(Slightly) Crowded Airspace

[pogbellies]

I decided to go to one of my favourite spots last night to get some footage of my local area at sunset. As I parked up, I noticed another operator with the exact same machine, (a Pro 2) setting up nearby. This made me wonder about proximity risks.

I have read that flying close to another operator can lead to a flyaway, does anyone have experience of this?

After watching for a while I called it a night to leave him in peace since he was there first but afterwards thought about whether it would be risky to have flown.

Any thoughts most welcome.

 

[Thomas B]

Don’t believe there’s a problem.
I often fly with a friend and we launch, stand and fly as close as 4-6 feet... we have LOS and communicate intent to each other frequently. Below is a link to a 30sec video he took of my M2P from his showing mine in flight. We are standing right beside each other in the video by the black cars.

DJI_0259.MP4

drive.google.com

 

[Brockrock]

I took this with my M2P. My nephew was flying my P4 standard. We stood about 15’ apart. No issues whatsoever. Do not however, simply rely on indicated altitude read outs to create comfortable separation. They can be off quite a bit, and this can result in your actually being at the same altitude when the read outs are different.

 

[4wd]

I seem to remember a DJI statement that a certain number could be flown together without issue - it may have been 12. Presumably the auto selecting of clear channel is happy up to that point but add one more and they all crash
In practice controllers operating close together isn't ideal, you might have reduced range and FPV feed breaking up sooner than normal.
It's *unlikely* control signals would somehow get crossed, probably far more likely to be not 100% sure which was yours at some point - coud go badly wrong.
I remember being perplexed when my white phantom was not moving as expected, then realised it was a seagull

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I was once flying my MP and son his P4, standing about 5 metres (15 to 20 feet) apart.
I had no issues with my flight, but at one stage son pretty much lost control input and the P4 came down awkwardly, thankfully with only minor prop damage.
I have flown my spark in close proximity to my Brother in law and his Mavic Air with no issues.

 

[pogbellies]

I was once flying my MP and son his P4, standing about 5 metres (15 to 20 feet) apart.
I had no issues with my flight, but at one stage son pretty much lost control input and the P4 came down awkwardly, thankfully with only minor prop damage.
I have flown my spark in close proximity to my Brother in law and his Mavic Air with no issues.

That’s interesting, do both the MP and P4 use Ocusync?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

That’s interesting, do both the MP and P4 use Ocusync?

Possibly.
I think the phantoms also used lightbridge for some models, but not sure which.

 

[DanMan32]

P3A and P are lightbridge.

The transmission protocols and being digital will prevent AC takeover, but there will be a point where all channels get occupied and someone gets jammed.

 

[pogbellies]

The guy I saw had another M2P so we would both have been using OcuSync 2.0. I guess that should have enough capability to cope with two aircraft in the same vicinity.

The only other factor would be houses within 200m of his take off position and the associated wifi possibly causing interference. Does OcuSync 2.0 cope with wifi interference reasonably well?

 

[Bigbird48]

We have a meetup group and theres several different types of birds all flying at the same time, never saw a problem.

 

[Bill combs]

I decided to go to one of my favourite spots last night to get some footage of my local area at sunset. As I parked up, I noticed another operator with the exact same machine, (a Pro 2) setting up nearby. This made me wonder about proximity risks.

I have read that flying close to another operator can lead to a flyaway, does anyone have experience of this?

After watching for a while I called it a night to leave him in peace since he was there first but afterwards thought about whether it would be risky to have flown.

Any thoughts most welcome.

you don’t have anything to worry about,i fly with a dji club not to mention my 3 dji drones and have never had an issue