Flying birds and drone safety

[THE CYBORG]

Climbing to evade a determined bird is a short term strategy.
The downside is that it puts you in a position where you will have to descend (slowly) for even longer.

Yes it’s short term, a bit like climbing a tree to get away from a vicious dog, you have to come down at some point but the immediate danger is avoided

 

[Rchawks]

Does Not the Drone descend at a much faster rate in the sport mode?

 

[Gringorio]

I am not hunting them, and if I am in the air and they come around im not leaving. It's my backyard.

You clearly do not understand. You were chasing the hawk.

 

[VenomXts]

You clearly do not understand. You were chasing the hawk.

I understand perfectly, the footage is edited down and I will restate what I said in a different way... I was in the air lower for many packs before that. It is my backyard, I wasn't hunting the hawk but I was above it for a reason in the edited video. Just enjoy the video or don't....the whole point in me posting is saying climb above birds if they come around.

 

[Rich QR]

Does Not the Drone descend at a much faster rate in the sport mode?

No. Google "vortex ring state" to understand why rotorcraft, including our quadcopters, are limited in how fast they can go straight down while maintaining control. The oversimplified explanation is that we've got to avoid descending into our turbulent downwash.

 

[African wildlife]

Birds are far more aggressive than the general public believe. And it is their safety that we should be concerned about - even more than that of our drones (although the two effectively can be grouped together).

Birds of prey, such as eagles, are the biggest threat - and we have no less than five species on our nature reserve - but the presence of crows should also be taken very seriously, as BigA107 has recalled above. Just watch how they will commonly harass larger birds such as buzzards.

Most of us live in a location that has been greatly reduced in terms of wildlife, so we don't get a true picture of what's what.

But going back to "drone safety", it's the humans you need to be most worried about - especially those who think it's "normal" to crash their drones. Birds - and other wildlife - constantly live in a state of harsh reality where survival is the first priority. Most humans, by comparison, are spoilt, lazy-minded, and they live in la-la land - as depicted in the film Idiocracy.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Does Not the Drone descend at a much faster rate in the sport mode?

Yes but not nearly as fast as a bird can dive.
Falcon’s can dive at over 200 MPH

 

[dave canada]

That reminds me. I was recording a trespasser in my neighbor's yard with my mav 2 pro. He hit it with a broom handle or something. It went flying across the lawn about 10 ft. I cranked the altitude stick up and it proceeded to hover above the lawn. Pretty flight worthy things. It's hard to knock them out of the sky. Unfortunately, the trespassers got away. Looks like I was flying too low. The trespassers snuck up behind the drone.

scoundrels , drone ignorant . thats all i got to say about trespassers

 

[dave canada]

I see shadows of passers by all the time they take a look and go on about there business ,I,ve tried chasing ravens but heckle and jeckle are still laughing about that day I fly around a lot of wildlife and i can say there is very few animals that it botheres to hear a drone the first time they will run just a short ways then turn to see whats there then after that they will just look up as you fly by coyotes,elk,deer,and antelope although the antelope run a little futher , but they don,t make geographic changes becuase there is a drone around ,

 

[African wildlife]

I see shadows of passers by all the time they take a look and go on about there business ,I,ve tried chasing ravens but heckle and jeckle are still laughing about that day I fly around a lot of wildlife and i can say there is very few animals that it botheres to hear a drone the first time they will run just a short ways then turn to see whats there then after that they will just look up as you fly by coyotes,elk,deer,and antelope although the antelope run a little futher , but they don,t make geographic changes becuase there is a drone around ,

It's simply untrue to say that wildlife isn't stressed by drone activity. And it's equally untrue to say that wild animals quickly get used to drones. You might be confusing wild animals that have become too accustomed to human presence where interactions commonly happen - which might give the appearance of them not being bothered - but, even in these instances, the stress levels are high. And a layperson might miss the behavioural signs that are obvious to any wildlife professional. Actually, wild animals will run for a long distance if bothered or pursued by a drone even when the drone is quite far away. We own many large wild animals, covering a wide range of species, and they have a huge area to roam (equivalent to the size of an average national park).

In addition to my own extensive hands-on professional experience with wildlife, on four continents, during 40+ years, I can also say with complete confidence that researchers have been frequently surprised by the amount of stress caused by unwarranted human interaction on wild animals. When blood samples have been taken, the amount of stress-related biochemicals are shockingly high - much, much higher than experts had predicted.

Stress used to kill a huge number of large wild animals during game capture. Then came a small, be-speckled, Jewish man in South Africa who had the nutty idea of injecting powerful human psychiatric drugs to animals as soon as they were captured and during their transportation. Of course, everyone laughed at him to the extent he became seriously reclusive. He eventually proved his idea and human psychiatric drugs are now used as standard, worldwide, for game capture. In southern African countries alone, it has massively reduced the percentage of deaths. I spent a few hours talking with the gentleman responsible for the breakthrough.

I could go on...

 

[African wildlife]

I should add that there are plenty of videos on YouTube where hobbyists have used drones to film wild animals. Most are embarrassing - not for their poor filming skills, but more so for the shameless and careless disregard for seriously disturbing the wild animals. It's obvious. As Stevie Wonder once famously remarked "I feel sorry for those who have eyesight, yet still don't see."

 

[dave canada]

It's simply untrue to say that wildlife isn't stressed by drone activity. And it's equally untrue to say that wild animals quickly get used to drones. You might be confusing wild animals that have become too accustomed to human presence where interactions commonly happen - which might give the appearance of them not being bothered - but, even in these instances, the stress levels are high. And a layperson might miss the behavioural signs that are obvious to any wildlife professional. Actually, wild animals will run for a long distance if bothered or pursued by a drone even when the drone is quite far away. We own many large wild animals, covering a wide range of species, and they have a huge area to roam (equivalent to the size of an average national park).

In addition to my own extensive hands-on professional experience with wildlife, on four continents, during 40+ years, I can also say with complete confidence that researchers have been frequently surprised by the amount of stress caused by unwarranted human interaction on wild animals. When blood samples have been taken, the amount of stress-related biochemicals are shockingly high - much, much higher than experts had predicted.

Stress used to kill a huge number of large wild animals during game capture. Then came a small, be-speckled, Jewish man in South Africa who had the nutty idea of injecting powerful human psychiatric drugs to animals as soon as they were captured and during their transportation. Of course, everyone laughed at him to the extent he became seriously reclusive. He eventually proved his idea and human psychiatric drugs are now used as standard, worldwide, for game capture. In southern African countries alone, it has massively reduced the percentage of deaths. I spent a few hours talking with the gentleman responsible for the breakthrough.

I could go on...

just from observation coyotes will sit and watch elk just look up especially the second time around also deer but I have to go with you on the studies I certainly don,t have anything that i could prove different but i,m not after wild life shots and when i have got any good ones it was with a 35mm camera not with a drone

 

[kashifs]

First off WELCOME to the forum Glad to have you on board


It depends on the size of the aircraft, size of the bird, and probably most importantly the MOTIVATION of the bird. If you're flying near a nesting area almost any bird can get overly aggressive/territorial. In that situation even a bird that normally wouldn't go after your UAS is likely to approach it in a very aggressive way. In certain instances even the smallest of birds (really any animal) will defend against a foe of almost any size. Ironically I have a "Bird to Drone" story.

I was flying at an airport and had approval to only fly at 100' or less so I set my Max Height to 100' in the App. As I'm flying next to some 70' tall pine trees shooting images for a client, a large CROW comes down and is literally harassing my Mavic Platinum very intently. Every time before when a bird was "aggressive" I would just CLIMB and CLIMB until the bird would just go away. This time I was climbing and hit the "100' Ceiling" and couldn't "quickly/easily" go higher. All I could do was try to get the aircraft back near ME as quickly as possible but it was a fair distance away. As I'm tryin to get it back to me I apparently flew over a nest area for a couple of small birds (lets say sparrows for size comparisons). All of a sudden (2) sparrows come flying up from the trees and for whatever reason they zeroed in on the CROW (ignoring the Mavic) and they chased it away. Last time I saw them the crow was doing it's best to climb and get away but the two SPARROWS were diving in and out until it was almost out of site.

There have been a few instances of groups training Eagles to search out and attack UAS. This was an interesting Counter-UAS initiative but once they realized some of the larger/stronger UAS could post a significant INJURY potential to the "landing gear" of the birds I believe the idea was scrapped IIRC.

Thank you

First off WELCOME to the forum Glad to have you on board


It depends on the size of the aircraft, size of the bird, and probably most importantly the MOTIVATION of the bird. If you're flying near a nesting area almost any bird can get overly aggressive/territorial. In that situation even a bird that normally wouldn't go after your UAS is likely to approach it in a very aggressive way. In certain instances even the smallest of birds (really any animal) will defend against a foe of almost any size. Ironically I have a "Bird to Drone" story.

I was flying at an airport and had approval to only fly at 100' or less so I set my Max Height to 100' in the App. As I'm flying next to some 70' tall pine trees shooting images for a client, a large CROW comes down and is literally harassing my Mavic Platinum very intently. Every time before when a bird was "aggressive" I would just CLIMB and CLIMB until the bird would just go away. This time I was climbing and hit the "100' Ceiling" and couldn't "quickly/easily" go higher. All I could do was try to get the aircraft back near ME as quickly as possible but it was a fair distance away. As I'm tryin to get it back to me I apparently flew over a nest area for a couple of small birds (lets say sparrows for size comparisons). All of a sudden (2) sparrows come flying up from the trees and for whatever reason they zeroed in on the CROW (ignoring the Mavic) and they chased it away. Last time I saw them the crow was doing it's best to climb and get away but the two SPARROWS were diving in and out until it was almost out of site.

There have been a few instances of groups training Eagles to search out and attack UAS. This was an interesting Counter-UAS initiative but once they realized some of the larger/stronger UAS could post a significant INJURY potential to the "landing gear" of the birds I believe the idea was scrapped IIRC.

Thank you. My Mini 2's encounter was with crows who were certainly not used to see this electronic bird often and seemed very aggressive and offensive. I had to pull it back and couldn't dare to fly again that day (It was actually my first flight in an open space after getting through the initial tutorial A day after, I went to the same place after the sunset. The sky was quite, my bird was apparently alone and I gained some of the lost confidence. I wonder whether a specific smell of color can detract these offenders to stay away and just watch if they are interested in a show! This forum is great and all of you guys are making it so by welcoming the newbies and replying by taking out time. Thank you all.

 

[kashifs]

Not sure whether to start a new conversation thread for this. DJI Fly App on my Samsung A8 suddenly stopped during the flight last night. I was watching the drone and trying to track it by the blinking light when I saw back to the RC and phone; the app was closed and the phone was about to lock just as it does in normal idle condition, and locked. For few seconds I couldn't figure out what happened and why the phone is locked. I unlocked it and found the app was not running. I failed to react to this situation and was wondering how would I catch my 3 days old M2, falling from 200ft in the night sky Then I started the app again, it showed the main screen. I connected to the aircraft by connection button and after few seconds it showed me the current altitude. I just pulled the left stick downwards to ground it ASAP and fortunately was able to do so. This incident, especially a day after the birds (unnecessarily) threatened my M2, brings a lot of questions in my mind which I want to pose in front of this expert forum:

1. Is there a connection between the aircraft and the remote controller, independent of the app?

2. What is the SOP if the app stops; crashes; phone's OS crashes; phone is off (other than charging reasons) to control the bird using RC only?

3. When I unpacked the package and tried to install the DJI Fly App on my Samsung A8, it wasn't there on the Google Play Store. I had to go to the DJI website to download the app directly from there. It is version 1.3.0. Is this linked to the problem?

4. Am I using the right App version for my Mini 2?

Thank again for your time and answering a week's old PILOT.

Kashif Siddiqui

 

[Rich QR]

Not sure whether to start a new conversation thread for this. DJI Fly App on my Samsung A8 suddenly stopped during the flight last night. I was watching the drone and trying to track it by the blinking light when I saw back to the RC and phone; the app was closed and the phone was about to lock just as it does in normal idle condition, and locked. For few seconds I couldn't figure out what happened and why the phone is locked. I unlocked it and found the app was not running. I failed to react to this situation and was wondering how would I catch my 3 days old M2, falling from 200ft in the night sky Then I started the app again, it showed the main screen. I connected to the aircraft by connection button and after few seconds it showed me the current altitude. I just pulled the left stick downwards to ground it ASAP and fortunately was able to do so. This incident, especially a day after the birds (unnecessarily) threatened my M2, brings a lot of questions in my mind which I want to pose in front of this expert forum:

1. Is there a connection between the aircraft and the remote controller, independent of the app?

2. What is the SOP if the app stops; crashes; phone's OS crashes; phone is off (other than charging reasons) to control the bird using RC only?

3. When I unpacked the package and tried to install the DJI Fly App on my Samsung A8, it wasn't there on the Google Play Store. I had to go to the DJI website to download the app directly from there. It is version 1.3.0. Is this linked to the problem?

4. Am I using the right App version for my Mini 2?

Thank again for your time and answering a week's old PILOT.

Kashif Siddiqui

The controller communicates with the drone. You can fly the drone without using the app or a phone. You control the drone using the sticks on the controller while your eyes watch the drone. That works whether or not the app is running properly.

The app does provide useful displays and warnings, so it is a good thing to use, but it is not essential.

 

[kashifs]

The controller communicates with the drone. You can fly the drone without using the app or a phone. You control the drone using the sticks on the controller while your eyes watch the drone. That works whether or not the app is running properly.

The app does provide useful displays and warnings, so it is a good thing to use, but it is not essential.

What I understood from your reply is we can switch on the controller and the aircraft and start flying. How they are going to be linked or paired?

 

[Meta4]

1. Is there a connection between the aircraft and the remote controller, independent of the app?

It's completely independent.
Try going to an open area and flying the drone 20 metres away.
Pull the cord to your phone and see how you can still fly with full control.

2. What is the SOP if the app stops; crashes; phone's OS crashes; phone is off (other than charging reasons) to control the bird using RC only?

You could bring the drone back manually or with RTH or restart the app and reconnect.

3. When I unpacked the package and tried to install the DJI Fly App on my Samsung A8, it wasn't there on the Google Play Store. I had to go to the DJI website to download the app directly from there. It is version 1.3.0. Is this linked to the problem?

There's no problem with 1.3.0.
It wasn't in the Play Store because of political issues between the USA and some Chinese companies.

4. Am I using the right App version for my Mini 2?

1.3.0 is fine to use.

 

[Meta4]

How they are going to be linked or paired?

They were linked in the factory and shouldn't need re-linking.

 

[Rich QR]

What I understood from your reply is we can switch on the controller and the aircraft and start flying. How they are going to be linked or paired?

There is some initial one-time activation that requires a device (phone or tablet) with an Internet connection, but once that is completed, your drone can be flown with only the controller. Just switch on the drone and controller and start flying. Try it! But it might be a good idea to use a phone to verify good GPS signal before takeoff.

I have flown and taken photos and video without having a phone or tablet connected to my controller.

 

[kashifs]

It's completely independent.
Try going to an open area and flying the drone 20 metres away.
Pull the cord to your phone and see how you can still fly with full control.

You could bring the drone back manually or with RTH or restart the app and reconnect.

There's no problem with 1.3.0.
It wasn't in the Play Store because of political issues between the USA and some Chinese companies.

1.3.0 is fine to use.

Thank you. These are all very useful points.