Hi Friends,
Just posting this for the record. I was flying the Mavic Pro on December 21, 2017 at 11:30AM EST in NW Connecticut and running an automated waypoint mission at 350' AGL in a forested setting. 12/21 was the winter solstice, with the lowest daytime solar altitude occurring at 11:27 AM EST. The mission flew east and north, and once it turned to the south and met the sun head on, the controller started vibrating and reporting Obstacle Avoidance. The machine essentially would not move and I could not regain control by flipping from WP to FPV mode. After a few minutes, I turned off the transmitter to trigger RTH and she came back home. I did the usual web research when I returned home and found that the forward obstacle cams often get confused with low solar angles at sunset or sunrise. Well, it seems to be the case when flying with low solar angles during the day at the winter solstice and surely at higher latitudes as well. Again, just posting this in case anyone else had similar trouble or in case someone has ideas/thoughts on this. My solution is to run a zig-zag pattern when facing the low-angle sun.
Just posting this for the record. I was flying the Mavic Pro on December 21, 2017 at 11:30AM EST in NW Connecticut and running an automated waypoint mission at 350' AGL in a forested setting. 12/21 was the winter solstice, with the lowest daytime solar altitude occurring at 11:27 AM EST. The mission flew east and north, and once it turned to the south and met the sun head on, the controller started vibrating and reporting Obstacle Avoidance. The machine essentially would not move and I could not regain control by flipping from WP to FPV mode. After a few minutes, I turned off the transmitter to trigger RTH and she came back home. I did the usual web research when I returned home and found that the forward obstacle cams often get confused with low solar angles at sunset or sunrise. Well, it seems to be the case when flying with low solar angles during the day at the winter solstice and surely at higher latitudes as well. Again, just posting this in case anyone else had similar trouble or in case someone has ideas/thoughts on this. My solution is to run a zig-zag pattern when facing the low-angle sun.
