Air vs Pro Round 2 - Suburbia Range Test

[Jdyowa]

you went a mile away on your very first drone flight? LOL , your kinda a "jump with both feet" type person huh? fixing electrical sockets in the rain kinda guy? lol, just messing with you. ive been flying for YEARS and rarely go more than a mile away anywhere.

I didn't say it wasn't nerve racking...I watch a lot of videos and do a lot of research on everything I buy and do. It's kinda a sickness. Anyway, I watched enough videos to know it was capable. Gotta start somewhere. :O

 

[earlyretirement]

Thanks so much for sharing. Where in North County? Santaluz here.

 

[Air Beetle]

not to bust your chops but...

I'm curious that after some much research and so many videos, you never never learned that flying beyond LOS and over people and property is illegal?

One of these range test flights is gonna go south and then we will all lose our freedoms

 

[R1Mavic]

Gosh...so less than a mile in suburbia?

 

[mkpilot1200]

My results were totally different. The air didn't even come close on distance. But it's a cool little drone. I still prefer my Pro though. I'm giving the air to my Son.

 

[Jdyowa]

not to bust your chops but...

I'm curious that after some much research and so many videos, you never never learned that flying beyond LOS and over people and property is illegal?
One of these range test flights is gonna go south and then we will all lose our freedoms

Ok so apparently you can't write anything that could melt a snowflake on here. So anyway, I'm 46. If I only flew LOS, I'd only fly about 100 feet. This thing is very small and disappears very quickly .

 

[Splats]

I realise the law would perhaps/probably see it differently, but I kind of take VLOS to mean there is an uninterrupted view of where your drone is. As a Spark pilot you will lose the dot in the sky that is your drone if you take your eye off it for even a split second. However, provided I know where it is and have an uninterrupted view to that location then I regard myself as flying safely and responsibly. This is principally because the purpose of VLOS is so that you can see anything approaching from a direction other the dead ahead where the camera is looking. If I see a heli, plane, micro-light, etc approach the airspace of my drone I can take appropriate action.

That said, I am prone to go for the odd jolly where I'm flying 100% by the screen

 

[snoopdrone]

I just got mine to day and flew it at work and at home. This is my first drone and the first time I've flown one. I got to about a mile away before I got nervous and came back. Had a couple of range problems but I was at 120 feet .I took it up to about 300 or so and it went away. I've noticed that playback of video on my 9 year old Mac plays better with the 1080 than the 4k. I did stream live on Facebook with 4k (optimized obviously for streaming) and it looked pretty good. I did notice the sport mode is sick fast. Overall, I think it's great. I do wish the battery lasted longer .I wonder if any kind of extended range battery is available?

i did the same when i got my MP fly away LOL but then got nervous and brought it back in, but u did a lot for your first flight FB live congrats on your first flight, dont feel bad about the battery i am pretty sure everyone here wish that there was a extended range on batt, i get to fly 6min more than u LOL with the MP. congrats again and welcome. you will lear alot here.

 

[Jdyowa]

i did the same when i got my MP fly away LOL but then got nervous and brought it back in, but u did a lot for your first flight FB live congrats on your first flight, dont feel bad about the battery i am pretty sure everyone here wish that there was a extended range on batt, i get to fly 6min more than u LOL with the MP. congrats again and welcome. you will lear alot here.

Thanks. I was super nervous picking the air over the MP. The comments about the gimble getting damaged made me feel better about the air, but I still wonder if I made the right choice .over all I'm happy though. And yes, I'm learning a lot .

 

[Jdyowa]

I just took it out and got almost a mile away, in a heavily congested area. I lost communication and thank God, it started to come back on its own. It feels pretty good when those safety measures kick in.

 

[Air Beetle]

Ok so apparently you can't write anything that could melt a snowflake on here. So anyway, I'm 46. If I only flew LOS, I'd only fly about 100 feet. This thing is very small and disappears very quickly .

Uh, no I am not a snowflake. I am a 59 year old who happens to be a pilot of a full size plane and an avid drone pilot with a 107. I ordered a red AIR so my old eyes could see it better.

I own a 1946 vintage airplane and attend many fly in events. I promote the awesome technology of drones to mostly war vets in their 70's and 80's who fly vintage aircraft. These stunts make it very difficult to promote our hobby.

It's stunts like that will screw it up for the rest of you and give the public ammo to restrict our flight distances and legal areas. I don't think I will lose my 107 over these antics but I can predict that EVERYONE will have to possess a 107 eventually. Think about it. The FAA doesn't let anyone pilot a plane without a license so it's not a stretch to take that rule down to drones. I am not in favor of it at all but if we don't police ourselves and fly responsibly, it's likely to happen. When I was a kid I could fly mt rc gliders and planes at any local school field or park. Now RC aircraft are restricted to their private fields and they fight to keep those open.

On a technical side, you are trusting RTH to save your drone. I would not risk any of my drones to RTH if I can't walk hike to the location to retrieve it should RTH fail. So far, I don't even trust the find my drone feature. Every time I see posts about range tests, I always wonder why the pilot can't drive to that location and get the shot while in LOS range?

 

[theharmonperspective]

Uh, no I am not a snowflake. I am a 59 year old who happens to be a pilot of a full size plane and an avid drone pilot with a 107. I ordered a red AIR so my old eyes could see it better.

I own a 1946 vintage airplane and attend many fly in events. I promote the awesome technology of drones to mostly war vets in their 70's and 80's who fly vintage aircraft. These stunts make it very difficult to promote our hobby.

It's stunts like that will screw it up for the rest of you and give the public ammo to restrict our flight distances and legal areas. I don't think I will lose my 107 over these antics but I can predict that EVERYONE will have to possess a 107 eventually. Think about it. The FAA doesn't let anyone pilot a plane without a license so it's not a stretch to take that rule down to drones. I am not in favor of it at all but if we don't police ourselves and fly responsibly, it's likely to happen. When I was a kid I could fly mt rc gliders and planes at any local school field or park. Now RC aircraft are restricted to their private fields and they fight to keep those open.

On a technical side, you are trusting RTH to save your drone. I would not risk any of my drones to RTH if I can't walk hike to the location to retrieve it should RTH fail. So far, I don't even trust the find my drone feature. Every time I see posts about range tests, I always wonder why the pilot can't drive to that location and get the shot while in LOS range?

you could have ordered a NEON Air and you are not going to be able to see it lol... I can't find mine 300 feet away ....

 

[Jdyowa]

Uh, no I am not a snowflake. I am a 59 year old who happens to be a pilot of a full size plane and an avid drone pilot with a 107. I ordered a red AIR so my old eyes could see it better.

I own a 1946 vintage airplane and attend many fly in events. I promote the awesome technology of drones to mostly war vets in their 70's and 80's who fly vintage aircraft. These stunts make it very difficult to promote our hobby.

It's stunts like that will screw it up for the rest of you and give the public ammo to restrict our flight distances and legal areas. I don't think I will lose my 107 over these antics but I can predict that EVERYONE will have to possess a 107 eventually. Think about it. The FAA doesn't let anyone pilot a plane without a license so it's not a stretch to take that rule down to drones. I am not in favor of it at all but if we don't police ourselves and fly responsibly, it's likely to happen. When I was a kid I could fly mt rc gliders and planes at any local school field or park. Now RC aircraft are restricted to their private fields and they fight to keep those open.

On a technical side, you are trusting RTH to save your drone. I would not risk any of my drones to RTH if I can't walk hike to the location to retrieve it should RTH fail. So far, I don't even trust the find my drone feature. Every time I see posts about range tests, I always wonder why the pilot can't drive to that location and get the shot while in LOS range?

Well, over a heavily wooded area you won't get much distance because of interference from the trees. So you kinda have to get there to see stuff. Isn't that the point of the drone? I'm not saying going above 400 feet (because that's uncool), although I had a helicopter fly under me the other day and I was in unrestricted airspace. Yesterday an ultralight flew over the neighborhood. Is that legal? That would do a hell of a lot more damage than a 1lb drone.

 

[Air Beetle]

Again, why do I need to fly that far away? I never fly that far with my P4 and I have great footage. I guess my desire is to produce close in shots that you can't get on the ground. Maybe others go for far away shots that I could get from my plane LOL.


This is a shot I took of my neighbors property by flying straight up 80 ft from my driveway:


And here is a similar shot of his property from my plane at 500ft using my cell:

 

[Air Beetle]

An ultralight or any other aircraft can fly over your neighborhood during take off and landing including flight in the pattern. Other than that, they have to be at least 1000 ft. We have a few tourist helicopter flights and aircraft flying around Lake Tahoe because its beautiful. I cringe when I think of a drone at 1000ft for NO real reason that i can fathom. The 400 ft ceiling is more than ample IMHO

 

[MTFalconer]

not to bust your chops but...

I'm curious that after some much research and so many videos, you never never learned that flying beyond LOS and over people and property is illegal?

One of these range test flights is gonna go south and then we will all lose our freedoms

Might want to do some research yourself as flying over property is not illegal.

 

[Air Beetle]

Ok so my quote is right there in your post - what part of “beyond los AND over population” did you not comprehend? I’m actually fine with going beyond los out in the woods but even that is technically illegal. If you don’t like LOS, then get the law changed rather than spending time shooting the messenger.

I turned down a shoot at a wine tasting event because the crowd was so big. I want to keep my license.

 

[Akimba]

The FAA doesn't let anyone pilot a plane without a license so it's not a stretch to take that rule down to drones.

It's a HUGE stretch to compare a drone that weighs 15 ounces to a plane that weighs thousands of pounds.

 

[mkpilot1200]

Should not be comparing something that was released in 2016 with something that was just released. Let’s wait until the Mavic Pro 2 is released, if ever. I’m good with my Mavic Pro. Can’t really see a reason to get the air. Range and flight time is what is most important to me. I’m waiting on the Phantom 5. That is what I cannot wait to see. I may, however, pick up the air for my son.

 

[NorthGADronePilot]

thanks for sharing , i still dont understand why everyone is comparing the air to the pro , to me the Air is a upgrade from the spark . the Air is a beast for his size.

This sentiment may have been expressed on this forum before, but it's the first time I've read it. I agree completely. To me, the Mavic Pro is essentially misnamed. Yes, I understand they are keeping the Mavic label because it folds up, but it's truly a Spark Pro. The Spark was (as is) so bad, for so many reasons, and the Mavic Air is DJI's answer to correcting that. Are there certain things about the Air that are far superior to the Mavic Pro? Absolutely. That's what you'd expect of a newer model. However, I'm still bullish on DJI releasing a Mavic Pro 2 that takes the best of the Air (beautiful, sleek looks, APAS, rear cameras for obstacle avoidance, etc.), adds a little size, OcuSync, better controller, range, and battery life, and doing so some time in 2018. For that reason, and that reason alone, I'm holding off on buying the Air.