What a great weekend it was for flying the quad over London. Sunny blue skies, little wind, and a big open field in Blackheath to take the Phantom out on it's first proper outing.
Reading the advice being given on the forums, the batteries for these things take a little while to bed in and you're supposed to only go down to 50% charge on the first few flights, rather than deplete them completely. I'm just about on that threshold now with the 2 that I have at the moment, so the next flights will be longer. But yesterday, I still managed to get about 30 mins in the air with the 2 batteries I have. Which was good because I had my new Natural Density filters from Polar Pro with me to test out.
I'm not an expert, but from what I have read, the ND filters block equal amounts of all light wavelengths, effectively acting as a pair of shades on the camera. This is good supposedly because it allows you to shoot in manual mode with the camera and set the shutter speed lower which is supposed to give better motion blur in the footage you capture. So I took my wife with me over the park yesterday; her intentions were simply to get a bit of sun, and in no way show any interest in what I am doing with the quad. I'm ok with that!
We found a nice spot and I set everything up, got the bird in the air and just carried on doing what I have been doing recently. Practising moves, trying to improve my flying capabilities and hopefully ending up with some good aerial footage to put together in a short video for posterity. I enjoy working with Final Cut Pro and the raw footage almost as much as I enjoy actually flying the bird, and the more you play with it the better you get at both.
So the filters are on and the bird - I'm calling it CargoBob from now on - went up in the air and I was having a great time. It's amazing though, even in a big park like Blackheath, just how quickly you can get in to a spot of bother with power lines, kites flying, tall trees etc. CargoBob is such a capable little quadcopter, and you can easily forget how quickly this thing can zip around in the air. Before you know it you're on top of something you really didn't mean to be and it's even more concerning just how easily you get sucked in to watching the video feed and not the surroundings. Luckily there were no close calls yesterday, but the presence of kits very high up in the air, and a helicopter coming in to land that appeared from nowhere and was actually under CargoBob by the time I noticed it were enough to [sensibly] bring the days flying to a conclusion.
I'm looking forward to getting the bird up in the air in a less densely populated area - beaches and countryside - where there is less to worry about. This coming weekend I'll be heading to Wales to catch up with some friends and head out to some picturesque locations. Until then, take a look at Blackheath viewed from above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f44O9tA7tlo
So it was on to flight # 3 last night. Back to the usual spot in a park near my house, each time I go there now I feel a little more comfortable. In the last few days I have been playing around with the camera settings, testing out what video speeds render well and generally getting to know the P3P a bit better. There's a pre-flight checklist you're supposed to go through when flying these thing, due to the many settings and modes but it's surprising just how quickly you forget to do this when the excitement of getting it up in the air takes over.
I noticed on the Pilot app on my iPad that there's a Pilot Rating in the profile section, I guess that's looking at basics like how many flying hours you have. Not sure what else it would be looking at to give you a rating, but nevertheless mine is woeful at the moment. Very low - but that's not surprising. I've only logged around 1 hour in total flying it so far, and practise makes perfect. So my mission last night was to try doing some controlled moves with the quad, and just get more comfortable with it.
I followed some tips I found in this great little guide on photography and the settings to make it better http://phantomfilters.com/ebook/phantomfilters_eBook.pdf so most of the settings were already in place by the time I got to the park. The gain and expo settings seem to make the thing a little less on edge when flying - it's basically turned down the responsiveness when applying the throttles and is supposed to result in smoother footage - we'll see!
The thing that got me this time however is that there is a pronounced metallic rattling sound coming from the quad when it's under throttle - idling and hovering is fine but as soon as there's any lateral movement I can hear what can only be described as a cats bell jingling over the sound of the props. The more I think about it the more I am convinced it's been there since day 1, I just can't tell if it's getting any worse. I'll have to keep an eye on this - anything loose might spell disaster. As someone kindly pointed out on a forum post I raised though, jingling like this, or rattling, can only be caused by something loose.
So the decision is, do I attempt to find the cause of the problem myself? Or do I send it off to DJI? There's some horror stories from the web of this taking ages and I'm not particularly keen on having to send off my 2 week old quad for a few months to be repaired. Maybe some proper time with it this weekend will yield results.
Anyway, next weekend is what I am really looking forward to - out in the country with it and some friends, I'm really hoping to get some great weather that isn't too dull, and a chance to try out the new ND Filter I have bought.
Photos and Vids coming soon (if the British summer holds out!)
So I have had the Phantom for a week now and I've been gaining confidence flying it every day pretty much. This weekend I was visiting friends near Basingstoke in the UK and I decided to take the P3P (now named CargoBob) with me for a little demonstration. The weather was pretty decent on Saturday so I had a chance to show the thing off a little.
Surrounded by trees and a large housing development however, it wasn't the best place to do any kind of distance flying - you need visual line of sight (VLOS is the acronym I've learnt this week) for this thing to fly so I was really limited to just small movements over the garden I was in and climbing up high so my mates could see the aerial view of their house on the ipad I had linked up to the controller.
If you've never seen one of these things fly, it's pretty cool and will almost certainly have you staring with your mouth wide open as this little bug like thing is zipping around, up and down, side to side in front of you.
At night however, it looks soooooo much better! We took it to another house in the street around 9pm and I did a little flight in the back garden there. You can see the results of this here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acdSELOf4II
Unfortunately I forgot to have the camera on the quad rolling at the same time so you only get the outside perspective but you can easily see how quickly it will climb and fly around in an open space. It''s amazing!
I'm sure the novelty of taking the Phantom over people's houses will wear off soon enough, I'm just trying to get as much flying time in as possible at the moment to feel confident with the controls. I've only just managed to chalk up an hour in the last week because you're supposed to take it easy with the batteries while they are brand new. Next week I think I should be able to do some longer flights though, weather permitting.
The first trip out with CargoBob is planned for 2 weeks time when we're heading off to the Gower in South Wales with some friends - so I am hoping for some good opportunities to film us all by the sea.
I've wanted to get hold of a quadcopter for a while now. Ever since I saw the Parrot AR Drones on youtube, I thought I had to have one. I couldn't really think of a reason that I needed one but I wanted one nonetheless.
Then I saw the DJI Phantom 3. I hadn't really bothered to look for other options while I was considering the Parrot, but when the P3 came along I knew I needed it more than any gadget I've ever bought myself.
Things came to a head in Florence recently when I went to a wedding and found out that the Bride & Groom had a guest coming that also flew drones. Well! That was like a red rag to a bull. I didn't really get the chance to meet the guy as I didn't want to be the un-cool person drooling over it at the wedding but when I saw it in the air at a few moments during the wedding week, the seed was sown.
Fast forward all but 2 weeks and I bought it! I went for the Phantom 3 Professional and I've had nothing but fun with it in the last few days.
It's a serious bit of kit, don't get me wrong. This isn't a toy. But I knew it was going to be amazing. As soon as I ordered it I began reading all the info I could while I waited 2 days for it to arrive. I joined the forums and I read people's stories of triumph and failure.
There are plenty of posts about 'fly-aways' which freaked me out a bit as I didn't want to go out in a field and lose the damn thing on day one. There were other stories about birds attacking these things in the air and unexplained crashes.
Suddenly I began to think I had made a mistake and I questioned my decision to buy one but by that time it was too late - the Phantom was on a fast ticket to South East London.
It arrived in work on Tuesday. Like the holy grail, I paraded it through the office and initially not many took notice. I'm forever getting deliveries to work so I guess it looks the norm. Then when I couldn't contain my excitement any longer I started pointing it out to people to see their reaction. Sad I know, but I was mega excited to get it home and try the thing out. For the rest of the day I had other accessories and things arriving in work until it was time to go home.
When I got home, I did the sensible thing. I waited until I was comfortable with the controls and the app. I didn't take it out that night because I knew by the time I was ready to fly it, it would be too late. So I went to work the next day with only one thing on my mind, leaving work at 5pm.
I was a little nervous. I've never rocked up to a field with a remote control flying blender before let alone had a go of one. So I didn't know what to expect in terms of reaction from people or whether the outing would end in misery.
See for yourself. This is the video I put together after my first attempt at flying one of these bad boys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUPZoObaXMI
