We ended up getting another 5 inches of all day snow on Saturday, temps had really warmed up to around 30. Got up Sunday, cleared the snow and decided to take the Phantom for a quick hop around the patch. Flight temp was around 25.

Yesterday I got a new DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter. The Phantom 2 is a redesigned housing from the Phantom 1, which allows it to carry a much larger battery.  Flight times are spec’d at 25 minutes, a bit shorter when carrying a camera, which is always with me.   Compared to the 8 minutes I’d get on the Phantom 1, this is fantastic.

One other feature I’m SUPER excited about besides the flight time is the waterproof hardshell carrying case I got for it. Everything; quadcopter, props, camera, batteries, chargers, LCD video screen, tools, EVERYTHING, I need fits inside this hardshell protective case. This makes traveling with it soooo much easier, and keeps it safe. The size of this case is even airlines carry on legal.

Once again I got it all from UAVProducts.com. Great, great, great people to deal with. 

Here is a shot of everything in the case ready to go.

I set it up last night, and took it for it’s maiden flight in the basement about 1 AM, as expected, all was good.  I planned to get up this morning and take it for a spin outside.  Of course when I woke up, it was snowing, and continued to snow all day.  Finally about 2:30 PM, I’d had enough and took it out for a quick spin up and down the street while it was still snowing.

Airtemp 9, windchill 2.

Here’s a quick selfie.

And here’s a quick video of the maiden flight in the snow.