The Mavic Air is so small that sometimes I do lose sight flying in open blue skies, I really try to keep the line of sight but sometimes I lose it, so I just hit the home button.
If you've ever noticed that there are times when you see the flash of a full sized aircraft's lights that catches your eye before you actually see the plane? It's called Averted Vision The right strobes placed correctly makes a huge difference. You still might look down and lose sight of the drone but generally I can see mine up to about 3000' out in daylight depending on the conditions. In low light or dark background, you can see them at a mile out or further. I don't fly long distances anymore and follow the rules (FAA) as much as possible but the strobes let me go much further than without em. Even though you still are supposed to see your aircraft with your eyes, I still always keep a pair of binoculars handy to assist if something goes wrong. Strobes might also help if your quad goes down hopefully making it easier to find.
Some people interpret the line of site rule as being able to fly within the range where you would be able to see and avoid full-scale aircraft. I don't think anyone can really see a Mavic at more than a few hundred yards.
I don't know (And wouldn't care to guess) what other countries consider Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) is but in the US of A it means:
seeing your aircraft with unaided vision (glasses or contacts which are allowed) and being able to determine direction AND orientation of the aircraft. If you can't do those things then you are very UNLIKELY to be able to See & Avoid should the need arise which is our most basic requirement for flight in the NAS. Don't take my word on it this is from the FAA Part 107.31
(a) With vision that is unaided by any device other than corrective lenses, the remote pilot in command, the visual observer (if one is used), and the person manipulating the flight control of the small unmanned aircraft system must be able to see the unmanned aircraft throughout the entire flight in order to:
(1) Know the unmanned aircraft’s location;
(2) Determine the unmanned aircraft’s attitude, altitude, and direction of flight;
(3) Observe the airspace for other air traffic or hazards; and
(4) Determine that the unmanned aircraft does not endanger the life or property of another.
I think it's VERY important to note the difference between Line of Sight and Visual Line of Sight.
Line Of Sight - Distance between 2 points... say from your eyes to a distant mountain top with no obstructions in between. Visual Line Of Sight - Being Able to see the sUAS with unaided eyes and able to determine location, attitude, altitude, and direction of flight
I bought some of the Cree Strobeon standalone LED strobes in various colours and tested on an M2P and still lost track in a clear sky whilst it is sunny, I was thinking about attaching some small stick on mirrors I found on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Removable-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=G1WTS4K068RTP07ZNECV to see if these might make it a bit easier, I would just stop and rotate and hopefully get a reflection in the sky, or that's the theory! This is one of the advantages of the Phantom it was just that bit bigger. Totally agree with most of the comments flight further than I can actually see the thing is not on my ops list, but sometimes in the sun it can be easy to lose if you need to look down, however this is on extreme cases as normally I dont fly out to far without s spotter (sometimes members of the public that are interested make great spotters!
The strobes work awesome in the dark or at dawn or dusk though White being the best then Green I use velcro (sorry hook and loop!) and place on the red and green on the rear legs and 2 white ones on the front facing forward, and one facing down they are pretty bright It a shame there isnt a function for the Mavi2 to use the landing lights as a locator I bet they would be pretty bright during the day just to put them in strobe mode for a few seconds to help find it as you should be looking on the map to get a good idea of where it it anyway.
I decided to get the neon green wrap for mine, hopefully this will help with the brightness of the neon green,
can anyone recommend which lights work the best?
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