First flight - questions

[virginblue4]

Just made my first flight with my new P3P and it went great! Absolutely love flying it and am very happy with how responsive it is and the quality of the live stream and recorded footage.

I have a couple of questions though:

1. I calibrated the P3P etc and it was all ready to fly. I was planning on using the auto takeoff feature, however I only had the option for auto land (even though I hadn't actually taken off). So I just chose to manually take off. Any idea why this could be?

2. When I first took off the aircraft drifted back around 2m before it stabilised itself, I'm guessing this is just due to the wind? Apart from this, it stayed perfectly stable the rest of the flight.

3. The footage from the 4K is great. However, I have just watched it back on my Mac and have noticed that every now again (quote often) the footage shakes. Any idea what this could be? I have attached a small sample. I've removed the foam, gimbal guard etc.

View the video here - I don't think Dropbox shows it in HD, but you can still see the shake.

4. To get my props off i had to very gently hold the silver part (motor?) and then twist the prop, is this safe to do? No prop removal tool came with my drone, although I think it should have?

Apart from this, I absolutely loved it! Probably going to take it out again tonight. Just wish extra batteries weren't so expensive!

 

[msinger]

1. I calibrated the P3P etc and it was all ready to fly. I was planning on using the auto takeoff feature, however I only had the option for auto land (even though I hadn't actually taken off). So I just chose to manually take off. Any idea why this could be?

Are you 100% sure you saw the auto land icon? Take another look the next time you fly.

2. When I first took off the aircraft drifted back around 2m before it stabilised itself, I'm guessing this is just due to the wind? Apart from this, it stayed perfectly stable the rest of the flight.

Your Phantom should only drift with the wind when it's in ATTI mode.

3. The footage from the 4K is great. However, I have just watched it back on my Mac and have noticed that every now again (quote often) the footage shakes.

Try calibrating the gimbal in the DJI GO app.

4. To get my props off i had to very gently hold the silver part (motor?) and then twist the prop, is this safe to do?

Yes, that's the proper way to remove the props.

 

[virginblue4]

Are you 100% sure you saw the auto land icon? Take another look the next time you fly.

100% sure. When I pressed it, it said something along the lines of 'slide to land', the person who I was with also saw it. I should have taken a screenshot.

Your Phantom should only drift with the wind when it's in ATTI mode.

That's what I thought. It literally drifted for 1 second on take off and then stabilised itself. I'll see what happens on the second flight.

Try calibrating the gimbal in the DJI GO app.

Will do.

Yes, that's the proper way to remove the props.

Thanks

 

[virginblue4]

One more quick question - When holding the left stick down to descend, can that cause the motors to shut off? Or will this only happen on the ground?

I realise if you perform the CSC action in the air the motors will cut off and the quadcopter will fall out of the sky, but was just wondering about holding the left stick down?

 

[pilotpeter]

Nope the motors won't shut down when holding down all the way while in flight. Some including myself try to not descend with full down stick while in a stationary position due to vrs. Although I've never experienced it with the phantom due to the firmware limiting the descent rate,,, why tempt fate. I always keep a slow lateral movement if I'm going to descend rapidly.

 

[virginblue4]

VRS?

I do actually have one more question (sorry ). I will do a gimbal calibration later. IMU calibration, I haven't done one of these. Should I? If not, how can I tell when it may need to be done?

Thanks again!

 

[msinger]

When holding the left stick down to descend, can that cause the motors to shut off? Or will this only happen on the ground?

It will happen whenever your Phantom stops descending for about 3+ seconds. That means you could also do something like hand catch your Phantom and hold the left stick down to shut down the motors. It doesn't really know when it's on the ground. It assumes it is after it can no longer descend.

 

[msinger]

VRS?

VRS is very rare with the Phantom 3. You can learn more about it here.

IMU calibration, I haven't done one of these. Should I?

It's a good idea to do it before you first fly your Phantom, after installing new firmware, or after crashing/dropping your Phantom.

 

[KennyJr]

VRS?

I do actually have one more question (sorry ). I will do a gimbal calibration later. IMU calibration, I haven't done one of these. Should I? If not, how can I tell when it may need to be done?

Thanks again!

I did an IMU calibration before I took my first flight after updating firmware. Using a bubble level I made sure the table I was using was perfectly level then did the IMU calibration and gimble calibration. I then went outside and calibrated the compass.

 

[KennyJr]

VRS - vortex ring state. If you bring the drone straight down too fast it causes VRS causing the props to lose lift.

 

[teccer]

1. I calibrated the P3P etc and it was all ready to fly. I was planning on using the auto takeoff feature, however I only had the option for auto land (even though I hadn't actually taken off). So I just chose to manually take off. Any idea why this could be?

auto takeoff will not show if you have already performed CSC to start the motors.

 

[Meta4]

VRS - vortex ring state. If you bring the drone straight down too fast it causes VRS causing the props to lose lift.

There are no cases of this ever happening with a P3.
I have tried hard, descending from high up in still air and but the P3 is immune.

 

[matti]

3. The footage from the 4K is great. However, I have just watched it back on my Mac and have noticed that every now again (quote often) the footage shakes. Any idea what this could be? I have attached a small sample. I've removed the foam, gimbal guard etc.

The Dropbox video seemed very smooth to me. Maybe your computer can't play H.264 encoded 4K video without stuttering. I have an ancient 2009 Mac mini that can playback 4K P3P footage just fine if I let Final Cut Pro first optimize it to ProRes 422 format that does not need so much CPU/GPU for playback.

 

[virginblue4]

Definitely not a smooth video. I've got the entire 20 minute flight video and the majority is ok, but there are a few shakes now and then as shown in my video, it's definitely not my Mac. I've played it on my iPhone and iPad and it's showing the same, there gimbal is physically moving / shaking.

I've just completed a gimbal calibration and am about to take it out on another flight so will see how it looks.

 

[impilot51]

I agree. I don't see anything in the Dropbox video.

I take it back...I see the shake. Did you replace the video? It seems different that what I viewed the first time.

Anyways, seem like distortion of some kind, not gimbal shake. You have a nice smooth descent going there, don't think there is anything wrong with your piloting. I would send that clip to DJI personally.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[KennyJr]

There are no cases of this ever happening with a P3.
I have tried hard, descending from high up in still air and but the P3 is immune.

I've never had it happen either. I've only had to bring it down quick once when I spotted a MedStar chopper in the distance and wanted to make sure I wasn't anywhere near it in case it flew my way.

 

[virginblue4]

I've just watched back my second flight and it's still there unfortunately. Any ideas?

In the link I posted look at the trees on the left and you'll clearly see it. It's doing this on my Mac, iPhone, iPad and DJI Go app so it's definitely an issue.

What's best to do now? Contact DJI?

 

[diveguy]

I've just watched back my second flight and it's still there unfortunately. Any ideas?

In the link I posted look at the trees on the left and you'll clearly see it. It's doing this on my Mac, iPhone, iPad and DJI Go app so it's definitely an issue.

What's best to do now? Contact DJI?

I would suggest getting 15-20 flights under your belt before worrying about troubleshooting minor issues. A large part of getting great footage is learning how to become a proficient, confident pilot and that comes from experience flying in a wide range of conditions and areas.

As for the camera shake, just inspect the gimbal and settings and make sure everything is set correctly, and try different camera settings as well (frame rates, etc). If you notice the same thing in all of your first 15-20 flights, then work on that issue.

You will learn a LOT from spending time flying, and there is a lot to learn before the software and flying becomes completely intuitive.

 

[matti]

OK, I took another look at full screen and there are a few frames where the video shakes a bit. But I don't know if it relates to the camera, AC, wind, SD card, flight mode etc.

I'd check if all FW is up-to-date (even new FW can be buggy though...) and re-calibrate IMU, gimbal, compass, RC and reformat the SD card in the AC. Visually check the AC. What else? Troubleshooting these things is a challenge.

 

[virginblue4]

Thanks for the responses. Firmware is completely up to date, it was the first thing I did. I will try to re-caibrate everything again and i have formatted the SD card 3 times. I'll have to have a close look at the gimbal.

Really irritating as it's ruining all my footage