Flying mini below take off point

[Thanev]

Has anyone had the opportunity to fly BELOW their home point?
I would like to take off from the top of a hill and fly down about 150 feet to the valley floor,and sm worried about signal loss.I would be maintaining
VLOS

 

[FoxhallGH]

Hi Thanev ...
The clue is in the Acronym ... VLOS = VISUAL Line of Sight.
VLOS has nothing to do with signal strength - except that if you can keep the Mav' Mini in view, it will generally be getting a decent signal from your controller.
It doesn't matter if the drone is 150ft above you or below you - BUT - what can be significant is the alignment of the antennas in your Mavic, with the antennas on your RC controller.
The Mavic's antennas are vertical in the two front legs. You should try to have the antennas on the controller vertical as well so that the two sets of antennas are parallel. You can do this by angling the controller antennas at 45 degrees from the vertical toward you ...

 

[scro]

You can definitely fly down into a valley, as you describe, and go to a lower altitude than your takeoff point. I've flown from higher up a hill down to near a river in the bottom of the valley with no issues. Altitude in the fly app shows as a negative number. I was flying about 200m away and 10-15m below takeoff point with no signal issues, though it was direct line of sight with no foliage in the way

 

[Thanev]

Thanks for your replies.I am new to the DJI line,having come from the Anafi camp.The Anafi did not like being lower than the home point.Wifi became very unstable.

 

[old man mavic]

just make sure that the controller antenna are just over the edge where you are standing ,and be careful you dont loose your footing ,the only thing that could give you signal issues is lots of trees in leaf, if you are very low as they do absorb some of the signal,and make sure you maintain your height above ground ,if there are dwellings or people under where you are flying

 

[pmshop]

Just make sure you know the area.
I have flown below -0.0ft and as I flew, I considered all that could happen:
VPS SHOULD let you know if you were going to bottom out.
Collision sensors SHOULD let you know if you are going to hit something.
Best advide would be to keep the camera at 0° or up to -6°...Do not slide side to side...and do not fly backwards once you are down as far as you need be.
Always look where you are going.