Phantom fc40 owner thinking of buying an inspire needs help

[toorboy]

hi there guys i have had my phantom fc40 for almost a year now
and i live in Scotland UK i have seen one of these inspires while filming a boating
event in Dundee with 16mph wind my phantom was getting rattled but the wind did not seem
to phase the inspire in any way. as its a windy country at the best of times i
would like something that could handle the winds up here as the phantom struggles
i put a gimbal and gopro hero on my phantom but it zapped the flight times down to six minutes
and i only get it out to 400m by line of sight and the weather this year has been pants
i was going to buy a P3P but its the same issue if the winds to high no point
of flying or the props are in the way of filming. i have never had any issues with the fc40
and only fly in atti i like to be in total control but both inspire and P3P have these fly away
issues and that does scare me as i do not want to destroy an expensive bit of kit
but the more i read into the inspire the more i am falling in love lol
any advice would be very helpful guys
thank you

 

[toorboy]

heres a few questions i would rather hear from real pilots with an inspire
rather than a salesguy trying to sell me one i have watched youtube videos
on the inspire and it does look amazing

1) What is the best tablet to use with the inspire?

2) What kind of max distance are you pulling from the inspire?

3) The tb48 battery how long does it last in flight?

4) Maintenance of the inspire can it be done yourself
Or does it have to go to a dji specialist ever so often and how much roughly
and does the inspire go through a lot of stress?

5) Whats the max wind speed you have flown one in?

 

[Aviator]

In my opinion..
Answers
1. Ipad mini (I use the mini 2 128Gb
2. 2 kilometers on last flight with full signal all the way
3. 16 - 18 minutes (depends on how aggressive you fly)
4. Yes, if you can obtain the spare parts
5. 20mph

 

[toorboy]

thanks aviator how long have u had your bird?
and have you had any issues with it?
iv been reading though the help forum and its scary the amount of
problems like half these machines are knackered and the other half ok
is it really a hit or miss on these birds? :s

 

[Aviator]

Had the bird since Early June
Since the updated FW it has been rock solid.
I was involved with the beta testing and I can assure you that the beta testers gave it a good workout..
Don't be surprised about the negative feedback on this forum because you will never see someone posting that they have no problems at all and that is natural, people usually post for advice on issues or, like yourself advice before taking the plunge.
I am very happy to be using an aircraft that uses bleeding edge technology and I expect that every now and then a little blood will get spilled.
Just let the wounds heal and move forward as the technology moves forward
Best Regards
David

 

[toorboy]

yeh when I bought my fc40 everyone was on about flyaways with the phantom range
so I only flew mine on atti only and never had an issue with her can the inspire
only be flown on atti if that is all the pilot wants as I don't use gps and likes of auto takeoff
and landing I don't think I would ever use as I prefer to do it all myself same as rth I would
only use in emergency but would rather it was in atti all the time I know that sounds weird
but I like to remain in total control

 

[Aviator]

Yes the aircraft can be flown in Atti mode if you wish,
I also don't use auto take off and landing.
I only ever use the RTH function if I have lost sight of the bird for some obscure reason.

 

[Scotflieger]

heres a few questions i would rather hear from real pilots with an inspire
rather than a salesguy trying to sell me one i have watched youtube videos
on the inspire and it does look amazing

1) What is the best tablet to use with the inspire?

2) What kind of max distance are you pulling from the inspire?

3) The tb48 battery how long does it last in flight?

4) Maintenance of the inspire can it be done yourself
Or does it have to go to a dji specialist ever so often and how much roughly
and does the inspire go through a lot of stress?

5) Whats the max wind speed you have flown one in?

Hi toorboy
I would fully endorse what @Aviator says. I too live in Scotland (Buckie, Moray) and I brought the Inspire 1 because of its ability to operate in our windy weather conditions. I have set myself a max wind speed of 10m/s (22mph/20kts) in my Ops Manual and flown happily up to this limit with gusting above. I would not wish to fly it at higher wind speeds. It handles extremely robustly although at these limits you are safer in GPS. I use the iPad Air 2 (for its size and processing power) and iPad Mini 2; we are unlikely to suffer the overheating reported by some users. We are limited to 500m distance VLOS but I have had mine out to 1500m over open ground without difficulty. I get 14-18 mins with my batteries with my low battery warning set at 30%. In most cases any major servicing or structural repairs will require you sending it to a DJI repair centre. I have just got mine back from a new centre in the Netherlands (it cost my £118 to send it and it took 3-4 working days each way in transit). I believe Heliguy in South Shields is now doing Inspire repairs. The Inspire 1 will take a good deal of rough handling. I have (in my early days) clipped and shattered a couple of props but it keep flying. Obviously, a collision into obstacles and trees and a fall from height is likely to break the arms/legs so will very heavy landings.

 

[toorboy]

hi scotflieger thanks for the help buddy
am still thinking it over the now
I dident think the inspire would have
to serviced every 50 flights :s
am still reading up on it lol

 

[Scotflieger]

hi scotflieger thanks for the help buddy
am still thinking it over the now
I dident think the inspire would have
to serviced every 50 flights :s
am still reading up on it lol

The 50 flights I believe is a recommendation simply to visually check that there is no physical damage to the airframe. To be honest this should be done before every flight. There is no need to send it off for this to done. I've completed over 150 flights since new and I only sent it for replacement of the flight controller at DJI's recommendation during the recent beta programme.

 

[toorboy]

scot do u fly over water with ur bird?
most of my flying is over the coasts
I just wondered about that wee sensor
box underneath for reading the ground
am a bit weary of that wee gizmo lol
I read how someone with a p3p tryed
flying off a cliff over water n failed the drone went down and the guy never saw it again
I probably would send it out to sea to film
coastline

 

[Scotflieger]

scot do u fly over water with ur bird?
most of my flying is over the coasts
I just wondered about that wee sensor
box underneath for reading the ground
am a bit weary of that wee gizmo lol
I read how someone with a p3p tryed
flying off a cliff over water n failed the drone went down and the guy never saw it again
I probably would send it out to sea to film
coastline

I fly regularly over the sea (living on the Moray Firth coast) and have some of best film there. The VPS sensor is no problem but I have noticed that if you fly 1-2m above a light surf (<0.5m) the I1 will rise and fall with the waves as they pass underneath.

 

[x5yo]

Don't get an ipad mini (I made that mistake already) its underpowered/unuseable, you need AT LEAST an ipad mini 2.
Either get he ipad mini 2, ipad air, or ipad air 2.

talking from x5 owner pro owner, probably the same for X3.

 

[Scotflieger]

Don't get an ipad mini (I made that mistake already) its underpowered/unuseable, you need AT LEAST an ipad mini 2.
Either get he ipad mini 2, ipad air, or ipad air 2.

talking from x5 owner pro owner, probably the same for X3.

I'm afraid to say that the original iPad Mini is not on the DJI list of supported mobile devices. The iPad Mini 2 and 3 work well but the faster Mini 4 and Air 2 are better. The camera type is irrelevant.

 

[Phil-RCGeeks]

heres a few questions i would rather hear from real pilots with an inspire
rather than a salesguy trying to sell me one i have watched youtube videos
on the inspire and it does look amazing

1) What is the best tablet to use with the inspire?

2) What kind of max distance are you pulling from the inspire?

3) The tb48 battery how long does it last in flight?

4) Maintenance of the inspire can it be done yourself
Or does it have to go to a dji specialist ever so often and how much roughly
and does the inspire go through a lot of stress?

5) Whats the max wind speed you have flown one in?

Hi Toorboy,
If you wanted another pilots 2 cents...
(i fly the inspire pro)
1) I use the iPad Mini 4 - 16gb - wifi version. It performs pefectly. Only flaw is that its battery life isn't great. if you are shooting ALL day, you will have to recharge it at some point or have a backup device. I have also heard a lot of good things about the Nvidia shield but have no personal experience with it

2) We're restricted to the 500m rule so i havnt pushed it further than that but i have gone up to 500m away and it's been absolutely fine.

3) With the tb48 on the inspire pro you get aorund 13/14 minutes. With the tb47 you get around 10.

4) Not all the spare parts are provided by DJI yet but hopefully that will change soon. But in general, it's a very low maintenance bird.

5) I've flown in 30mph winds. It was on a shoot for the met police so I can't show you the footage but the advert should be out around Christmas so i'll send you a link once it's out... from looking at the footage you wouldn't think its 30+mph winds because the bird and the gimbal handles it so well!
Having said that, that was at it's very limit. I would not push it in any windier conditions than that.

Hope that helps