First-time drone owner. Mavic Air was fighting wind to return home. I was looking for good place to land. App said about 1 min battery remaning. Lost connection over a river. Drone is now asleep with fishies rip.
In future will land with 90 secs remaining.
Hi there
If you like to go far, I will recommend (from my experience) a M Pro with quiet propellers. This is not about noise, but about lower revs for same output. Be aware that (if you are going to mod it) if build after Oct 2017, this may be more challenging . Another one to consider maybe is the
P4 V2 with quiet propellers, if budget is not an issue, personally I have no experience with this one.
I think Air has more issues with wind than other models. Not quite sure why but has to be something in relation to weight/power output ratio. I saw 2 times people having issues bringing the Air home in wind conditions which will be no issue for M Pro.
Wind is where the experience comes in:
For example using Litchi missions: Speed set at 45 km/h. Going out 40 to 45 km /h Coming back (some wind but not excessive, 20-25 km/h ). So double time for return. I now just set the mission speed at max. Either way is going with the wind will go at max speed leaving more time (battery) for the hard part.
If playing with drone flight limits, have emergency landing spots planed in advance. Flying over water long range is not giving you this option. Winds over open water can be more unpredictable as well.
Use Litchi missions with the minimum waypoint number (1.9 km in between, 2 km and 2km+ will issue a warning at mission flight time). Using the mission mode will not waste any battery with unnecessary braking/turning and so on.
Reduce attitude to minimum in advanced aircraft settings. This is how hard the drone fights the wind to maintain exact GPS position. Less fight, more energy left in the battery.
Turn off the landing protection option in downward sensors settings. If the sensors falsely report ground in near proximity this option will trigger auto-landing. There are recorded cases, one over power lines.....
You should be able to get 12+ km flights safely this way. Better luck with your next drone.