20,000 ft range

[jiml]

I have flow several flights between 20,000 and 22,000 feet range. They were flown in the Arizona desert with no signal interference. Radio range is not a factor, signal display is at 3 bars at 20,000 feet and there is no signal reception issue. Battery capacity is the limiting factor. I landed at 20% battery remaining. The flight were flown in normal mode at full speed (26.8 mph). mode at full forwa

 

[copterbob]

I look forward to antenna kits that will punch through congested areas.

 

[gottahavit]

so you got 22 min flight time to 20%? seems low in normal mode.

 

[naiku]

Sounds about right to me with regards to battery life, the Air 2 is rated at 34 minutes in ideal conditions, 80% of that is 27 minutes of flight time. Real world conditions are going to affect that so I could absolutely see 22 minutes being about right.

 

[AnsibleMedia]

so you got 22 min flight time to 20%? seems low in normal mode.

Not necessarily. Extrapolated out, that'd be 27.5 minutes to 0%. Other factors are that area is a a decent altitude (over 3000' MSL) and we don't know what the wind conditions were.

Great info! I've only been out a little over 12,200' myself, I ran out of empty space (didn't want to fly over roads or towns) long before the signal gave up.

 

[jiml]

I agree. The battery capacity is way short of the advertised 34 minutes. On the other hand, the entire flight was essentially flown at 27 mph. I still love the MA2.

 

[jiml]

"U" has a point, the altitude of the flight was about 4000 ft MSL. The wind was below 5 mph.

 

[TerryToast]

I look forward to antenna kits that will punch through congested areas.

Is there such a thing? For sale somewhere?

 

[naiku]

There likely will be eventually, probably a handful of companies out there trying to figure out a product. With the controllers on the M2P where the antenna was visible it could fairly easily be upgraded. Might not be so simple with the Air 2 controller so may take a little time.

 

[AnsibleMedia]

I think a lot of people don't understand that those battery life ratings are taken in baseline ideal conditions. DJI says that the max (34 minute) flight time was in normal mode in zero wind. Most likely those measurements were made at near sea level on and at conditions close to a "standard day" by aviation terms which would be 59F and 29.92in of mercury. As soon as you begin deviating from those conditions expect the battery life to drop. A lot of people think it is misleading, but it makes much more sense to test against a standard, and expect that reality will deviate from that standard based on local conditions. In this case, for being at 4000' MSL and some minor wind going at full-throttle in Mid 70s F temperature, I'd say that is pretty good.

 

[DanaMc]

I have flow several flights between 20,000 and 22,000 feet range. They were flown in the Arizona desert with no signal interference. Radio range is not a factor, signal display is at 3 bars at 20,000 feet and there is no signal reception issue. Battery capacity is the limiting factor. I landed at 20% battery remaining. The flight were flown in normal mode at full speed (26.8 mph).View attachment 102871 mode at full forwa

WOW! That’s pretty cool. That took a minute to complete too! You’re a brave soul!!

 

[NLOL]

I'm curious about max flight times and ranges for the 3 modes. If we had those for sea level, and something high - say 12-14,000 feet - we could interpolate max time/range vs altitude graphs for each mode to aid flight planning. Someone could then refine it for their own A/C- say a separate theoretical graph for each battery with points manually plotted for actual experience.

 

[Gary R]

I look forward to antenna kits that will punch through congested areas.

Rumor is Alientech will come out with a kit for the MA2 in the first half of June.
I'm really interested in how they will mount it and if one has to dig into the RC body or just the antenna module....

 

[copterbob]

Rumor is Alientech will come out with a kit for the MA2 in the first half of June.
I'm really interested in how they will mount it and if one has to dig into the RC body or just the antenna module....

Yeah, expect some surgery to be required... warranty gone.