I'm interested in long autonomous missions. I am completely new to this hobby and after losing my AR Drone with GPS during a flyaway I've decided to pursue a more robust multicopter. I really like what I'm seeing with the Pixhawk FC as I like the possibility of messing with the firmware. I've thought about purchasing the Iris+ but wonder if I can achieve the same sort of performance building my own kit, perhaps using a dji flamewheel, mariner, etc. I also plan on doing a lot of water missions on the ocean and am interested in the waterproof Mariner quadcopter which I would install a pixhawk in.
So some questions:
1) I see an average flight time for most well equipped drones with a hero camera and 3D gimbal to be about 15 minutes. However, the DJI Phantom claims are more like 25 minutes. How is it possible that they manage to achieve this or are these claims complete rubbish?
2) What are the main characteristics that extend flight time? Is it weight, air resistance, under powered, battery type, all of the above?
Lastly, back to the marine environment:
3) Has anyone had any experience with the Mariner and pixhawk FC? I really hate the idea of losing my gear in the ocean.
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