DJI - Phantom 3 Professional

I recently purchased a phantom 3 professional, then installed Litchi on it to give advanced features. I am also considering using a mod such as "Drone Hacks" on it as well. At that price, for $350, if you weren't going to use it yourself, you could easily flip it if you don't mind sitting on it for a few weeks. These drones are still usable. They don't have some of the more modern features, but they have the most important features.

I feel like the whole software updates thing is just a way for tech companies to make us buy more stuff. I have a Phantom 3 pro that hasn't been updated in ages and it flies fine. Repairs are not super hard to do your self. Part's might get hard to find. But then you can always order a used part from Canada if you need it. The FCC retro actively banning frequency use is really the threat in my opinion.

2015 wasn't bad at all. The Phantom 3 Pro is stellar, and for its time was revolutionary. Mine still flies perfect.

About 7 years ago my neighbor wanted to buy his first drone, he was around 65 at the time. I had a Phantom 3 Pro sitting in the back of the closet and told him I'd sell it to him for a hell of a deal...which I did. I told him that he shouldn't just take off right away and start flying it around and instead let me spend some time with him to walk him through some things...which I did. Spent about 2 hours showing him the basics, what to look out for, it's limitations, all the settings in the app and so on. Before I went back home I told him that for now he should just fly it in a wide open space and keep it pretty close practicing the controls, getting used to them when the drone is going away from you and then coming at you. I suggested he do this until he got the eye and hand coordination down and could control it without having to think about it too hard. Then only when he got very comfortable with it did I suggest that he should start going higher, further, and faster. He said, "OK....I'll do that.". A few days later he came over with the drone in pieces. On his very first flight he flew the thing at full speed right into a fir tree. "I wanted to see how fast it would go" was his reasoning. OP, I think you should do these baby steps that I mentioned above for your first, or get a very cheap drone off Amazon and practice with that until you're comfortable with flying a more powerful and more expensive drone. But now that I know you old farts won't listen to us younger people I have little faith you'll listen. 😉😁

I’ve been trying to get my phantom 3 going and can’t seem to. Doesn’t seem to recognize my phone at all. I’d say buy something that you can get support from

Just practice flying it above the trees/powerlines so there is nothing to hit. I started with a phantom 3 then Mavic air 2 as well as a range of other drones and I’ve never needed insurance. Filming a challenge/zipline course without 360deg cable detection was a little bit of pucker factor but I was fine. Getting up through trees to an open area requires some skill but get that competency by flying in increasingly complex environments starting with zero obstacles and taking it slow. You don’t need to navigate obstacles at 50km/hr+.

I agree, but xag says it is the world leader in the segment, it is on its website. I've been using DJI since Phantom 3, I have nothing to complain about, I love their products, they meet my needs, I work with DJI T40 daily, solid system, but I'm curious to try some technologies that XAG has that DJI doesn't yet have... Competitors are arriving in silence but unfortunately for professional use, their focus... I would like there to be competition for consumer use so things improve for everyone in terms of technology and innovation.

It’s just the opposite for me. I had a phantom 3 first, then the Inspire 1. Even since then, all of the drone have been much smaller. I do miss the Inspire. It did really good in wind and had better payload capacity.

If there’s no interference between your controller and the drone and you’re on top of a mountain that’s very doable. About ten years ago I was out by the Superstition Mountains in AZ and flew my phantom 3 out to around 40k feet and made it back. No wind at all which is obviously a huge factor for distance.

A lot of the restrictions have to do with genuine safety concerns that could easily be regarded as nuisance rules but let's not forget one thing: it's because of a massive surplus of dumbasses in the general public that these common sense rules are needed at all. I didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about until I started to follow drone courses and trainings and then I understood. Problem is that people think drones are cool toys, and maybe they are when used withing the proper guidelines, but in the wrong hands they can (depending on the size/weight) take out the power service to a community, or a jet or an ambulance heli from the sky. Toys or not, they are considered aircraft and fall under the same laws and regulations as recreational and commercial aircraft. Once that is made clear, then it's easier to decide if buying/and flying a drone really is something you want to do with your free time, especially if you're living in an area with limited opportunity for drone flight. I can tell you from personal experience that after the initial kick from seeing what my Phantom could do, I got a bit bored and the thing just collected dust in my office. That was back before COVID and at that time the laws were evolving so I got nervous just thinking about taking it out. Plus, I didn't dare fly too far with it because of the stories of unreliable reception with the controller. That's all changed now seeing how far the tech has come in the last 6 years. Now the main motivation of taking the drone out is all about the camera on board. For me, it's just a flying camera to get a perspective you can't get from the ground.