18.2 KM Here is my newest test range Recorded

[Manfred Waldmeyer]

IMHO, nonsense and irresponsible because also in Vietnam people can get severely hurt or die by a drone falling from the sky !

@johnpham: if you, like me and other mavic owners, really love to fly, please fly responsible and safe!

If you need "adventure" and approval how about flying a smooth 20 way point flight with 5 POIs and alternating altitudes MANUALLY?

 

[johnpham]

Definitely, Ian, but those goals are what I would call "legitimate" in that they are official records. How far one can fly an M2 hardly seems to compare.

That's only my recorded

 

[Keithg1]

Personally, I admire Johnphams spirit of adventure and risk-taking although I certainly wouldn't attempt any records, risk losing my precious drone and possibly injuring a person due to a crash.

BUT, I also bet that all you critics are now happy to know the POSSIBLE range..........

18.2 K's....wow!!!!!!!!!

 

[THE WOMBLE]

IMHO, nonsense and irresponsible because also in Vietnam people can get severely hurt or die by a drone falling from the sky !

@johnpham: if you, like me and other mavic owners, really love to fly, please fly responsible and safe!

If you need "adventure" and approval how about flying a smooth 20 way point flight with 5 POIs and alternating altitudes MANUALLY?

Never read or seen an article, video etc where anyone has been killed by a falling drone.
Agree with you about flying responsibly.

 

[MPone]

It's only 9km dude! You don't count the return distance. But thanks for the test flight.

 

[Live LA]

When we all get new regulations jammed down our throats, maybe they will separate out "teenagers" and adults. Maybe the adults who flew by common sense rules and can prove it with flight logs will be exempt. The adventurous Male Brain, invulnerable youth who flew a hundred miles with their drones.... will be sent back to skateboards for recreation.

But they will be hover boards by then... so In that case Im in... lol Jk for me the max distance is facinating because most of the time I cant get my M2p out more that 1,200m without some disconnect, loss of signal, return home activation or weak signal or interference, always when im 1,200m out or so ,wether its a canyon, trees, rocks, mountain water even on relatively flat land it has been an issue, at about 1,200m Im in tachycardia lol I want the new RC because I would like to fly within (vlos) without worrying if its going to dump 1,000m out. sooooo for me this was pretty cool

 

[Manfred Waldmeyer]

Never read or seen an article, video etc where anyone has been killed by a falling drone.
Agree with you about flying responsibly.

Although there is a hype around the world reporting drone accidents usually only the most dramatic incidents get international attention.

Here in Germany there already have been several "near misses" of misdirected / out of control drones in the last years, where cars were hit or a drone crashed through a glasshouse or even one crashed into the viewing platform of the television tower in Berlin.

Luckily without lethal consequences.

I am flying drones since more than 10 years (as a computer scientist and microcomputer specialist I even programmed the flight control, IMU and ESC of my first drone) and am flying rc model airplanes since 45 years. Having been an active pilot for man carrying glider and motor gliders for many years, I probably have a different sense on what responsible flying means.

What johnpham is bragging about is simply dangerous.

Yes, It is a calming feeling that the rc and video links safely work beyond VLOS. That should be enough.

You also should know about how 2.4 Ghz or 5.8 GHz radio signals spread and that even a human body walking between the control and the drone can dampen the signal significantly.
I am a member in a rc model pilots club and we have had reported cases of drop outs and therefore have established the rule that multiple pilots flying at the same time have to form a cluster.

Imagine what happens when you are at a marginal distance and the connection is dropped. Yes, the drone could, if properly working, execute a RTH. But like many crash reports in this forum show, you should not rely on all those autonomous flight features and a mavic is not an 8 ounce toy. If something happens you are the person to blame.

 

[Mav.phant.inspire]

I Call that 9.2 kilometres, but pretty impressive. Personally I think there is little risk there. I’ve had to land at 0% on a road in the snow, just got to walk to gps point all’s well. Next cold weather flying remember that batteries act differently in the cold. Regardless having yer mp2 that far out is boots shaking

 

[johnpham]

It's only 9km dude! You don't count the return distance. But thanks for the test flight.

18.2km for all

 

[RonchMavicAir]

johnpham! Nice one!! You're very brave man!! hahaha

 

[THE WOMBLE]

9.1km one way
18.2km return
At least we know how far a battery will fly.

 

[simonr23]

Someone on this forum has managed 11kms each way!

I’ve managed 9.6km each way, but that was going to 0%( and a minute while at that level)

 

[lolo780]

Someone on this forum has managed 11kms each way!

I’ve managed 9.6km each way, but that was going to 0%( and a minute while at that level)

M2P, stock battery only flights.

 

[THE WOMBLE]

Would love to get a pair of glasses that would enable me to keep the drone in sight up to 11km away.

 

[lolo780]

I recommend the ones good for 18km.

 

[simonr23]

How do you get such run time from your batteries! That’s insane.

Are you sport mode at 90% ‘throttle’ or do you use the middle switch position, no sensors and 100% throttle?

I’m the latter.

 

[lolo780]

How do you get such run time from your batteries! That’s insane.

Are you sport mode at 90% ‘throttle’ or do you use the middle switch position, no sensors and 100% throttle?

I’m the latter.

For the M2P I altered parameters with Assistant in debug mode. P mode, OA off = 14.5m/s. OA on = 13.5m/s and cinematic is 12.5m/s stock. If I need more than 14.5 I'll throttle in sport mode.

The key to maximizing out and back distance is to maintain true air speed by watching your RPMs. Try to fly directly with or against the wind, any crosswind hurts your efficiency in both directions

Is there any better line of sight flight path you can use?

 

[lolo780]

My record is so far 19.202kms. This was running the battery down to 3.55v per cell though(700m/1min at 0%)
Likely lessens the overall battery life vs flying absolutely to the % scale.

For those nay-sayers, lipo’s are ‘safe/durable’ to about 3.2v. although to maximise the amount of cycles you can get it’s better to stay above 3.5v.

The 0% for go4 is quite safely above this number. 3.6v in my case. Flying to 0%, won’t be a big issue for the M2P/Z battery. Assuming you fly within the temperature window DJI request.

From 10% I've landed flights 3km out going with the wind.

 

[lolo780]

Landed at 3.5v. From 0% you can go another 1km if you really have to but not recommended to do often.

 

[Spike151]

According to UAV systems international the vietnam drone code has no distance or height restrictions. So he actually did nothing wrong unless he was flying near an airport, which I couldnt see on the video. But I knew this post would bring out the drone police in droves, tedious in the extreme when they couldnt be bothered to check his countries regulations before posting about being irresponsible.