First drone flight ever.. Check!! This is awesome!!!

[Michael W.]

As a private pilot with over 1500 hours, away from the airport environment the likelihood of me colliding with another aircraft is infinitesimal. It would be nearly impossible even if I tried to hit another aircraft. Also, outside the airport environment, I would rarely, if ever, be flying at or below 1500' AGL.

There are 1000x the amount of birds in the air compared to drones and the instances of bird strikes with airplanes are small, and birds are everywhere including within the airport environment.

That is not to say one should fly indiscriminately and for certain great care should be taken when flying above 400'.

 

[Kmccb]

I just added 3 of these to my Mavic and I have to say it seriously increases visibility incredibly at night... (not to mention it also makes it look even cooler). I put two under each of the rear legs and one under the body.. Since I will always be looking up at it... it will be much more visible at great distances and altitudes.

You got any video / pictures of them on or in action?

Also, did you buy from that site? Looks like non US based?

Thanks

 

[Robbyg]

People should be careful when giving new people advice on how high to fly! I thinking staying within 400ft is a good idea unless you know exactly what your doing and by that I mean know the area, the flight paths and traffic, the wind speeds at those altitudes. Have we all forgotten the posts from 5 months ago of Mavics blowing away never to being seen again while flying at high altitude or the posts about not being able to descend due to the wind?

The second thing is the Camera works like crap at 1600ft.
You get much better picture resolution from google earth. So its kind of pointless unless your flying up the side of a mountain.

Rob

 

[dwallersv]

As a private pilot with over 1500 hours, away from the airport environment the likelihood of me colliding with another aircraft is infinitesimal. It would be nearly impossible even if I tried to hit another aircraft. Also, outside the airport environment, I would rarely, if ever, be flying at or below 1500' AGL.

Thanks Michael.

This is my perspective as well, as a (not current) PP.

Heavy restrictions for sUAVs near airports are totally justified. Out in the middle of wilderness, hyperventilating over exceeding 400 feet is simply irrational, given the real-world situation.

A pilot flying below 1000' AGL in an alpine, mountainous region (like where I live, and where I shot that Above The Clouds video at about 1000' AGL) would be near suicidal.

 

[dwallersv]

The second thing is the Camera works like crap at 1600ft.
You get much better picture resolution from google earth. So its kind of pointless unless your flying up the side of a mountain.

I strongly disagree.

 

[Robbyg]

I strongly disagree.

Look at your footage at the 2 min marker in Adobe Premiere or some other software and then Zoom in onto the ground. Then bring up google earth and Zoom into the same spot on the ground.

I have done this and the picture from google earth has a lot more detail.

Rob

 

[AirBean]

Took my Mavic to my daughter's school / track thinking no one would be there.. Ended up being like 10 people walking.. Had to wait almost an hour for everyone to leave..

Man.. I'm glad I waited.. I have it in beginner mode but got to try some stuff out.. Got it up to 140' and that is NUTS!! How high do these safely go? I had it just directly above me with absolutely nothing around and I was nervous something was going to happen.. lol..

This is super fun and can't wait to fly again!!

I took mine to 580 ft, enjoy the drone!!!!

 

[domination]

"What about if the MP doesnt respond to your commands?" Sorry, brand new pilot here and I've just GOT to ask: If the MP stops responding to my input, what is there I can possibly do about it?

 

[Cbslagle]

lol.. Nope.. Now I'm just wondering if I should take it to the ceiling!!

Word to the wise, if you take it above 400 feet and a an aircraft spots it (just happened near where I live) the FAA won't be too happy with ya.

 

[Kmccb]

Word to the wise, if you take it above 400 feet and a an aircraft spots it (just happened near where I live) the FAA won't be too happy with ya.

I don't plan to.. 400' is way high enough for me..

Curious, how the hell they would find the person who did it, though..

 

[Cbslagle]

I don't plan to.. 400' is way high enough for me..

Curious, how the **** they would find the person who did it, though..

In Nashville, a police helicopter spotted it, reported it to ground units and they found the guy. I have had my Mavic for 2 months and haven't flown over 400'. Owning and flying these drones are a luxury and not a right. I just want to fly below the radar...no pun intended. Happy flying! This machine is wicked awesome!

 

[Brojon]

Just note that aircraft are supposed to stay at 500 feet (unless in the booneys where the law changes to 500 feet from structures and people so they could be 10 feet off the ground out there), which is why the drone is at 400 feet. This gives a buffer zone. I have hand flown IFR for over 1000 nmi and while it is easy to drift 50 feet at times, I have never drifted 100 feet.

Just last night a chopper came over at *much* less than 500 ft. It wasn't police or first responder so no idea who was authorized to be that low. I can tell you that if my drone had been up it might have been dicey and I typically fly 200 feet or less. Yes - *that* low.
So who's fault would that have been? Honest;y I doubt a Mavic could down a chopper. At the speed he was going my Mavic would have splattered like a bug - maybe chipped the bubble.

 

[dwallersv]

Look at your footage at the 2 min marker in Adobe Premiere or some other software and then Zoom in onto the ground. Then bring up google earth and Zoom into the same spot on the ground.

I have done this and the picture from google earth has a lot more detail.

Rob

You misunderstood (easy, when my answer was so terse).

I'm not disagreeing that GE has higher resolution. I'm disagreeing with your statement, "So its kind of pointless unless your flying up the side of a mountain". I was terse because the reasons I disagree are multitudinous, none being related to resolution at all.

However, as for your resolution argument, it really isn't valid at all as I shot that at 2.7k, then decimated it down to 1080 for upload to Youtube.

So, what you're comparing to GE from my uploaded video is 25% the actual resolution I can film that at with the Mavic.

For grins, I'll go back up to that spot from the 2 minute mark, grap some 4K, and do a side-by-side with GE just to get an accurate comparison.

 

[dwallersv]

In Nashville, a police helicopter spotted it, reported it to ground units and they found the guy. I have had my Mavic for 2 months and haven't flown over 400'. Owning and flying these drones are a luxury and not a right. I just want to fly below the radar...no pun intended. Happy flying! This machine is wicked awesome!

To what end?

It is not illegal to fly a hobby drone above 400' AGL (uh oh, here we go... should I even have posted that?).

 

[dwallersv]

Everyone, I just learned about the application, FlightRadar24. There is a browser-based version you can run from a PC (I ran it in Chrome and it worked flawlessly), and at least an Android version -- I didn't check on iOS, being that I hate Apple more than serial rapists. So, you Apple folk will have to look into that yourselves

Anyway, it shows real-time ATC radar and transponder squawk data. Any aircraft (except military) on radar show up in the app.

While not a 100% complete solution, it is a way to see what aircraft are in your area, what altitude, and when available (all commercial airliners, for example) their planned route, route history, etc. All plotted.

If you are planning to do a flight above 400', this is a really great tool for seeing what's in the sky, what's headed your way, and how high they're flying.

Again, it's not perfect -- military flights and sUAVs don't show -- but pretty much everything else does, including small private planes just buzzing around. I watched a guy in a 172 messing around the Monterey Bay coast, started in San Carlos, CA. He was obviously doing some fun flying with friends, judging by his flight path.

Take a look:

 

[jeplane]

Telling people to go ahead and fly above 400 feet is not recommended.

If you really need to go "above the clouds" as you are so proud of that video, why don't you go to Hollister and rent an airplane with a flight instructor to get it out if your system?...-

 

[dwallersv]

Telling people to go ahead and fly above 400 feet is not recommended.

If you really need to go "above the clouds" as you are so proud of that video, why don't you go to Hollister and rent an airplane with a flight instructor to get it out if your system?...-

Flight instructors are expensive, as are planes wet-tach. Besides, don't need an instructor.

As for "pride", nothing of the sort. I just think it's a really beautiful capture.

And while I understand your position w.r.t. flying above 400', there are others of us that disagree -- reasonably. Fact is, you're opinion is no better informed, expert, or valid than mine.

In my opinion, you are vastly overblowing the risk.

 

[xman1]

Just last night a chopper came over at *much* less than 500 ft. It wasn't police or first responder so no idea who was authorized to be that low. I can tell you that if my drone had been up it might have been dicey and I typically fly 200 feet or less. Yes - *that* low.
So who's fault would that have been? Honest;y I doubt a Mavic could down a chopper. At the speed he was going my Mavic would have splattered like a bug - maybe chipped the bubble.

Oh it could. The rotor or tail rotor does not take kindly to hitting something. This one didn't even put much pressure on it. Blades can handle the initial damage, but will then degrade and break a while after it hit something. A small nick can lead to catastrophic blade disintegration which is very deadly to a helicopter.

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Military helicopters are stronger though with part of the design of the Apache had the main rotors able to chop through small trees without bringing the who thing down.

I posted the FAA blade maintenance doc on this site somewhere.

 

[timesnaps]

TO all you high flyers, may I suggest a neat little app called Windy. Tells you the wind direction and speeds at different altitudes. I found it very useful. Specially when you fly in coastal areas, the wind direction and speeds can vary greatly, depending on your altitude.

Unfortuantely on the newest release, they steps of altitude level have decreased. Any other apps people recommend!?

 

[Drones Ace]

Just take your time and push the limit slowly....you WILL run into a scenario where you'll panic. Just take it slow and move thru all the flight modes safely. I'm just a week in and already feeling comfortable, but know how easily it can get away from me.

Keep in touch!

oh my goodness, where is this?!