Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

*NOTE: before taking it out for its first flight, grab a Sharpee and write your phone number on it clearly with the words "REWARD". If you lose it, you just might luck-out with a phone call. You may want to put the reward amount on there, too. $50-100 is well worth it if someone calls. ====== Okay, this is too cool. First I should state that I have *never* flown a radio-controlled aircraft. Never, as in zip. What drew me to this was that it's made for use with GoPro cameras, which I already own, and I needed a new way to use the camera. Mine is the original GoPro, and although the DJI Phantom includes an open "basket" to hold your camera, it also uses the same GoPro mounting bracket elements, so I kept mine in its GoPro case (for protection) and hung it upside-down from the Phantom. Anyone with a GoPro camera knows that it's very easy to invert the video ride-side up. I put mine together after watching the five videos on the DJI site (Amazon deletes URLs in reviews, so I'll add the URL to a comment), but I do recommend downloading the PDF instructions from the DJI site, also, since no instructions are included with the Phantom. Their reason for this is that it's their way to make sure the instructions are always current and up-to-date. Okay, I'll buy that (I guess). There are firmware upgrades made available via USB, but we Mac-users are currently out-of-luck. You do not need the upgrades except for advanced features (at least for now). I assembled my Phantom with no problems (again, after watching the five videos) and headed out to a large field. It was fairly breezy. Since I really didn't know how to use the controller, except for setting it on GPS and where the throttle was, I calibrated the compass, set it on the grass, turned on the Phantom, and slowly raised the throttle. It immediately tipped forward, without leaving the ground. The second time it did the same thing. I had wondered how it would balance itself with the weight of the camera on the front, and I discovered it technically didn't. So, as to try an option, I loosened the GoPro mounting screw and tilted the camera back to where it was looking almost straight down, but it made the Phantom more center-weighted. Sure enough, the Phantom lifted straight up on the third try. I'm sure there is a way to have it lift-off with the camera pointing more horizontally, since the vibration of the props quickly permitted the camera to rotate into more of a horizontal view. Since only the throttle was known to me, I just slowly raised it to full throttle with a cross wind, and it went probably as high as it will go, and simply remained stationary while hovering. It was windy on the ground protected by trees, so it must have been quite windy at altitude. I did slowly rotate the copter while it was up there, and it was well above the communications tower used by our law enforcers, which seems taller than a typical cell tower. You'l notice the horizon dipping on the left or right. That's how the Phantom stays stationary in the wind by using its GPS. It must lean into the wind. I brought it all the way back down, hovered it in front of a interested stranger, moved it towards me and set it down, with a bounce. I decided to test the homing function by turning off the controller. For those who don't know, when the Phantom losses connection with the controller, it automatically enters "go home" mode. It climbs to 60 feet, and makes a beeline to its home position, which is where it took-off from, all by using the GPS. Once it loses that connection with the controller, it will not regain it. Turning the controller back on will do nothing while it's heading home. That was about the time I realized I really messed up, as I wasn't paying attention to the tree branches that extended far out over my Phantom, about 20 feet up. I was sure I was watching the destruction of my Phantom when it hit those branches. But after battling them for a few seconds, it ricocheted out into clean air and righted itself. Whew, I thought (but it wasn't over). Because it was using its GPS to climb and head home, as soon as it righted itself, it headed right back into the tree to continue its climb. Pieces of branches were flying everywhere. It retuned to the tree three times total, and when the tree spit it out after the third time, it hovered down low enough for me to grab a skid. Amazingly, the Phantom suffered *no* damage. None. A fully charged battery will keep it aloft between 10-15 minutes, so I already ordered an additional one, and will probably order more. They take over an hour to charge. Some users have referred to the "jello" appearance to the resulting video. I now know what they mean. I understand, though, that it's cause by the propellers vibration which are not perfectly balanced. Knowing that, I ordered a Top Flite Power Point (Magnetic) Prop Balancer, which should substantially reduce, if not eliminate the jello effect. All-in-all, it was really fun ... I've got new plans for it now. I may even upgrade my GoPro. I got home and the instructions made more sense to me, even though I had not read them before flying. This is truly a high-tech toy for adults. Without a GoPro camera, I'd probably get bored with it in short time, so make sure you have a camera, too. I edited this video down from about 10 minutes. ======== ADDENDUM: Quick note, but I was dead wrong about the maximum altitude the Phantom can achieve. On my second flight, it just kept climbing as it disappeared into the clouds. I lost visual, and was sure I'd never see my Phantom again. I didn't notice the the throttle stick does not revert to center when you let it go. It stays where you leave it, and for me, that was full throttle. From calculations based from DJI's web site that it climbs 6m/second, which means it attained an altitude how somewhere between 5000 and 7000 feet. I didn't realize until I got the video back. This is *not* good, though, since untiI I saw the video, I didn't realize I was in controlled airspace. Do *not* do this. Keep you Phantom in visual range at all time, or risk getting arrested, or even worse, causing a flight accident. You should not fly it at over 400-500 feet.