around.
I am a hobbyist and really like the capabilities of P4P. I guess using Litchi and P4P, one can set missions in advance and no manual practice is required. Of course, one needs to know how to get manual control from Litchi if things go wrong and that could be of no use if out of range.

 

[snamvar57]

Alex I totally agree with you in not flying in my neighborhood. It has been a total distraction in the past when neighbor 's dog or kid run toward the quad. I want total focus. I will also have my first mission in an open field, in case there is a catastrophic issue with my drone.
Alex I am all confused about your comment of "switch back to P on controller, It'll come back to a halt" !!!
1) I thought the mission is run in the P mode mode with GPS and all sensors active! Am I missing something ?
2) what "comes to a halt" ? The mission or the drone? Then what do I do ?

Yes, it's about building confidence in myself and the drone. It just makes sense to move up it steps. I also need to know the take off landing sequences and how to abort mission and take manual control.
How much can I trust my P4P ?
I read too many posts about people sending their drone for different issues to dji. People also "post" mostly when they have a problem. I wonder what the failure % is.
Thanks for your feedbacks and will keep you posted.

 

[snamvar57]

Ok, reading the Litchi manual sure helps. The confusion is between P3 and P4. For P4, the mission runs in P mode. You abort the mission buy changing RC switch from P to S mode.
I wonder if I can switch back to P mode and bring it back home in P.

 

[tevek]

Ok, reading the Litchi manual sure helps. The confusion is between P3 and P4. For P4, the mission runs in P mode. You abort the mission buy changing RC switch from P to S mode.
I wonder if I can switch back to P mode and bring it back home in P.

You can interrupt the mission at any time by switching out of P mode and regain full control, try to be in line of sight, otherwise it can be a problem. You can also hit RTH after switching off the mission if you have no idea where it is. Similarly, if you lose signal during a mission, the quad will continue on the mission as it is loaded on the quad and not the controller. Since you are fairly new to this, I would suggest simple missions at first and then build on them with various tasks including waypoint actions, POI and the like. Take your time as although Litchi is very good, you don't want to join the list of 'I had a flyaway today' crew.

 

[With The Birds]

I would be getting some flying practice in before even considering a litchi (or other autonomous flight) mission. You need to be proficient in flying so you can take over. If. Your not 100% comfortable you could fly the mission on the sticks don't attempt it in litchi. Your neighbourhood is the worst place to learn basic skills.

Find a quiet obstruction free area and spend the time familiarising yourself with the AC behaviour and honing your skills. Make sure you understand how RTH operates and the effect of various APP settings. Practice flying I ATTI mode also, this will pay off if you loose compass/GPS in flight.

And keep practicing on your nano and syma, if you can master these the phantom will be child's play.

 

[snamvar57]

Thank you. I am still not clear as what I should set the altitude for multiple waypoints. I initially created each waypoint individually (not batch mode) and set the altitude to 99 ft. This means relative to home point.I then read the Litchi manual that says you can have the altitude to be ground altitude by editing in batch mode.
1) Some people had disasters in climbing terrains with altitude set relative to home point.
2) Some people had disasters flying close to water or fields when altitude was set relative to ground.
I also read that some people use google earth to determine the altitude of each waypoint and it manually, but it's not always correct.
Should I always enter the altitude relative to HP for each waypoint ?
Why Litchi doesn't save my batch edit of all waypoint altitudes ?

 

[tevek]

Thank you. I am still not clear as what I should set the altitude for multiple waypoints. I initially created each waypoint individually (not batch mode) and set the altitude to 99 ft. This means relative to home point.I then read the Litchi manual that says you can have the altitude to be ground altitude by editing in batch mode.
1) Some people had disasters in climbing terrains with altitude set relative to home point.
2) Some people had disasters flying close to water or fields when altitude was set relative to ground.
I also read that some people use google earth to determine the altitude of each waypoint and it manually, but it's not always correct.
Should I always enter the altitude relative to HP for each waypoint ?
Why Litchi doesn't save my batch edit of all waypoint altitudes ?

I always batch edit relative to ground and factor in trees, Comms towers etc, relative to HP for me would end in tears due to the terrain where I fly. Not sure why the mission won't save as mine always do, do you not apply and then save the updated mission? You need to save each time to update your changes.

 

[snamvar57]

I am using Litchi 1.15.9 for IOS on my iPad. I simply create 2 waypoints. I edit each waypoint and see the altitude is set to 98 ft (the edit box just says "altitude". I then select batch edit, select all,edit. The dialogue box indicated altitude relative to Home Point. I change it to be relative to ground, change the altitudes to 120 ft and press apply. I then save the mission. When I reload the mission and try to do a batch edit of altitudes, it show altitude to be 120 ft relative to HOME POINT !
Am I doing anything wrong ?

 

[dwallersv]

Hi Sam! Dave here… No you're not doing anything wrong the batch edit dialogue always defaults to relative the home point. So what you do is just set it to what you want. I'm happy to get together with you again anytime if you'd like to do some Litchi instruction. Let me know…

 

[snamvar57]

Hi Dave,
The problem is when I change the waypoint altitudes to "relative to ground" in batch edit and "apply" the change, it doesn't keep that setting ! When I do a batch edit, it still shows altitude to be relative to HP. I save the mission and reload it, the altitudes for each waypoint is still relative to HP !