Dji’s Phantom 3 Advanced UAS

I recently acquired one of the latest pieces of the puzzle in aerial technology, DJI’s Phantom 3 Multirotor.

If you haven’t heard of DJI then you are new to radio control. DJI have long been around, mostly offering flight controllers and models in the UAV/camera drone arena.

They are often the drone of choice for the stupid pilots who keep getting us all into trouble because of the easy to fly nature of their platforms. Some of the earlier models required a bit more care and attention to detail than was otherwise given by careless photographers and has resulted in some of the phantoms models appearing in more than there fair share of idiotic drone behaviours.

Nevertheless as a skilled or novice RC pilot with the right moral attitude, the Phantom 3 multirotor is the most advanced and capable radio controlled model i have flown to date.

Primarily it is a small vertical take off and landing craft capable of holding position in the sky exactly where you put it or fly from point to point at 16 metres per second.

So for almost half and hour you can point its beautifully stabilised High Definition camera anywhere you like over anything you want.

Essentially that has been the problem. The drone holds its position almost gloriously under all kinds of conditions. It can be flown with only the barest of input from anyone via a smartphone app, and it hasn’t failed once. Leading many people to ignore the long established rules of model aircraft behaviour, such as:

The model has some very advanced features that are very welcome to long established pilots. It has a ton of sensors onboard including GPS Glonass, ground facing tracking camera, Downward facing ultrasound height sensors, fully onboard telemetry reporting to the extremely capable smartphone app, Live video including HDMI out options on the transmitter. The aircraft is a pleasure to setup and maintain and charge. The aircraft logs absolutely everything and makes it easily accessible, including photos and videos taken, and all input controls and sensor readings, even the battery cell voltages and number of charge cycles.

Would i recommend the P3? If your just someone looking to get involved in the drone craze, then i can’t recommend this to you. If you are a novice or advanced pilot looking for a great fun aircraft to fly around at your local RC field, then absolutley get yourself a Phantom 3.