Am I hearing things?

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!)