Can you fly your Mavic pro with just the controller and no phone or no tablet

[djhoodrich]

Do you need a phone or tablet to fly the Mavic or can you just fly with the controller only?

 

[djhoodrich]

Some days I just want to fly in line of sight in the park with no phone is that possible

 

[Kilrah]

You can fly without once you've made sure to configure everything the way you need it. You're missing on quite a few features then though.

 

[rydfree]

Yes you can fly VLOS with just the controller fine . The menu driven flight modes such as active track , POI , waypoint etc will not be available of course but the controller will display all of the required info such as GPS lock , distance , altitude etc and you still have RTH . You just need to set up RTH and some other parameters in the app initially .

 

[galaxyfe]

you can but it is really a boring aircraft flight wise. you could get a park flyer rc airplane for under $100 that would be much more exciting to fly.

 

[dsmpampis]

Yes of course but why to fly the Mavic without seeing what are you filming? Better use only your phone to control your Mavic but flying distance it will be 30M(if I can correct remember)

 

[DrPeppar]

It is rather boring to be sure. The range or distance you get is pitiful.

 

[m0j0]

Do you need a phone or tablet to fly the Mavic or can you just fly with the controller only?

Just need the controller... or you can even leave the controller at home and fly it in wifi mode with your phone and no controller.

 

[Mavhawk]

Yes you can fly VLOS with just the controller fine . The menu driven flight modes such as active track , POI , waypoint etc will not be available of course but the controller will display all of the required info such as GPS lock , distance , altitude etc and you still have RTH . You just need to set up RTH and some other parameters in the app initially .

Interesting. I just read where a guy ran into a tree using only the remote. I think he said it went into RTH just before he crashed, but maybe he hadn't set the return to home point. So I guess you have to use the Go 4 app to be able to set the RTH point?,, or can you set the RTH with just the controller? At any rate, lets say you do a regular flight using the Go 4 and your video link goes out mid flight. At that point, it looks like you'd still be able to bring the drone back with just the controller, which is the most important thing. Marc.

 

[FatherXmas]

I did it once, drove out to where I was going to fly and discovered I had forgotten my iPad Mini 4. So, I flew around a bit waiting for my wife to bring the iPad to me, yeah, she's a keeper.

 

[Lamar Watson]

Hmm, I'm also curious about that

 

[photopro]

If one were to fly with just the controller and the drone in still wind and wanted to take there hands off the controller and let the drone just hover about 10 feet max for a little would the drone just hover or would it move slowly from left to right?

 

[tleedom]

If one were to fly with just the controller and the drone in still wind and wanted to take there hands off the controller and let the drone just hover about 10 feet max for a little would the drone just hover or would it move slowly from left to right?

It would hover the same with or without a monitor. The monitor has no affect on stability.

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Sure! I got way up on the San Rafael Swell a couple summers ago with no cell signal and DJI Go had logged me out and I couldn't log in. So I just flew line of sight and did my best to guess what the camera was getting. I came away with a couple of usable shots. Everything on the remote will still work. Like previous posters have said, you just have no access to the video feed, any of the camera settings, fancy flight modes or any of that good stuff.

 

[photopro]

Thank you for the info. If the drone does end up moving with my hands off the controller, what could be the cause of that?

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

Drifting isn't likely caused by having a phone attached or not. Your Mavic should should stay dead still in the air if it has good GPS reception and no magnetic interference. If yours is drifting with no stick input and you have 10 or more satellites, I'd try recalibrating things to see if that helps. Also make sure you're not flying near things that would trip up the compass. Hope that helps! Good luck!

 

[srwyss]

Tried this over the weekend Mavic Pro Platinum and controller, no phone, everything worked fine, that is until the Mavic battery reached 15%, I was hovering underneath some tree branches and above bitumen pavement at the time and it decided to switch to Return to Home mode. I heard some beeps and it started to climb. As I had no phone attached I was unsure of where Home location was and unable to confirm, I guess it was likely to be where I took off from, but had no way to check. I immediately attempted to land, but with full down on the left stick it just ceased to rise and stayed hovering, of course I was also worried that it would climb and run into overhanging branches, as soon as I started to release the down position it started to rise again. I considered an emergency stop but a fall from 3m onto pavment would not be beneficial so I abandoned that thought. I was able to hold it in a hover with full down, wondering what to do. I found that I could still manipulate its horizontal position with the right stick so I moved out from under the tree to a grassed area but remained concerned about where it would go if I let it continue its return to home. I held it in this position until eventually the battery was down to 10% and it auto landed without incident. Very nerve racking.

I might try again in an open field and attempt a return to home with plenty of battery to determine if the home position was indeed where I took off and of course perform an controlled landing prior to 15% remaining battery.

Hope this helps anyone else who tries this!