Just bought P4P, now what? (New Pilot)

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

So, I just bought a P4P; technically my second drone, but the first one was a toy.

I've heard great things about Litchi, how well (read "easily") does it pair with the P4P? Any side effects (I.e. Nausea, etc) to be aware of? Is it worth the $25?

Anything else anyone can offer for a baby drone pilot? Looking for those "if only I had known" types of advice.

 

[Brockrock]

Although it is dry going, you should read the full manual prior to flying and not rely on the 'quick start' guide to get it up in the air. You really want to know and understand what the copter's per-programed behaviors are so that there will be no sudden surprises. Understanding Return to Home (RTH) is critical, as well as battery level messages, and what will happen automatically as the battery drains down.

Don't worry about Litchi just yet. Yes, it is great software that has even more functions than DJI GO4, but you want to get comfortable flying with and understanding the GO4 App's settings first. You will still need it for some things, even if you end up primarily using Litchi later on.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

I'll get that reading done between now and receipt-day. ^_^" Thanks for the suggestion.
Anything you'd recommend paying special attention to, in particular?
I've watched _hours_ of P4P reviews/footage/"Let's Play" videos. I even watched the DJI series from their website. >_<

 

[Jim Roof]

So, I just bought a P4P; technically my second drone, but the first one was a toy.

I've heard great things about Litchi, how well (read "easily") does it pair with the P4P? Any side effects (I.e. Nausea, etc) to be aware of? Is it worth the $25?

Anything else anyone can offer for a baby drone pilot? Looking for those "if only I had known" types of advice.

1. Keep it in beginner mode for your first flights. No harm in limiting the range a bit until you get more comfortable.
2. Always check the props before you fly. KNOW that they are one solid. It IS possible for you to THINK you have put one on when you have not. Not terribly possible, but I did it once. Pushed it down and turned it and thought it had snapped into place. It had not. Check the play in each prop to make sure they are all on solid.
3. Know the are in which you will be flying it. Many buy these and then learn that they live inside of controlled airspace where drones are not allowed without an FAA waiver or letter of authorization.
4. Resist the temptation to add prop guards to your Phantom. Many believe they cause too much turbulence and can even result in the Phantom rolling over in mid-flight and crashing.
5. Do NOT confuse the downstream video cache on your controlling device with the video file that is written to your on board Micro SD card. The on board cache video will be glitchy, be full of dropped frames and even though it is being recorded in 1080p, it NOTHING like the video that will be stored on the Micro SD card.
6. Learn how to make smooth movements. If you want beautiful video you will need to learn to control the camera with finesse. The most frequent offenders are yaw and the pitch of the camera. You can change the response of the camera pitch and add some 'buffer' so that it comes to a fluid stop. I also have changed the response curve of my yaw axis on the controller.

If you are doing FPV (you mentioned nausea) then you are operating outside of rules of operation for Part 107 Certified UA Pilots if you are flying it solo. You should use a second person as a visual observer unless you are out in the middle of nowhere and there is not chance of another aircraft being in the area. Me? I would not do it. There is always the chance of something unexpected and FPV is like wearing blinders.

Finally, from the great movie "What About Bob?"... baby steps. One thing at a time.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

You guys are great! <3 Thanks for the response. ^_^

I will likely follow @Brockrock's advice and delay FPV until later, and I'll only be using my drone with my roommate present, so second set of eyes will always be present.
As for FAA airspace, i have the glorious (read "terrible") luxury of living only a few blocks from an air field. ( So I'll have to take a trip to get into unrestricted airspace.

In reference to the cache video vs the video saved to SD, I'm assuming that you're implying the SD video is much higher quality?

As for smooth movements related to video capture, that sort of finesse will come with experience, not something I can "train" outside of flight time, right? As for adjusting yaw response time/buffer I'm assuming those settings are in DJI GO4 app?

 

[srosen]

For a beginner, like it says above, understanding what Return To Home will do in different situations is more than critical-it will most likely be the cause of mishaps. One mistake I read on the forum from beginners crashes is you need to know if you initiate RTH and you are within 65' of the home point, the drone will land immediately and not go to the home point. In many cases that does not matter, but in many cases it will such as when flying over water 65' from the home point may be the water and not land.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

O_O
I'm SO glad you said that (although, I'm literally in the middle of reading the manual from "cover" to "cover")!

That's scary! :O

 

[kbviper]

A couple of lessons I learned flying a P4 with an iPad Air 2. I had the settings so video cached on the iPad. I have a lot of apps on the iPad (16 gb) and while flying disconnected from the P4. Could not get it to reconnect. It went into RTH mode and came back and landed safely in front of me. I checked the storage space on the iPad. Totally full. You need unused space to fly. Disabled video caching and deleted a bunch of apps from the iPad.

Something that happened on another occasion, iPad disconnected, I could not get the P4 to reconnect. Thought it was in a tree. Ran to the area. I could hear it, but not see it, got louder when I put up the throttle, but was fading. Restarted the DJI Go app as I frantically ran from tree to tree listening. Rebooted the controller, as it fired up again, I heard the engines throttling up as it reconnected and I got a message that it was RTH do to low battery.

When I was looking in the trees for it, it was hovering directly above me. I cancelled RTH and brought it back to where I was and caught it, very relieved. Lesson, iPad may disconnect, but you may still have full control.

Other good tips. Only take off with a fully charged battery. Become familiar with RTH. I used it a lot as I got my P4 in January and my hands got cold. Stay away from trees and wires. Don't fly too low too fast. The P4 will slowly sink as it goes along. I recommend hand catching. The only mark on my P4 happened after I landed it after my very first flight and it scuttled sideways, tipped, and jammed under the front of my car. Be careful with the sport mode. Eats battery and needs a lot of distance to stop from speed. Watch the wind. There is often much more wind the higher you go. A number have lost their units when they got blown away or did not have enough battery left to fight against it. When I have 30 percent battery left, I want to be close to home. Sign up for the air data website. Great to track and follow your flights there.

Sorry if I got a bit carried away. Good luck.

 

[Jim Roof]

You guys are great! <3 Thanks for the response. ^_^

I will likely follow @Brockrock's advice and delay FPV until later, and I'll only be using my drone with my roommate present, so second set of eyes will always be present.
As for FAA airspace, i have the glorious (read "terrible") luxury of living only a few blocks from an air field. ( So I'll have to take a trip to get into unrestricted airspace.

In reference to the cache video vs the video saved to SD, I'm assuming that you're implying the SD video is much higher quality?

As for smooth movements related to video capture, that sort of finesse will come with experience, not something I can "train" outside of flight time, right? As for adjusting yaw response time/buffer I'm assuming those settings are in DJI GO4 app?

The cached video will be useless for anything relating to production. It may help you keep a catalog of your last 'x' number of takes, depending upon how much memory you have dedicated to it. It could also help a client if they insist on seeing something really quickly. You will also probably not be able to play back the 4K or h265 videos at all until you get back to your serious workstation. So, think of the cached controllers videos as 'previews' and not your production files.

The finesse comes with experience and practice. At first I would often forget which way the gimbal pitch wheel works. I would want to pitch it down a few degrees while shooting, but would go the wrong way - then comes the correction, ruining that take. I had to come up with a phrase to remind me. 'Coming right up'.

The gimbal settings are in a separate area of the settings menu. I think there are two settings - EXP and Buffer (going from memory). I now have mine set up so there is a fairly significant lag to b the start and finish of the gimbal movement (pitch), but I know what to expect now and it is pretty easy. It feels to me like there is a lot of 'viscosity' to that control now, but the results are buttery smooth. You just have to anticipate what is going to happen. When the gimbal stops or starts there are no sudden jerky motions at all. Yaw is harder to control. I have mine set to a very forgiving EXP curve but it can still come out jerky if I am not very controlled with that stick.

I also opted to use mode 3 for my controller. That way I can alter the altitude with my right hand while controlling the gimbal pitch with my left. I can take the camera from 400 feet to ground level now and the horizon barely budges on the way down. That would be impossible for me to do with the mode 1 or mode 2 setups.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

Thank you all for so much advice! ^_^

All of this is a bit information overload, but I'm sure will make much more sense one i have the P4P in my grubby little paws!
The drone I have used thus far uses an identical control setup as the P4P, so I'll likely stay with Mode 2, at least for now.

 

[Fester]

Thank you all for so much advice! ^_^

All of this is a bit information overload, but I'm sure will make much more sense one i have the P4P in my grubby little paws!
The drone I have used thus far uses an identical control setup as the P4P, so I'll likely stay with Mode 2, at least for now.

I'm a noob to the Phantom world too, but based on past flying experience from Full Size to RC fixed wing...watch all the you tube videos of the idiots who should not have any drone larger than the palm sized sort, then don't do what they do Then watch the ones that are actually pretty good and informative.

 

[kbviper]

I went from a Parrot AR 2.0 drone to a P4. Going from a Model T to a Ferrari would not do the difference justice in my opinion. Flying the newer drones reminds me of the "tag line"of the old Othello game - "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master".

Read up on, and research, Litchi, I have never used it, but is seems like a great program, but there are quite a few crashes posted by those using it, the vast majority of which were likely caused by "pilot error".

The last suggestion I would make is to spend as much time as you can doing queries and reading posts on these forums. You can learn a lot from the mistakes of others and the vast majority of those on this site will help you in any way that they can.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

Yeah, I plan on taking it slow once I get my P4P... lord knows I don't wanna total it the first day. >_<"
I've been scrolling through the threads here, watching tons of YouTube videos, and I read the manual cover-to-cover.
My biggest conundrum right now is figuring out all the FAA rules and regulations; especially because I live in close proximity to an airport and a bunch of medical centers (helipads).

 

[Nick Wenzel]

My biggest conundrum right now is figuring out all the FAA rules and regulations; especially because I live in close proximity to an airport and a bunch of medical centers (helipads).

My recommendation is to download AirMap on your device. Not only does it have wind speed, but it comes with a bunch of 'layers' that you can switch on and off like No Fly Zones, airports, helipads, national parks, etc. and it will tell you if the area you have chosen is drone-friendly or not.
I think you should find a large, open park that is free from any NFZ's near your area and practice there for a while until you have built up confidence. Good luck!

 

[Alan Russel]

Tips for a new plots...always be aware of weather conditons, if there is any wind about always fly into it so you will have a tailwind comming back and don't fly over water until you have honed your flying skills,( one mistake here
and bye bye drone.)

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

Question: Where/how do ya'll label your drone with your FAA#? Do you just stick the lil registration card in the battery compartment? Permanent marker doesn't sound like a good idea, but I'm kinda at a loss.

 

[Fester]

Question: Where/how do ya'll label your drone with your FAA#? Do you just stick the lil registration card in the battery compartment? Permanent marker doesn't sound like a good idea, but I'm kinda at a loss.

I used one of the office type self-stick labels and trimmed so that it wouldn't cover the DJI label at the bottom of the battery tray. Make sure also that the label isn't on one of the small battery guide tabs.

 

[stevengw]

Thank you all for so much advice! ^_^

All of this is a bit information overload, but I'm sure will make much more sense one i have the P4P in my grubby little paws!
The drone I have used thus far uses an identical control setup as the P4P, so I'll likely stay with Mode 2, at least for now.

I stayed in beginner mode for several flights. I also downloaded UAV Forecast app. Gives me a quick weather and restricted area info in one bundle.

 

[Jay-Renai_Nyleve]

I flew its maiden voyage today, and two subsequent flights! ^_^" ERMAGERD! So much fun! Had it in a pretty safe place, and took a (short) spin in Sport Mode, but scared myself cuz it was so fast. Lol.
Won't be revisiting Sport Mode for a LOOOOOOOONG time. Lol.
For now, I'm gonna take my time getting used to its nuances, getting comfortable with its controls, and taking pretty pictures. Haha.
Again, that you <i>all</i> so much for all of the guidance. <3