DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Have you tried night flying?

Blucenturion

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2017
Messages
373
Reactions
180
Age
80
I am in my first ten days with my Mavic, first drone for me. I was curious what it'd feel like to take it up after dark, so I made a takeoff from the backyard. OMG! I touched the right stick inadvertently when I'd meant to do a straight vertical ascent, thankfully I had enough altitude to make it over the fence! But after recovering, I never could be sure which direction I wanted to steer, it's hard to explain, but without knowing which way the front was facing, I couldn't be sure which input would yield what. Is this a learned art?
 
  • Like
Reactions: PSHulett
Yes... orientation is learned through practice. If you practice in close quarters with a Mavic, make sure you have care refresh because you are going to crash it. I learned inside with a Hubsan X-4... it cost $32 and has cheap replaceable parts. Can be flown in doors or outside. When you crash it you don't need an RMA , care refresh or insurance. You pick it up put the pieces that work back on and replace the broken ones. Takes about 10 seconds to pop the frame back in place. I flew it into the wood burning stove FCOL. Replaced the 4$ prop guard that melted and the two props that burned up... and kept flying. My suggestion would be no more night flying for you until you have mastered daytime flying in wide open spaces... I also recommend getting a cheap trainer to practice flying . A couple of weeks and a few busted props and you will be ready. Much cheaper that way.. Hubsan X-4 ~$38 Mavic ~700 sans transmitter.. the math is easy here ..

Enjoy it and fly often.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: halley
My first flight ever was a night flight. Since you can always see the orientation of the drone in the map view and also with RTH it's not sketchy at all.
The home lock function does the rest to make any flight time easy.
 
Night flying is great, a whole different experience - just take it slowly especially if your still getting to grips with flying


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots
 
My one tip. Be careful on landing. I've got used to it slowing down on descent and hovering a moment despite full stick down before finally landing after a few seconds. This is vision sensors etc doing their thing. When I did it in the dark, I did the same, through habit and it took a rather hard landing.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using MavicPilots mobile app
 
Do the Mavic sensors even work when night-flying? I would think it would be too dark. Also interested in trying this.... I was going to start by just flying it straight up about 300 feet and not going any other direction, then bring it down...

Would downward sensors even detect the ground and it would hover at 4 feet off the ground?
 
anyone gotten those LED headlights?
 
Did most of my flights at night, within LOS..

so far so good.. an Obstacle avoidance will not work at night.. landing wise, I always hand catch, so no worries.

So far night flying is ok, no worries, because I always fly higher than anything that it might hit.'
only issue I found (but havent confirmed yet) is that Fixed Wing mode wont work at night...
 
Switch the camera to manual and turn all the gains up all the way, longest shutter speed, highest iso, etc. The image will be grainy but you can see pretty well. Sport mode make nights exciting this way.
 
I flew at night lastnight, second day i owned it. Couldnt see a thing on the screen, i turned it towards me and the lights of the house. Now everything is reedish on my screen? What could be the problem?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Drones Ace
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,597
Messages
1,554,231
Members
159,603
Latest member
refrigasketscanada