Fastest way to disable sensors?

Shon · May 6, 2019

I was flying out over a cliff and waterfall yesterday. Everything was going along swimmingly, until it came time to land.

When bring the drone back for a landing, it hit a “virtual wall” and would not fly any closer. It was hanging about two feet over a cliff/ rock ledge, and no matter how I tried to maneuver, the drone just wouldn’t pass some invisible barrier it created for itself. Fortunately, I had plenty of flight time left, and eventually I decided it was safe enough for me to reach out and “catch” the drone in the air. I’m glad I wasn’t facing this situation with the clock ticking down to the last seconds!

If it wasn’t safe enough to catch, I probably would have fumbled around the settings looking at how to turn off the sensors.

Question:
1. What is the fastest way to turn off the sensors in this situation? I’m thinking “three dots” and second menu item?

2. How many of you simply fly without sensors on? I’m use to flying without them on other drones. I have limited experience with the Air, but this isn’t the first time it has just stopped in the air for no reason.

I’m standing at the top of the cliff in this shot. This is where I was trying to catch the drone:

Evnbehr · May 6, 2019

Would quickly switching temporarily to sport mode have helped?
I don't have a Mavic Air. I have Mavic 2 Pro and I know Sport Mode turns off obstacle avoidance sensors.

Shon · May 6, 2019

Evnbehr said:
Would quickly switching temporarily to sport mode have helped?
I don't have a Mavic Air. I have Mavic 2 Pro and I know Sport Mode turns off obstacle avoidance sensors.

I tried to bring it in forward and backward. Didn’t try sideways... no side sensors on the Air.

I like your idea about sports mode, I didn’t think of that.

pmshop · May 6, 2019

Evnbehr said:
Would quickly switching temporarily to sport mode have helped?
I don't have a Mavic Air. I have Mavic 2 Pro and I know Sport Mode turns off obstacle avoidance sensors.

I need to try that

Deleted member 94047 · May 6, 2019

Sports mode! But beware, it will need some space to come to a stop after you let go of the sticks.

Mossiback · May 6, 2019

I fly my MP with the forward sensors off. I was getting too many false detections caused by a low sun which would cause it to stop. It also increases the flight speed without changing the sensitivity of the sticks. Not sure how this works on the Air.

Deleted member 94047 · May 6, 2019

Mossiback said:
I fly my MP with the forward sensors off. I was getting too many false detections caused by a low sun which would cause it to stop. It also increases the flight speed without changing the sensitivity of the sticks. Not sure how this works on the Air.

Yes, disabling sensors does increase speed in the AIR too.

Meta4 · May 6, 2019

Shon said:
1. What is the fastest way to turn off the sensors in this situation? I’m thinking “three dots” and second menu item?

This works pretty well:

You could also have tried bringing it back sideways or backwards.

Shon said:
but this isn’t the first time it has just stopped in the air for no reason.

There is always a reason

DanMan32 · May 6, 2019

He mentioned he tried backwards, just not sideways.

kjcbid54 · May 7, 2019

I'm pretty sure that you can simply touch the sensor icon on the HUD and that will bring up the sensors menu. Then the top options is to enable/disable forward and rear sensors. Pretty quick with just 2 touches of the display. Practice this so you are able to do this quickly under pressure.

JoostGT3 · May 8, 2019

Great post (and great picture as well BTW!)
With my Mavic Pro, I would always come back to the landing zone, then rotate and fly to the landing spot backwards. Now that I have an M2P, this trick doesn't work anymore. I regularly switch off all the sensors, since I am mostly flying high and free of obstacles. The obstacle sensors have ruined one or two shots for me, when I was flying a complicated manouvre and it would bring the Mav to a dead stop because it saw the sun as an obstacle...

Bottom line is, I switch them on and off as I go, mostly by touching the sensor icon and switching it there.

Ikeman · Sep 12, 2019

Curious what happens if you are flying with the Litchi program using the Waypoint mode and the mission takes you far enough out that you are disconnected from the transmitter.......what if the Mavic hits a wall then? And is it always low sun that causes this....whether it be sunrise or sunset?

53-63-6f-74-74 · Sep 13, 2019

Ikeman said:
Curious what happens if you are flying with the Litchi program using the Waypoint mode and the mission takes you far enough out that you are disconnected from the transmitter.......what if the Mavic hits a wall then? And is it always low sun that causes this....whether it be sunrise or sunset?

If you think there is ANY chance that this might happen then plan the mission appropriately with more margin for error and turn off OA before the flight.

Bensherrard1 · Mar 28, 2020

JoostGT3 said:
Great post (and great picture as well BTW!)
With my Mavic Pro, I would always come back to the landing zone, then rotate and fly to the landing spot backwards. Now that I have an M2P, this trick doesn't work anymore. I regularly switch off all the sensors, since I am mostly flying high and free of obstacles. The obstacle sensors have ruined one or two shots for me, when I was flying a complicated manouvre and it would bring the Mav to a dead stop because it saw the sun as an obstacle...
Bottom line is, I switch them on and off as I go, mostly by touching the sensor icon and switching it there.

what’s the best way to switch them all off?

JoostGT3 · Mar 30, 2020

Bensherrard1 said:
what’s the best way to switch them all off?

I use icon of the obstacle avoidance in the top of the controller screen. I think that is the quickest. Maybe you can set one of the customizable buttons to do so?