Flying Home

CHALLENGE: can I fly my drone 8 kms to my holiday home and land it on the terrace?

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• published: 08 Sep 2016
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NEW FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/nevermindyourown/ NEW FLIGHTLOG: http://healthydrones.com/main?share=rxYQeI After my first failed attempt to fly 8 kms and land the Phantom 4 on the terras of my holiday home - because I lost signal after 1.5 kms - I did a couple of tests to be sure what the behaviour of the Phantom is, so I would be prepared in this next attempt. Now I try again and it's going pretty well actually... Better than last time. Location: Guimar, Tenerife, Spain Introduction: 0:00 Launching: 2:12 Point of no return: 10:15 Signal losses: 11:32 Landing (but where?): 18:38 epilogue: 20:59 aftermath: 23:07 The previous videos can be found here: part 1 - launching and landing at 8kms: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA9690E62ED6D323D part 2 first failed attempt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkl6p0mr4mU part 3 what will P4 do if battery is too low to RTH?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRxEfWOVAlU part 4: this video Equipment used: 1. Phantom 4. Get your Phantom 4 (or other drone) directly in the DJI online shop and I will get a commision so I can keep making nice videos. Use this link: http://click.dji.com/enFDdAlp36VCVUfW?pm=link 2. Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7" screen 3. Antenna mod from dbsmods.com. See my video on installing it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPilopcleF4 A better antenna though is from http://www.fpvlr.com 4. Gopro Hero2 with battery pack on the terrace. Runs for 3 hours, so time enough to record the landing. 5. Gopro Hero3 with body mount to record transmitter and sticks 6. Panasonic HC-V550 camera on manfrotto tripod 7. ADV screen recorder to capture DJI Go App 8, Fatshark Dominator V3 goggles 9. Adobe Premier Pro for editing WAS THIS SAFE? If the signal gets lost, it will return to home, e.g. fly back to me. It means at some point I will get the signal back so I can control it again. Long before the battery runs out, it will start automatic landing. During that procedure, I can still navigate it to a safe place if necessary. 99% of the route was trees, crops and canyons. I passed ZERO people. I passed 4 houses for a fraction of a second. I crossed the street next to my house for a couple of seconds. Their was a green zone before my house that I had investigated and I knew I could even safely crash land there if I had to. So, knowing that the drone was performing well all the time, there was about zero risk to animals, people or properties. If I would have damaged something I would have paid for this, like everybody should when he damages something. The biggest risk I took was that the signal got lost, it would want to return to home, but would not have enough battery for that and then I would have to land it somewhere where I could not retrieve it anymore. Then I would have lost some 1.500 euros. All above was calculated, investigated and considered PRIOR to this flight. See previous videos. I hope this answers all questions :-).