Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Another update: After owning my Phantom FC40 for over 3 weeks, today I experienced what can only be described as a fly away. I've owned my Phantom long enough to know it and to fully understand how it works and how to maintain it. Despite routine IMU and compass calibrations and ALWAYS waiting for green lights, I experienced a fly away with my Phantom FC40. In fact I'd performed a compass calibration earlier in the day after returning from a trip. I was flying in a large hay field behind my home. I've flown in this field nearly everyday since owning the FC40. I've never experienced any issues like this until today. I was flying at approx. 100-150 feet when suddenly the Phantom began to free fall. Despite pushing the throttle all the way up I could not maintain any altitude. Moments before impact the Phantom seemed to respond but still slammed very hard into the ground. At this point I assumed the phantom would power off, but it did not. Without any input at that time the Phantom quickly flew upward and to the right of my position. It was flying quickly as I frantically tried to regain control. There were moments when I seemed to have partial control, but the Phantom would not respond long enough for me to land it. After a minute or so I did regain control by switching off the controller and setting it to Atti mode and I landed the Phantom. A close inspection revealed that the landing gear is bent beyond repair. I bent the landing gear back into place. Performed an IMU calibration and compass calibration and took the Phantom out for a test run. It seems to fly ok, but I do need new props and landing gear. I did manage to reach DJI and they agreed that this was not user error and have issued and RMA for repairs. DJI seems to be upping their game in customer support and this it great news. This is an update. After owning my Phantom FC40 for almost 2 weeks it has begun to develop some problems. The battery door is not very secure and on one occasion when the Phantom was flying backwards the battery slid out and disconnected from the Phantom. The battery and the Phantom both fell to the ground. Luckily the Phantom was about 15 feet in the air and the fall did not cause any damage. On another occasion the battery slid out and I was able to land the Phantom. Also the camera mount is not very secure. On more than one occasion the battery mount door will come open and the camera will fall from the Phantom. This happened once when I was landing the Phantom and it was only a few feet from the ground. The second time it happened it fell from about $150 feet and I never found it. I have made two complaints with DJI and they have yet to respond. I'm actually concerned flying the Phantom until the battery door issue is fixed and the battery mount is secured better. I'd hate to have the battery fall out at a high altitude. The video is a short clip of a 12 minute flight I took around our farm. The on board camera takes pictures and live video at a higher resolution, but I lowered the quality so that Amazon would accept the clip for this review. The FC40 camera does produce better result than this video clip shows. I'm giving this quad 5 stars although setup deserves less than a star. Updating the firmware and setting it up is confusing and time consuming to understand. Once you move beyond those steps everything else is a breeze including calibrating the compass. If you are like me and this is your first high tech RC Flyer, I suggest reading everything you can about setup before it arrives. DJI recommends updating the firmware before first use and if you've never done it before, it's confusing. You Tube is your friend and there are a few well made videos which will help you through the process. Don't bother calling DJI. They don't answer their phone. I called several times only to be greeted with a recording and the voice mail in box was full so I couldn't leave a message. Totally useless solution in my opinion. Having worked through all that I'm pleased with my purchase. It's a dream to fly. It's so stable and easy to control. It's very responsive and smart! It stays where you put it (within tolerances) in GPS mode and this is the mode I've been using it in. I'm mostly interested in flying around and I don't care so much for stunts so it's perfect for me. It does have an attitude mode where it will behave more like any other quadcopter (drifting) and while it does not have the same stability as GPS mode it's still very easy to fly. The camera that is included is easy to setup, no problem at all. It works with Android devices and iOS devices. I use an older HTC EVO 3D when I'm flying and after I'm finished flying I connect the camera to my 10" iPad to few the photos and videos. You can also connect the camera directly to your computer via the included USB cable to copy the hires video to your computer for editing. A note about using it with iOS devices. You must select the FC40 camera as your WIFI network under settings before it will work. With android devices you can select the camera within the app so it's a bit simpler in my opinion with android devices. Also before you can use the camera you'll need a micro SD memory card before you can use it, not included. It supports up to 64GB memory cards, I am using a 16GB card that I had on hand. One more thing, the FC40 has a tendency to tilt over when landing especially if it is auto landing after signal loss. If it does happen to tilt over the props on the tilt side will rev up trying to stabilize the quad. If this happens your props will grind into whatever surface you are landing on. For this reason I suggest keeping extra sets of props on hand or catching the quad by hand as it makes it's approach for landing. The FC40 does include 1 extra set of props, but I suggest having more on hand. Unfortunately my local hobby store does not have these on hand and yours may not either. It's sad to be grounded waiting for new props. ALL E RC answered the Phone every time I called and they are very knowledgeable. Shipping was fast and I won't hesitate to order from them again.