Solo Noise

[rrmccabe]

Had the opportunity to shoot about 50 minutes of video today for the Des Moines Rugby group. Was a lot of fun and required moving fast and never looking up to see where the aircraft was.

I did this with the Phantom P3 as no gimbal of course for the Solo. The P3 was fine but I would consider it borderline distracting to the players at 70' above the fields.

I am afraid using the Solo is not going to work. The Solo is much noisier than the Phantom. I have been flying at my current house for over 2 years and I have neighbors that never knew I had a "drone" till I put the Solo in the air last month.

Have to say this is kinda disappointing.

 

[1013D]

Perhaps better props will help....but it is noisy. The wife says it sounds like a swarm of bees

 

[rrmccabe]

Yea if 3DR would come out with a set that would reduce performance and quiet it down I would buy a set for situations like this.

The phantom is also a steady buzz where the Solo is a pulsating raspy noise.

 

[JohnSal]

From the first instant I armed the motors I didn't like the sound.

 

[Lonewulph]

I thought it was awfully quiet when I first started the motors, then I throttled up and said wow. Definitely prop design, Rich can you do a side by side prop compare? I know the part of the prop closest to the hub is breaking the sound barrier, and possibly the angle of attack of the blades... making it noisier, is the P3 prop thicker there or something?

 

[rrmccabe]

Yea I might do a video and record it with my Zoom recorder and mics and send it to 3DR as they asked for design feedback.

Seriously its an issue for this type of situation. These players are out to win and they don't need the distraction.

On the other hand with the GoPro and my Peau lens with zoom I could have made up for some of that by doubling my elevation.

 

[Lonewulph]

Cool, looking forward to your findings

 

[1013D]

Could be the flexible material they use....might have to borrow the high speed camera from work and take some video....In all my non-existent free time that is.

 

[Jubalr]

Could be the flexible material they use....might have to borrow the high speed camera from work and take some video....In all my non-existent free time that is.

That would be great to see! I bet a lot of folks would be surprised and the flex.

 

[RyanG]

Def record it just side by side.. Should be somewhat easy..

You know you are up now Rich.. Do a comparison now.

Ryan G

 

[Raybro]

That's something the engineers probably didn't think about. Some airscrews with a little less pitch for filming events would probably do the trick. Lower performance but quieter.