Flying in no internet / cell service area?

[Edwin Aguilar]

Greetings everyone:

I am hoping folks can give me a little guidance. I bought a Mavic Air not quite two months back. I have had plenty of fun flying it near where I live, even winging up for a spin right form the backyard. No troubles so far. I am very cautious. Always return with plenty of battery etc.

In a few months I will be in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. There will be ZERO wifi, and zero cell coverage. It is the kind of place where the only way to talk to anyone is through a satellite phone.

I am assuming there is no problem firing up the app and the drone and letting loose. I can envision that the map won't exactly work ( iPhone, I've read posts about trying to cache maps, but dont think I will have much success.). However, so long as I keep the thing in visual line of sight, and have good GPS lock, things should be good right? Sure, pilot error may come into play, but the fact of lacking any internet connection shouldn't be an issue I hope.

So, can someone give me a little bit of guidance on this? I'm hoping the answer is " go for it and fly safely."

Many thanks inn advance for any guidance.

 

[macoman]

You will not have any problem with GPS or flying the drone. You will have problem with Google maps because it depends on cellular connection.

 

[Deleted member 94047]

No WiFi and cell towers = less interference. You will have a much better flying experience

 

[Edwin Aguilar]

You will not have any problem with GPS or flying the drone. You will have problem with Google maps because it depends on cellular connection.

Thanks for the very quick reply. Before I leave I will be sure to make sure latest firmware is onbaoard etc. I can live without the maps. I dont think I will be more than a few hundred feet from the drone at any time.

 

[Edwin Aguilar]

No WiFi and cell towers = less interference. You will have a much better flying experience

Doppler: Thanks for the reply. All I really want to do is fly at maybe 60 feet and video friends fishing. But who knows... maybe I'll get a little crazy, but not too much, I am terrified of crashing my Air.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Doppler: Thanks for the reply. All I really want to do is fly at maybe 60 feet and video friends fishing. But who knows... maybe I'll get a little crazy, but not too much, I am terrified of crashing my Air.

No problem, do it all the time in Michigan’s UP. The map will show the green directional line to Home. Just keep VLOS and it’ll be fine.

 

[Lastrexking]

You can save the maps to Go4, so if you know where you're going to fly it might help to do

This video explains the process

 

[Dakarenduro]

Just curious, dont you fly with your phone in 'airplane' mode to begin with? I do, so i'm never interrupted with a chat/test/email/call/etc. So in essence I am flying without wifi, data, or gps service (to the phone). Never a problem.

 

[Maviac]

Just curious, dont you fly with your phone in 'airplane' mode to begin with? I do, so i'm never interrupted with a chat/test/email/call/etc. So in essence I am flying without wifi, data, or gps service (to the phone). Never a problem.

I do too. But a word of caution (although it’s going to rarely be an issue): if there’s a pop-up TFR, being in airplane mode will not recognize it. I have a friend who is in a bit of trouble due to this specific issue.

 

[steve_lyt]

you can plan your routes before you leave your home , then autofly them

 

[Lastrexking]

you can plan your routes before you leave your home , then autofly them

It depends which drone you're using.

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

Fire up the app just before you leave the connected world, you might even have maps cached if pan around. I had it once not work offline due to an update which requried unzipping and additional data to update, weird issue but it happened. I also bought litchi and keep it as a backup, never failed me.