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First longer distance flight-Got lucky

FlashGJ

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Flying around for a few minutes yesterday and decided to go for my first longer distant flight. Not far by most standards but first time for me so a little scary. The direction I was flying was at a higher elevation than were I took off from so I kept gaining altitude to stay above the trees. Eventually turned around and made it back safely. But then I realized that had something gone wrong and RTH had been initiated, by me or automatically, my RTH height was not set high enough for this situation (Turn around point was well above my RTH height). Obstacle avoidance may have saved me, but I would not want to have counted on it.

Lesson learned. Plan, plan and then plan some more before taking off on any flight. I will now try to think of all scenarios and have a solid Flight Plan before attempting any flight.
 
You would have been ok if RTH had kicked in....if the craft is above the RTH height you set, it will hold its current height for the return journey.
 
rockydog, yes you are right. I reviewed the manual again (for the hundredth time) after I made my post, and yes it returns at your current altitude if above RTH height. **** thing is smarter than I am.
 
How far did you go FlashGJ?
It was only about 1 1/2 miles, not that far really. But as a rookie, it was the first time not being able to see or hear it and I got too nervous to go any further.

I am slowly gaining confidence so in the future I see myself pushing it farther.
 
It was only about 1 1/2 miles, not that far really. But as a rookie, it was the first time not being able to see or hear it and I got too nervous to go any further.

I am slowly gaining confidence so in the future I see myself pushing it farther.
I wanted to get all the nervousness and testing over right away.. I literally flew the drone until it lost contact with the remote. It was about 2 miles but it was not a wide open space. It was the day I took the profile pic. RTH activated and within a few minutes the drone was on its way back and the remote reconnected. It worked!
 
I wanted to get all the nervousness and testing over right away.. I literally flew the drone until it lost contact with the remote. It was about 2 miles but it was not a wide open space. It was the day I took the profile pic. RTH activated and within a few minutes the drone was on its way back and the remote reconnected. It worked!
Great feeling when you regain sight of it and can hear it coming home. :)
 
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Great feeling when you regain sight of it and can hear it coming home. :)
It really was. I had a bunch of friends with me as we were camping. The were busting on me laughing a bit when they thought it was gone for a few minutes.. haha
 
My first flight 17 dec. Not a long one but up and down the fairway on a golf course. Obstacle avoidance around trees moving slowly worked very well. At first start up, camera view on iPhone was only showing the top portion of the screen, the bottom totally blue. Read some posts on this form, deleted dji go4 app, reinstalled, and all worked wonderfully!! Very stable, rock solid. Also have Phantom 3, too early to compare, but love the Mavic!!


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Great feeling when you regain sight of it and can hear it coming home. :)

FlashGJ, In the DJI GO App always set your RTH to a safe level way above the trees, keeping in mind is in Meters not in Feet. Only reason I mention this is because I was following up on a thread where the OP, a newbie, set the RTH to 400 M in Litchi and lost the drone when fail safe RTH kicked in. He was blaming it to a fly away from DJI's technology. Well if you do the conversion 400M = 1,132 ft. the drone did not have enough battery left to pick up to that altitude and make it all the way back to the home point.

Glad to hear you are gaining confidence with your Mavic. Enjoy it !!
 
Mavic is smarter than you are... it would have come back at the altitude you lost connection.


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots
 
Mavic is smarter than you are... it would have come back at the altitude you lost connection.


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots
Yep, The MP is way smarter than I am. After getting home and re-studying the manual again, I realized that it would have returned at its current altitude. Being a newbie and considering the manual is not very thorough, it seems I learn something new every time I fly.
 
Yep, The MP is way smarter than I am. After getting home and re-studying the manual again, I realized that it would have returned at its current altitude. Being a newbie and considering the manual is not very thorough, it seems I learn something new every time I fly.

To be honest these birds are pretty intuitive. I am one that says read the manual but.. the lessons that stick with me are the ones that I get with my hands on the sticks. So fly fly fly..

New operators the best thing you can do is practice all the possible failure scenarios..

Here are a few:
Application disconnect

Transmitter disconnect




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LOL, I flew off beginner mode for the first time today. Went maybe 500-600 yards, and was up maybe 150 feet. It was a bit of a trip. Getting use to flying on the screen is difficult. While it is close by, I just watch the drone. I can see what direction it is going. When it is that far, you can't really tell. I guess practice will make this more comfortable.

I am still really impressed with how well this thing flies.

Love it.
 
It was only about 1 1/2 miles, not that far really. But as a rookie, it was the first time not being able to see or hear it and I got too nervous to go any further.

I am slowly gaining confidence so in the future I see myself pushing it farther.

That's the good way to do it. You have to get a feel for how it performs given the wind conditions. It would be pretty crazy to push it to 3 or 4 miles without building up. Watch the speed carefully so you know how much wind there is - and thus when to turn around. In a headwind you can go to maybe 50% or less but in a tailwind, you better turn around way sooner!
 
Last week I experienced a disconnection suddenly, I wasn't that far out, it was about 450 meters away, according to the log. The failsafe RTH kicked in and did the job. Got very nervous at that particular moment, ****! After rebooting the controller I got back connection with the Mavic. :)

What exactly led to the disconnection is unknow for me, anyone suggestions? The DJI GO app was lagging on my Android phone, but I don't see how a phone can mess with a controller and cause a disconnection.

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