"Continuous" flying

[bpendleton]

I'm planning to be flying to capture aerial footage/livestream a festival in a few weeks. I'm not actually sure it'll be practical, but I'm trying to work out what it would take to fly ~continuously (eg, land and swap batteries, but ~95% duty cycle if the skys are otherwise clear). I have access to normal power and will probably at least have a modest pit crew to keep me focused on flying rather than modest logistics.

It looks like it'll take about 3 batteries' time to charge one (~1 hour, for flying to 20-30% of charge). I'm thinking this means I need 4 batteries, plus enough charging capacity to charge all at once (either the simultaneous 3-at-once charger discussed elsewhere (Amazon.com: FSLabs DJI Mavic Pro 5 In 1 Rapid Battery Charger Smart Multi Battery Intelligent Charging Hub: Toys & Games) or I'll buy two additional traditional Mavic chargers). Am I right? Any known downsides to this?

A few additional thoughts:
1) The remote will also run down. I'm probably going to keep it plugged into a charging bank while I'm flying.
2) The phone will probably run down. I'll probably swap between a fast-charging phone and a tablet.
3) Can the *Mavic* take this duty cycle? Will it overheat if I keep it flying nearly constantly?

(Yes, I'm considering safety - I'll probably fly in a dedicated area not open to festival goers, with prop guards as extra safety coverage, plan to pass my 107 test before then, acquire insurance, etc.)

 

[Hollajandro]

Just an observation: you won't be able to charge the remote and have it plugged into a phone at the same time. At some point you will have to either fly without the phone or tablet while it's charging or just wait while the remote charges. Also I believe the prop guards cut flying time in half. Someone may want to correct me on that though.

 

[bpendleton]

Just an observation: you won't be able to charge the remote and have it plugged into a phone at the same time. At some point you will have to either fly without the phone or tablet while it's charging or just wait while the remote charges.

Not so. I found this:

Basically, you *have* to use the USB-A port on the bottom of the remote for your device for the remote to charge simultaneously. But it appears to work. I haven't tested this in the field, but I used a normal power bank and fired up the remote + a phone on the kitchen table for a half hour or so, and the remote actually stayed at 100%.

Also I believe the prop guards cut flying time in half. Someone may want to correct me on that though.

Just to be clear, even just plastic guards, not the replacement props + cages? In any case, I don't have the DJI ones, because they weren't available on their site, just some after-market ones. But, I'll test 'em out and see how much impact it has on endurance, thanks. I hadn't considered that a large factor.

 

[tmoerel]

Perhaps you might also need a spare Mavic and headache pills. Flying non stop will probably fry your brain after a while causing a loss of concentration which has a high probability of leading to a crash! Hence the spare Mavic and the pills!

This might all sound a bit cynical but i am not joking. Flying too long can be dangerous !

 

[Hollajandro]

Not so. I found this:

Basically, you *have* to use the USB-A port on the bottom of the remote for your device for the remote to charge simultaneously. But it appears to work. I haven't tested this in the field, but I used a normal power bank and fired up the remote + a phone on the kitchen table for a half hour or so, and the remote actually stayed at 100%.



Just to be clear, even just plastic guards, not the replacement props + cages? In any case, I don't have the DJI ones, because they weren't available on their site, just some after-market ones. But, I'll test 'em out and see how much impact it has on endurance, thanks. I hadn't considered that a large factor.

That's actually awesome. I thought if anything was plugged into the side port it would disable the bottom port.

I was only talking about the DJI cages. I haven't read anything about the time with the plastic ones.

 

[bpendleton]

Perhaps you might also need a spare Mavic and headache pills. Flying non stop will probably fry your brain after a while causing a loss of concentration which has a high probability of leading to a crash! Hence the spare Mavic and the pills!

This might all sound a bit cynical but i am not joking. Flying too long can be dangerous !

Valid point. I might have to try it out and see what I can take. Chances are, I'll probably not actually be able to fly continuously, for this and other reasons, but I'm running the thought experiment anyway. With a 107 license, I should be able to offload some fatigue, perhaps, by having someone else be my Visual Observer some of the time.

 

[Vilco]

Perhaps you might also need a spare Mavic and headache pills. Flying non stop will probably fry your brain after a while causing a loss of concentration which has a high probability of leading to a crash! Hence the spare Mavic and the pills!

This might all sound a bit cynical but i am not joking. Flying too long can be dangerous !

I Agree, after running through just 2 batteries, all left at circa 20%, I usually am almost fried. Especially if I'm focusing on something in particular, like today's train station and the darn train that I missed, because I was chatting with a guy who happened there while I was flying the Mavic over the train stop. It was a nice chat after all.
BTW the second thing he asked me was "So, with a thingie like this one, you can spy almost everywhere, eh?" chuckles!
For the cronychles, the first question was "How high can it go?", which is by far the more asked in my experience Anyone else?

 

[bpendleton]

Speaking of which, I only have 2 batteries right now - more than I can usually use on my typical days of flying. Anyone be willing to rent one of their batteries for a couple of days (the event is April 29th). I'll pay shipping and warrant the return of a working battery (assuming it arrived working, obviously), but really don't need to buy two or three additional batteries for my own regular use otherwise. PM me if so.

 

[flightmike]

3) Can the *Mavic* take this duty cycle? Will it overheat if I keep it flying nearly constantly?

 

[flightmike]

3) Can the *Mavic* take this duty cycle? Will it overheat if I keep it flying nearly constantly?

Besides the fact of exhaustion can the MP take this kind of continuous flying without damage?

How long has anyone flown for at one time?

I know cheaper quads you have to let cool between flights.

I was thinking about getting 5 total batteries but it sounds like it may be a wast of money.

Thoughts?

 

[erkme73]

If I plug a just-depleted battery into the charger, it usually won't charge until it's cooled down a bit. So make sure you factor in battery cool-down periods in your calculations. Besides the delay, it's probably not best for battery health to charge them when they're hot.

 

[bpendleton]

If I plug a just-depleted battery into the charger, it usually won't charge until it's cooled down a bit. So make sure you factor in battery cool-down periods in your calculations. Besides the delay, it's probably not best for battery health to charge them when they're hot.

Yeah, I did a run last night with the guards I have and mostly hovering - flight time was about 15m from ~fully charged to 30%. And that reminded me about battery cooldown, as well. Going to have to play with the numbers a bit. Looks like I might need 5 total batteries to do this fully continuously, but I might go for only 4 and assume some downtime + cooldown will be necessary, both for pilot and batteries.

 

[Vilco]

You could schedule a 5-10 minute break now and then: every battery, every 2 batteries... in sync with the events going on

 

[bpendleton]

The event is tomorrow. Based on my testing, I won't be able to keep it in the air continuously, but the schedule doesn't call for that anymore anyway.

Currently planning to fly about 2 batteries per hour, and have 4. Hopefully I'll never have to wait for something to finish charging.

 

[Doecliff]

Are you going to live broadcast? To stay aloft and just record doesn't seem like it would be worth it. Even 2 batteries an hour is a lot of footage.

 

[bpendleton]

I'm going to be showing the drone's view live to a large screen nearby at the festival. I may do some live streaming if time and bandwidth permit, but the point of being in the air is to let people nearby on the ground see themselves from a drone's eye view, as well as get an unusual perspective on other large activities (specifically, I hope to capture a protest march that will be arriving across the street from the festival during the event).

Unfortunately, there may be storms, so it's possible I'll miss the interesting stuff, and/or there won't be much of a crowd. We'll see.

 

[bpendleton]

Final update: there *were* storms. I flew probably 50% time from 10am to 1pm, when a thunderstorm shut down the entire festival early. I probably would've been fine with only 3 batteries. The remote stayed 100% charged using the method described above - though my phone would've run down had I not thrown it on a USB-C fast charger during some of the breaks.

I managed to entertain numerous festival goers with live "views from (nearly) above" shown on a large screen nearby, and captured the Pittsburgh People's Climate March as it arrived at its destination across the street from the festival.

And, yes, fatigue was a non-trivial issue I was careful to address... mostly because I was one of the primary organizers of the festival and missed some of my normal sleep in the days leading up to the event, but the added load of flying the drone was certainly not small. One of the ways I managed this was by pre-generating several flight paths in Litchi Hub, which I used during some of my flight time to reduce my flying load from "actively controlling" to "monitoring for safety and ready to jump in if necessary". My pre-programmed flight paths were chosen to be near but not overhead the festival, so I just had to pause or take over controls if anyone ventured near one of those boundaries.