First night flight

[Gadawg]

I couldn’t resist trying my first night flight with my Mavic Air. It’s a clear calm night at my location with a 1/3 moon. I decided that I’d fly straight up to 380 feet from my front yard and return by selecting the RTH with precision box checked. Before takeoff, I received a low ambient light warning and that forward and back sensors would be ineffective. Also had a compass error warning and wanted me to recalibrate. In addition, it seemed to take a little longer acquiring the necessary satellites. After taking a few pics at altitude, I selected the RTH command. It was going to miss the landing spot by 20 feet and had to hand fly it back to takeoff point.
I’ve never had this problem during daylight hours. Guess the spooks and nighttime jitters were active tonight.

 

[Teck]

I would like to try night flying also.
Manual or Auto exposure for night flying.?
Is it advisable to fix additional strobe light on the aircraft.?

 

[Cmntnzxvi]

Id be freaked out too, but ive never had any issue flying at night, even in the city between building, manual settings all the way.

 

[Teck]

Beautiful city pictures ?

 

[Cmntnzxvi]

Beautiful city pictures ?

Thank you!

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I couldn’t resist trying my first night flight with my Mavic Air. It’s a clear calm night at my location with a 1/3 moon. I decided that I’d fly straight up to 380 feet from my front yard and return by selecting the RTH with precision box checked. Before takeoff, I received a low ambient light warning and that forward and back sensors would be ineffective. Also had a compass error warning and wanted me to recalibrate. In addition, it seemed to take a little longer acquiring the necessary satellites. After taking a few pics at altitude, I selected the RTH command. It was going to miss the landing spot by 20 feet and had to hand fly it back to takeoff point.
I’ve never had this problem during daylight hours. Guess the spooks and nighttime jitters were active tonight.

You had a couple of surprises that you will be ready for next time:'

Sensors: dont work at night or dusk for that matter.

Precision landing works on taking a picture of the ground requires some light thus the 20 ft off.

Compass error most likely non related to the night but much more so because of your environment

Needing more time to aquire Satellites do to the fact you were in a time warp from having the jitters.

Next time you will nail it:

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mavic in the Rain !
Coal

 

[JoelP]

Have you tried to light up your landing pad for takeoff and landing? While I have never flown at night it seems to me that this ought to allow the imaging sensors to find that spot.

 

[Gadawg]

Thanks guys for the info and suggestions. I live in a low light area with a small city about 1 1/2 miles away. My son and I were discussing whether a reflected landing pad would help as I generally land on a black Asphalt driveway. I didn’t even check to see of camera was set on manual or automatic.

 

[Smokieflies]

Great job, love the cityscapes. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Deleted member 3792]

Flying at night is something special, it’s No doubt about that.To do some investigations in daytime is advise so there isn’t any obstacles that could cause problems in the dark. This was taken with a Spark.

 

[Gizmo6257]

You aren't suppose to fly at night. 30 mins afyer sunset only. Read the rules, don't ruin it for the rest of us. They are already trying to make more rules for Drones and this is why.

 

[Cmntnzxvi]

You aren't suppose to fly at night. 30 mins afyer sunset only. Read the rules, don't ruin it for the rest of us. They are already trying to make more rules for Drones and this is why.

I tought that only applied to Part 107 members, i could be wrong. Arent the LED lights for that particular reazon?

 

[Deleted member 3792]

You aren't suppose to fly at night. 30 mins afyer sunset only. Read the rules, don't ruin it for the rest of us. They are already trying to make more rules for Drones and this is why.

This is a International forum and in my country, Sweden it’s alloud to fly at night.

Here is our rules in Sweden. I have two insurances, one personal and one included in our Swedish model airplane association.

Drones – unmanned aircraft - Transportstyrelsen

transportstyrelsen.se

 

[flyinblackpro]

You can fly at night in the US as a hobbyist.

 

[Mabor2]

You cannot fly at night in the UK as a hobbyist as the drone will not be visible and you have to fly with VLOS at all time

 

[Thomas B]

You cannot fly at night in the UK as a hobbyist as the drone will not be visible and you have to fly with VLOS at all time

Add strobes?

 

[Gadawg]

How would strobes affect the photography?

 

[Deleted member 3792]

Mavic pro with strobes.

 

[Ex Coelis]

You aren't suppose to fly at night. 30 mins afyer sunset only. Read the rules, don't ruin it for the rest of us. They are already trying to make more rules for Drones and this is why.

While that might be the rule in ‘Murica, and truly unfortunate for you, there do happen to be other jurisdictions on the globe where it is perfectly legal to fly at night, and we enjoy doing so, regularly.

 

[dougiefresh27]

I couldn’t resist trying my first night flight with my Mavic Air. It’s a clear calm night at my location with a 1/3 moon. I decided that I’d fly straight up to 380 feet from my front yard and return by selecting the RTH with precision box checked. Before takeoff, I received a low ambient light warning and that forward and back sensors would be ineffective. Also had a compass error warning and wanted me to recalibrate. In addition, it seemed to take a little longer acquiring the necessary satellites. After taking a few pics at altitude, I selected the RTH command. It was going to miss the landing spot by 20 feet and had to hand fly it back to takeoff point.
I’ve never had this problem during daylight hours. Guess the spooks and nighttime jitters were active tonight.

Well done. As long as you scope out your flight path in the daylight so you know about any obstacles or wires it should be fun. I cant wait!