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Best way to fly Mavic Mini around forest?

Ejepilot

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Hi all! I live on a farm and pretty much surrounded by trees a little everywhere. There are no mountains as im near the sea. My question is where or how should i best position myself with the controller to get the best connection with my MM? Also will i loose connection if my MM is behind trees? If i fly it at higher attitudes will that help? Thank you all in advance for sharing ur knowledge!
 
Keep your altitude to a bare minimum. These small aircraft are not designed for excessve wind. As you go up, the winds are stronger. Loosing signal might be the least of your concerns. As has been evident around here.
 
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To maintain the radio connection you always want a direct line between the controller and the aircraft. Any obstacles between the two will attenuate the signal and trees are notorious for this due to the water content, primarily in the leaves. One tree in between with the drone close shouldn’t be a big problem but several in the way when you are flying a bit further away could cause a lost connection. As you are probably aware it is important to maintain visual sight of your drone at all times and this can minimize the potential of losing the connection.

I live in the mountains with my house surrounded by 150ft tall pine trees so I unfortunately have a bit of first hand experience. I fly a Mavic 2 so the situation with the mini, due to its lower max range will be even worse.

Make sure you set your failsafe RTH altitude high enough to avoid the trees, as well as any other obstacles.
 
RTFM to familiarize yourself with the technical limits (e.g. wind speeds the Mini can handle) and the correct antenna orientation towards the copter.
Try to have as few obstacles between you and the drone as possible, even leafless trees in winter can have some negative impact on WiFi transmission.
And learn to fly properly "by hand", don't rely on RTH. Quite a few drones are lost already due to wrong RTH settings/procedure.
Keep an eye on the wind which will increase with height. The Mini doesn't have endless power to struggle against wind...
 
If flying low in forest it’s best to pretty much walk closely behind the mini, to ensure signal is not lost.
Loss of signal option for failsafe is probably best set to hover in this scenario, as any sort of failsafe RTH can see it rise into the tree canopy.
With hover option set you can move closer to regain signal control.
(I hope the mini failsafe has now got the hover option included, it was only RTH when it was released.)
 
I sometimes fly in the Pine tree forests farms here in Georgia, with my Mavic Air. While in the rows, I walk behind it. Flying over the forest, I will stand in a field, a distance away to keep VLOS. If out of sight, I am more confident that the MA will hold up in the wind. With the MM, I would probably use a similar tactic, but as others suggest, keep VLOS to avoid WIFI interference. It may be best to go "around" (as your title suggests) the forest and find a clear field to fly in. I find my flights with the MM, with its capabilities, to be more rewarding (forgiving) if I can keep it in sight :) Enjoy your flying.
 
I fly in an area just like you describe. I'm about to put up one of my hunting ladder stands up on the outskirts of an open plot to get me up and above the trees a bit.
 
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I did tests in such area you are describing. You will pretty lose signal behind the trees but don't worry the MM will come back to you with RTH. Set the RTH altitude just high enough to come over the trees/power lines back to you but not too high to avoid the risk of fast wind in high altitudes. Watch UAV forecast app what wind blows in your location in the desired high. Do not hesitate to experiment a bit. At the beginning you can youse the protective cages. In general, the greatest danger for MM is the strong wind. Do not fly too high and/or too far.
 
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