Best way to increase visibility?

[Skywalker]

I had an Eachine 511S before my MA. It had some xxxxxxx LEDs you could see anywhere. Miss them. I was thinking perhaps reflective tape?

 

[Sd80mac]

Someone who had it and says its 1200-1500 ft in daytime... it was posted in other thread

I'll have to do a test flight on a moderately sunny day to confirm, but I think I can see my strobes and determine orientation quite a bit further than 1500' away.

I use the same red/green/white leg mounted setup as @Thomas B, but using the Firehouse Strobes that have 4 LEDs per board. I know at night I can see them with enough precision to be able to determine orientation from over two miles away. In daylight I know the distance is significantly reduced, but I think closer to one mile than the 1500' you suggest. That being said, I have never done an actual test to confirm.

@Sd80mac, does your number come from testing?? If so which strobes?? I am not in any way disputing your results, just suggesting my results seem different and trying to understand why...

Thanks,

 

[Sd80mac]

Lets see if i copy n paste correctly...

Strobes for mavic air

Per the pic below with whites pointed rear from the rear legs. Very nice pics. Cool setup eventuallywhen i can get my hands on all 4 with mounts i will go with 2 whites and green and red. Thanks what an awesome hobby i recently got into.

mavicpilots.com

 

[Sd80mac]

And this guy did the testing at night... a mile away.

I left my comment in there to ask op to see if he can do testing in daylight. He replied and said he will...

 

[Deanmarz]

you can also mount different colours on the rear arms as well as the white ones on the front but the coloured ones are not quite as visible as the white @msinger makes front and rear mounts and the strobon cree ones are very light weight as well not sure if you would have to remove them to fold the rear arms i leave my front ones on and just altered the foam in my case to allow the mav to fit

I do the same thing with one white and one red in the front and a white in the rear. These are the best mounts because they are secure and easy to remove.

 

[Earthman]

Recently got a mavic air and have been learning about it overall. One thing I've noticed is keeping track of it, particularly when there's a background beyond the sky is tricky for me.

What are my best options to give the drone more visibility? I was considering the LED prop guards but wasn't sure how that would affect performance.

Any other advice or accessories on ways to improve visibility of the drone while it's flying?

I generally don’t fly so far away that I can’t see and fly the drone safely with unaided VLOS (as required by the FAA); however, I have attached a small, bright-white LED flashlight facing aft using Velcro to facilitate visual orientation at distance. This is strictly to help me to orient the drone quickly if I need to do so for any reason. I mount the flashlight facing aft so I don’t have to worry about left or right in case I’m under any sort of pressure that may tend to confuse me - like when flying a new drone or recovering from unexpected autonomous flight characteristics. Such a light can be purchased for less than $20.

I haven’t tried any of the commercially available “navigation lights” for drones, but some of them may be effective for helping the drone PIC to maintain visual orientation or acquisition of the drone. Still, I wouldn’t count on them as being “anti-collusion lights” since I have not seen any drone “anti-collision lights” that look to me like they could be effectively seen from manned aircraft. This is based on my experience as PIC flying conventional aircraft during all lighting conditions. Even at night, it can be difficult to see navigation and anti-collision lights on conventional manned aircraft, which I assume are much brighter than small LED lights available for drones. The easiest conventional aircraft lights to see from other aircraft are probably white strobe lights and landing lights. Even those can be difficult to see against a background of other lights on the ground.

I don’t think being able to see an LED drone light 3-miles away against a dark sky with no other lights in the background while standing still on the ground really meets the requirements for anti-collision lights. They may meet limited requirements for a drone PIC, but I don’t think they do much to improve safety for manned flights.

I’m looking forward to some sort of standard for measuring the effectiveness (minimum brightness and “angle of visibility”) of drone anti-collision and navigation lights.

It would be good to have a distinctive, standard flash pattern for drone lights as well. Rapid flashing (several flashes per second followed by a second of darkness) may be best. This would help manned aircraft see and identify a drone.

Remember that here in the USA, you need lights that “can be seen 3-miles away” (a poor definition that may need clarified in my opinion) to fly a sUAS a half hour before or after sunset (civil twilight), and a waiver to fly before or after that.

 

[dsmith76]

The field of view of your ipad or googles of 40 degrees +/- is much less than the fighter pilot or photographer's 180 degrees which is increased when the head is on a swivel as they say. The situational awareness of a pilot is much, much better than the drone pilot's FPV as many threats come at you from the side and not head on. As a airplane pilot the first thing I noticed when I started flying drones was the limited FOV of FPV not to mention the lack of depth perception by having one camera and not the benefit of two eyes. Depending on the drone's mission there are many instances where flying sideways is necessary to get a shot and VLOS is the only thing that might keep you from flying into a tree or other obstacle. This doesn't even take into account the times you temporarily lose LOS especially when transitioning from your screen to the sky.

I am not an airline pilot and your comments were very enlightening to me. I’ve started using my DJI racing goggles lately, but as immersive as they are, I still don’t feel comfortable that I know where the drone is in relation to tree branches and other objects. As the googles get better and better perhaps the UAS pilot will feel increasingly as if they are the eyes of the drone. Would two cameras on the drone, one for each eye in the goggles, improve depth perception?

 

[RWD]

I am not an airline pilot and your comments were very enlightening to me. I’ve started using my DJI racing goggles lately, but as immersive as they are, I still don’t feel comfortable that I know where the drone is in relation to tree branches and other objects. As the googles get better and better perhaps the UAS pilot will feel increasingly as if they are the eyes of the drone. Would two cameras on the drone, one for each eye in the goggles, improve depth perception?

Not trying to dispute what @Tractorguy has to say about field of vision, but I was under the impression that you can move your head up and down / side to side, and that the camera will move as you move your head. If my understanding is correct, you could open up your field of vision a bit that way, subject to the limits on camera movement. Does anyone have sufficient experience with the Goggles to verify (or not)?? Thanks in advance...

 

[RWD]

And this guy did the testing at night... a mile away.

I left my comment in there to ask op to see if he can do testing in daylight. He replied and said he will...

Thanks a bunch @Sd80mac. It is hotter than hades here in Houston right now. Some hope for slight cool down later in the week - I'll try to do some daylight testing then. I may try to confirm night distance this week too.

 

[MavicFlyer]

I use strobes and have an Iridescent skin on my MP. It reflects the sun pretty good on sunny days. Something I spin the drone to catch the sun. It helps see it if you lose sight of it for a second like when you have to look down at the controls then back up.

I use the Firehouse 4 LED strobes. I would turn on one strobe, and wait a second or so before turning on the next; the interlaced strobes make it easier to see (red...white...red...).

I also put red chrome wrap on all 4 landing gear extensions (both from Amazon.com). When you get the right angle to the sun, the drone stands out like a flare!. If I spin the drone, as you suggest, you'd have to be blind not to see it on a sunny day - sun reflecting off of a chrome finish is brighter than any strobe! BTW, in case anyone is curious, my arrangement is essentially covering the antennas in the front landing gear (one side of each), but there is no discernible drop in range - I've gone out to about 2000 ft, if I maintain an unobstructed LoS.

 

[MavicFlyer]

I am not an airline pilot and your comments were very enlightening to me. I’ve started using my DJI racing goggles lately, but as immersive as they are, I still don’t feel comfortable that I know where the drone is in relation to tree branches and other objects. As the googles get better and better perhaps the UAS pilot will feel increasingly as if they are the eyes of the drone. Would two cameras on the drone, one for each eye in the goggles, improve depth perception?

Yes, two cameras on the drone, with two video streams, and one display for each eye would help to some extent, but would still not provide the peripheral vision you would get if you were "in the drone". Not worth the complexity and $$$, IMO. Also, even with stereo vision, your ability to judge distance falls off the further out you go.