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Flying while sitting in my car

SteveCA

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My buddy and I were out flying yesterday in cold and very windy conditions. He got too cold so I suggested that we fly from inside our car. We kept a very close eye on the controller and Video signal strength. It worked just fine and we stayed warm. We were careful to keep the Mavic in front of us and never had less than full bars of signal strength. This is going to be very helpful for those kind of days!


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Yes. That's what I did while testing my skills in flying POI manually while sitting comfortably in the back seat of my tahoe with the a/c on full blast (it was on a warm day). :)
 
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My buddy and I were out flying yesterday in cold and very windy conditions. He got too cold so I suggested that we fly from inside our car. We kept a very close eye on the controller and Video signal strength. It worked just fine and we stayed warm. We were careful to keep the Mavic in front of us and never had less than full bars of signal strength. This is going to be very helpful for those kind of days!


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Nice to know as we're due some cold weather soon here in the UK
 
This is with Mavic yesterday

Phantom 3 about 5000 feet

Both sat in truck.
Through windscreen there is precious little difference and you can see the screen much better too.
 
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I wouldn't expect the range to be the same as essentially you're inside a Faraday cage with lots of shielding from radio signals. But just like a mobile phone working inside your car, it will still work. Driving and flying simultaneously though is not recommended ;-)
 
I wouldn't expect the range to be the same as essentially you're inside a Faraday cage with lots of shielding from radio signals. But just like a mobile phone working inside your car, it will still work. Driving and flying simultaneously though is not recommended ;-)

Thats what i figured too but whatabout the tracking features? I mean having it track u while ur riding with controller mounted on the bars is the way u do it so...

How does it deal with your home point not being set on gps? Like if it tried to return to home where would it go


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Thats what i figured too but whatabout the tracking features? I mean having it track u while ur riding with controller mounted on the bars is the way u do it so...

How does it deal with your home point not being set on gps? Like if it tried to return to home where would it go


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It would return to wherever you had your home point set...unless you change the home point to your new location.
 
Can u change ur homepoint on the fly like that when the drone is out in the air
 
essentially you're inside a Faraday cage

A Faraday cage with a hole ANYWHERE on it will not stop any wavelength that is smaller than the hole.* A 2GHz signal needs a hole that is 13cm. At 5GHz you need an even smaller hole. Luckily a car has quite a lot of holes bigger than that.

* Physical analogy: a concrete barrier around a portion of a pond. If no holes, water inside barrier doesn't wave like the water outside. Small holes allow small ripples. Big holes allow big waves. Almost entirely independent of direction of waves.
 
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A Faraday cage with a hole ANYWHERE on it will not stop any wavelength that is smaller than the hole.* A 2GHz signal needs a hole that is 13cm. At 5GHz you need an even smaller hole. Luckily a car has quite a lot of holes bigger than that.

* Physical analogy: a concrete barrier around a portion of a pond. If no holes, water inside barrier doesn't wave like the water outside. Small holes allow small ripples. Big holes allow big waves. Almost entirely independent of direction of waves.

Thanks for the lesson, but I did electrical and electronic engineering to degree level ;-)

What you say is entirely correct, which is why I agreed it would work. If the car didn't have windows however....


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My buddy and I were out flying yesterday in cold and very windy conditions. He got too cold so I suggested that we fly from inside our car. We kept a very close eye on the controller and Video signal strength. It worked just fine and we stayed warm. We were careful to keep the Mavic in front of us and never had less than full bars of signal strength. This is going to be very helpful for those kind of days!
Excellent information for old guys like ME!!

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Excellent Information
 
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Ive flown from inside a house looking out a big picture window. Just keep a close eye on the signal strength meters and keep in in line of sight


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Thanks for the lesson, but I did electrical and electronic engineering to degree level ;-)

What you say is entirely correct, which is why I agreed it would work. If the car didn't have windows however....


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If the car didn't have windows? It wouldn't be a car.
 
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