Hi All, been lurking for a month or so in preparation of my arrival that came yesterday. This is my first post. After reading 100's of forum posts, articles online, FAA regulations (I'm a licensed pilot but didn't know Drone regs...now I do), and watching tons of YouTubes, I jumped into the P4P. I thought those new P4P pilots and those thinking "should I get it" might enjoy reading this compared to all the various stories that make you shudder wondering if you are buying a $1500.00 lawn dart to be 
After reading a lot of horror stories, fly aways, crashes, it appears 99% of these are pilot error. Not going through a comprehensive checklist, compass calibration, checking all your software settings in your DJI Go 4 App, RTH settings (or Litchi) In order to not make that mistake, hopefully my homework has paid off. It's been raining like crazy for a month, hail, wind, and still going, but might get a break between systems tomorrow afternoon (I hope). I'm in N. Cal.
Here is my journal of what I went through from arrival until flight ready (tomorrow). My experience so far has been painless! No issues with anything, and tonight my stress level has gone down from the unknown if it's all going to come together or have an issue day 1.
GETTING IT ALL READY: I am using an iPad Air 2, P4P with Intelligent Batteries and the Triple Charging Cradle. Upon opening the box, I noticed how fantastic and compact everything was. The foam box is solid, very impressed and the lock is very cool and works well. After unpacking everything, I charged all my batteries and remote control overnight. I have seen a lot of folks saying they got plastic mounts on their controller but that must of been a separate order because mine is metal (the part that is attached to the device holder).
P4P FIRMWARE UPDATE: Today, I connected everything, inserted the battery, turned it on and prayed I had no errors. Everything connected immediately on the 5.8ghz band. Immediately I was told FIRMWARE UPDATE from my iPad (has 4g service) and I connected the iPad to the P4P and started downloading the firmware to 1.02.0304 (82.1mb). *** Battery should be over 50% to do this *** process. Download took 12 minutes and the update took 8 minutes. All through the iPad. Seamless! Contact will be lost on the iPad during the update but upon completion, it reconnected with no issues. I rebooted the P4P as after any firmware update a reboot is always a good idea and required with computer equipment so I rebooted and reconnected immediately.
CONTROLLER UPDATE: Next was the controller update which was super simple. A pop up occurred in the DJI 4 Pro software and I pressed the update. Download on this with much quicker and then the update occurred with 5 minutes. Restarted the controller and I was done.
I set all my setting I desired from RTH options and height, camera settings, video settings (these will change outside but I played with the settings for inside and walked around with video and stills and it was AMAZING. Super crisp images, auto focus with single touch on the screen was fast and accurate.
FORMAT SD CARD: Next I formatted my new SD card I purchased (it's a 100mb/s write/read) so compared to the little 16gb card that comes with it I opted to put a 64gb in. With shooting video and RAW/JPG I was concerned I would fill up the 16gb if I was traveling.
SIMULATOR: I fired up the simulator in the DJI app and was expecting some jerky laggy software simulator but it was butter smooth. Very fun to check it out and in 10 minutes you're bored to death ready for the real think. I did some RTH's, manual landing and take off's, CSC experimentation (never pull those controllers in and down all the way at each other or you are in big trouble. I knew this but practicing so you don't do that or realize you are maybe doing something that is getting close to that is important to realize.
This is my first drone but as a photographer that's my #1 desire, not to just fly a drone around. The 1 inch sensor is why I bought this compared to the Mavic. Waited 2 months for the Mavic and finally cancelled and got this and glad I did.
BAG: I purchased the SMATREE DP3000 on Amazon and was happy to see the foam case fit inside perfectly. The bag looks like a slightly oversized backpack but no one would suspect a drone inside.
Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I can get out to the park for 3 batteries worth of flying within a small area to test all the features thoroughly. Hopefully my experience will continue to be problem free (at least from myself). The DJI Pro 4 app is great, I really like how easy it is to jump around and make changes.
Cheers!
After reading a lot of horror stories, fly aways, crashes, it appears 99% of these are pilot error. Not going through a comprehensive checklist, compass calibration, checking all your software settings in your DJI Go 4 App, RTH settings (or Litchi) In order to not make that mistake, hopefully my homework has paid off. It's been raining like crazy for a month, hail, wind, and still going, but might get a break between systems tomorrow afternoon (I hope). I'm in N. Cal.
Here is my journal of what I went through from arrival until flight ready (tomorrow). My experience so far has been painless! No issues with anything, and tonight my stress level has gone down from the unknown if it's all going to come together or have an issue day 1.
GETTING IT ALL READY: I am using an iPad Air 2, P4P with Intelligent Batteries and the Triple Charging Cradle. Upon opening the box, I noticed how fantastic and compact everything was. The foam box is solid, very impressed and the lock is very cool and works well. After unpacking everything, I charged all my batteries and remote control overnight. I have seen a lot of folks saying they got plastic mounts on their controller but that must of been a separate order because mine is metal (the part that is attached to the device holder).
P4P FIRMWARE UPDATE: Today, I connected everything, inserted the battery, turned it on and prayed I had no errors. Everything connected immediately on the 5.8ghz band. Immediately I was told FIRMWARE UPDATE from my iPad (has 4g service) and I connected the iPad to the P4P and started downloading the firmware to 1.02.0304 (82.1mb). *** Battery should be over 50% to do this *** process. Download took 12 minutes and the update took 8 minutes. All through the iPad. Seamless! Contact will be lost on the iPad during the update but upon completion, it reconnected with no issues. I rebooted the P4P as after any firmware update a reboot is always a good idea and required with computer equipment so I rebooted and reconnected immediately.
CONTROLLER UPDATE: Next was the controller update which was super simple. A pop up occurred in the DJI 4 Pro software and I pressed the update. Download on this with much quicker and then the update occurred with 5 minutes. Restarted the controller and I was done.
I set all my setting I desired from RTH options and height, camera settings, video settings (these will change outside but I played with the settings for inside and walked around with video and stills and it was AMAZING. Super crisp images, auto focus with single touch on the screen was fast and accurate.
FORMAT SD CARD: Next I formatted my new SD card I purchased (it's a 100mb/s write/read) so compared to the little 16gb card that comes with it I opted to put a 64gb in. With shooting video and RAW/JPG I was concerned I would fill up the 16gb if I was traveling.
SIMULATOR: I fired up the simulator in the DJI app and was expecting some jerky laggy software simulator but it was butter smooth. Very fun to check it out and in 10 minutes you're bored to death ready for the real think. I did some RTH's, manual landing and take off's, CSC experimentation (never pull those controllers in and down all the way at each other or you are in big trouble. I knew this but practicing so you don't do that or realize you are maybe doing something that is getting close to that is important to realize.
This is my first drone but as a photographer that's my #1 desire, not to just fly a drone around. The 1 inch sensor is why I bought this compared to the Mavic. Waited 2 months for the Mavic and finally cancelled and got this and glad I did.
BAG: I purchased the SMATREE DP3000 on Amazon and was happy to see the foam case fit inside perfectly. The bag looks like a slightly oversized backpack but no one would suspect a drone inside.
Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I can get out to the park for 3 batteries worth of flying within a small area to test all the features thoroughly. Hopefully my experience will continue to be problem free (at least from myself). The DJI Pro 4 app is great, I really like how easy it is to jump around and make changes.
Cheers!
