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P3 and P4 owner comparisons to Mavic

John Locke

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I would like this thread to get posts from owners, or former owners of P3A/P3P and P4 that now have a Mavic in their possession for comparison. The areas of comparison that would be helpful to others I think are:
1. Signal connection integrity. Do you get spontaneous video or control signal disconnects in areas that you didn't with your P3A/P or P4? How does the signal strength penetration compare?
2. How does the flight range compare in open clear LOS areas away from suburbia (ideal no wifi areas)?
3. Does anyone use windsurfer with Mavic with similar enhanced range like P3A/P?
4. How does the craft handle in comparison. Does the lack of the long landing of Phantom help improve handling, you think?
5. Do you really never have to worry about props in the video view at any speed?
6. How does wind affect the flight in comparison to P3/P4? Better or worse?
 
I would like this thread to get posts from owners, or former owners of P3A/P3P and P4 that now have a Mavic in their possession for comparison.
John I have a Phantom 3 and now a Mavic Pro

1. Signal connection integrity. Do you get spontaneous video or control signal disconnects in areas that you didn't with your P3A/P or P4? How does the signal strength penetration compare?

I have flown the Phantom in a number of conditions. I live in area where I can safely put them both out. I really haven't done that with the Mavic because I haven't really had a chance to go to the location where it's safe to do it. What I can tell you is this. I have about 15 flights on the Mavic. Occusync is unbelievable. In all flights I haven't had as much as a single blip in video or TX control. I have yet to lose TX or Video connection. In areas where I have had brief signal loss with the Phantom you simply don't with the Mavic. Honestly, the limitation to this birds range is the battery. I did have one chance to get the Mavic out. I flew out to 16K feet on a windy day without any signal loss and to be completely honest the video was crispy clean the entire flight.

I even compared the flights in healthy drones to check for "signal errors." The P3P showed double the errors on the same flight. For the most part the Mavic was 0 or around 8. I don't really know what that means but it is a metric where the Mavic was at least twice as good.

2. How does the flight range compare in open clear LOS areas away from suburbia (ideal no wifi areas)?

You will fly out and come back because you don't have enough battery not because you don't have signal.

3. Does anyone use windsurfer with Mavic with similar enhanced range like P3A/P?

Currently I have absolutely no reason to fly with windsurfer on the Mavic. None, like I said I have flown the P3p out to 19K feet in a very remote location along a mountain base. On that flight video was interrupted several times and the remote had to be pointed exactly as shown in the manual. Mavic same location video was locked in crystal clear never even blipped once. Truly I let the RTH kick in at 16K feet because I just didn't want to risk not getting it back. It was a little windy (a review in HD showed average windspeed above 10 gusts at the highest flight altitude was 29mph) So the answer is I don't need windsurfers for the Mavic. Distance fliers need a battery mod.

4. How does the craft handle in comparison. Does the lack of the long landing of Phantom help improve handling, you think?

The Mavic flies more like my Hubsan.. Very responsive I think the center of gravity would let you flip it if the gains and flight controller allowed the angle. I love the Phantom in that it is very smooth i'm sure you could bang it around if you wanted but the Mavic is agile, quick and incredibly responsive.

I have not and probably will not hand catch it. Unlike the Phantom the Mavics props are very close to your arm. I am not comfortable trying it. Landing it in the wind etc is not nearly as precarious. The points of the Mavic that contact the ground during landing are directly under the front props and on the rear of the body so there really is no tip over threat. The biggest issue is prop clearance. I look for a hard surface or really short grass. I really can see no way to crash it on landing aside from the rear props hitting something. Tall grass or sand would be a problem, you would need a landing pad.

5. Do you really never have to worry about props in the video view at any speed?

No, honestly I haven't even looked at video on the card yet. I will test it but thus far the only time I see props on screen is when I am in sport mode.

6. How does wind affect the flight in comparison to P3/P4? Better or worse?

Pretty much exactly the same.
 
Very exciting Mojo, thx. I'm glad to hear about the OcuSync prowess. Sounds pretty nice.
 
Very exciting Mojo, thx. I'm glad to hear about the OcuSync prowess. Sounds pretty nice.
I can say this about it. It is incredibly clear on my iPhone 6 maybe it is the screen size that makes it look so clear. Don't know but it's rock solid. Even on my one "not recommended" test flight.
 
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