Best Frequency for Forest Flying

[photosinflight]

I’m going on a camping trip this week and before leaving, I’m trying to plan out my flights a bit.

Part of my planning is trying to figure out whether I should be flying using dual-band frequency, or specifying between 2.4/5.8.

The reason I ask is because my flight will essentially be following a river with many trees obstructing the transmission from the RC controller to my Mavic 3 (and yes, that also means I will not be maintaining VLOS during these flights.)

I’ve read that the 2.4 frequency is better for long distance flights and assumed it might be the similar for my situation. Can anyone confirm this? TIA!

PS - Please don’t bother commenting about how I should be maintaining VLOS. You’ll just be wasting your time.

 

[Meta4]

I’m going on a camping trip this week and before leaving, I’m trying to plan out my flights a bit.

Part of my planning is trying to figure out whether I should be flying using dual-band frequency, or specifying between 2.4/5.8.

The reason I ask is because my flight will essentially be following a river with many trees obstructing the transmission from the RC controller to my Mavic 3 (and yes, that also means I will not be maintaining VLOS during these flights.)

I’ve read that the 2.4 frequency is better for long distance flights and assumed it might be the similar for my situation. Can anyone confirm this? TIA!

PS - Please don’t bother commenting about how I should be maintaining VLOS. You’ll just be wasting your time.

Radio waves can't pass through water and trees are full of water.
Your control signal won't be affected by a branch or two but if you get enough foliage and timber between the controller and the drone, the signal won't get through.
What you are suggesting sounds like you want to break the laws of physics.
But I guess telling you that is wasting my time?

 

[Cafguy]

The best Is the 2.4....It wont help you a bit for being around trees and stuff tho. See post above.
You are also planning a flight above a "Forested Area". while not a national forest, Special rules Apply there and over ANY forested area.
For N.C. flight over is allowed unless you are anywhere near the DuPont State Recreational Forest, In that case your flight cannot happen.
Check carefully the laws regarding Flying a Drone over these areas in your state and adjust your flight attitude Accordingly.
In other words:::: Flying Beyond VLOS AND Starting a Forest fire would NOT be good for you. and would be a very expensive venture.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I’m going on a camping trip this week and before leaving, I’m trying to plan out my flights a bit.

Part of my planning is trying to figure out whether I should be flying using dual-band frequency, or specifying between 2.4/5.8.

The reason I ask is because my flight will essentially be following a river with many trees obstructing the transmission from the RC controller to my Mavic 3 (and yes, that also means I will not be maintaining VLOS during these flights.)

I’ve read that the 2.4 frequency is better for long distance flights and assumed it might be the similar for my situation. Can anyone confirm this? TIA!

PS - Please don’t bother commenting about how I should be maintaining VLOS. You’ll just be wasting your time.

You're planning a long range flight in a heavily wooded, meandering corridor?

If you remain static and send your drone out BVLOS, it won't matter what frequency you use: you will lose the control signal.

When that happens (not 'if'): if you're lucky, really lucky, RTH might deliver your expensive Mavic 3 back to where you launched it, now all you have to worry about is whether there's canopy cover obstructing the auto-land sequence.

A workable solution would be to be on the river, in a kayak, or canoe and set the bird up to follow you... that way, the control signal remains strong and constant, you get exactly the kind of footage you're looking for... and as a bonus: you don't break the law.

But that's your decision, even though your actions stand a chance of negatively impacting the majority of other drone fliers who try hard to act professionally and responsibly.

 

[Camerart]

Hi P,
On Thrusday I lost my Mini pro4 in a similar setting to what you're talking about. (I found it the next day) but there are paths where I was flying.
I noticed that it didn't 'see' many GPS satellites, so bear that in mind.

I would go with #4
"A workable solution would be to be on the river, in a kayak, or canoe and set the bird up to follow you... that way, the control signal remains strong and constant, you get exactly the kind of footage you're looking for... and as a bonus: you don't break the law."

Cheers, C.

 

[Nanny Ogg]

If anything goes wrong on your flight in a forested area, you probably will never see your drone again. Spoken from experience.

 

[glocke12]

For N.C. flight over is allowed unless you are anywhere near the DuPont State Recreational Forest, In that case your

North Carolina controls their own airspace ?

As for everything else, I fly over a forested area from my backyard and really don't have connection issues until my drone is roughly 3/4 of a mile away. Some of that area is broken up by fields though.

OP, I think you are probably in for a disappointment in a location like that. I've been able to fly over an even more heavily forested area that is close to my home, and it gets old pretty quickly just looking at tree canopy, and if you have any sense of responsibility the fear of losing your drone settles in pretty quickly.

 

[hank970]

The best Is the 2.4....It wont help you a bit for being around trees and stuff tho. See post above.
You are also planning a flight above a "Forested Area". while not a national forest, Special rules Apply there and over ANY forested area.
For N.C. flight over is allowed unless you are anywhere near the DuPont State Recreational Forest, In that case your flight cannot happen.
Check carefully the laws regarding Flying a Drone over these areas in your state and adjust your flight attitude Accordingly.
In other words:::: Flying Beyond VLOS AND Starting a Forest fire would NOT be good for you. and would be a very expensive venture.

The FAA may issue TFRs restricting flights over specified forest lands when there are wildlands fire suppression or other emergency operations underway, but I'd like to see a citation which supports your contention that it's illegal to fly over forest areas in general. It doesn't matter who owns or administers the forests, whether private, local, state or federal. Such entities can restrict launching, landing, and operating drones within their boundaries, but they exercise no dominion over the airspace above their forests.

 

[Jim622]

2.4 would give you more range.
5.8 is more reflective and will work better around cover and obstructions.

I would leave it in dual mode for the best of both worlds.

 

[GadgetGuy]

2.4 would give you more range.
5.8 is more reflective and will work better around cover and obstructions.

I would leave it in dual mode for the best of both worlds.

Exactly. Dual mode dynamically selects the best frequency band at all times during the flight. No need for pilot to make a choice of one or the other, which would force a lost signal response if the manually selected band crapped out.