free fall while taking pictures of comet Neowise

[Fabio samu]

Yesterday I read here that a person flew at 5000 ft to take pictures of Comet Neowise and obviously ran out of battery on the way back and the drone went into free fall. I was wondering if he turned off the engine to save the rest of the battery and a few seconds after switching it on , could it prevent the fall or would the drone be unable to stabilize itself ?.

 

[sar104]

Yes - that maneuver has been demonstrated in the past.

The Terminal Velocity of a Falling Mavic 2

First second it travels 16' but in that one second it has accelerated to 32 FPS. (Starts at 0 FPS, accelerates to 32FPS, and thus averages 16FPS for the first second.) It travels 48' in the second second, and accelerates from 32FPS to 64FPS, and so on.

mavicpilots.com

 

[THE CYBORG]

What was the point ?


Considering how far away the comet is a few extra feet closer with a drone isn’t going to make any difference to a photo.

Rickray posted this Shutdown and restart mid flight.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

I have done it with a Phantom 3.
The 'danger' with a mavic is if it wobbles too much it may reject the restart.

To TheCyborg, you'd possibly get out of ground haze and possibly above urban light pollution

 

[sar104]

I have done it with a Phantom 3.
The 'danger' with a mavic is if it wobbles too much it may reject the restart.

That isn't a problem - it doesn't appear to prevent motor restart in the air.

To TheCyborg, you'd possibly get out of ground haze and possibly above urban light pollution

Certainly true if you fly to 5000+ ft AGL.

 

[shorttimer]

Question - is just turning the drone back on enough to keep it from free-falling or do you have to "take off" with the joysticks to prevent the fall. As when you just turn it on there is no lift but when you do take off and the sticks are neutralized the drone will hoover. The reason I ask is when playing with my P3 Pro one time I tried to take off with very low battery trying to discharge it completely and it would not take off on a very low battery. Don't know if there is a battery limit on turning it on as well. Back in the old P3 days they used to recommend completely disharging the battery like every 20 cycles or something.

 

[sar104]

Question - is just turning the drone back on enough to keep it from free-falling or do you have to "take off" with the joysticks to prevent the fall. As when you just turn it on there is no lift but when you do take off and the sticks are neutralized the drone will hoover. The reason I ask is when playing with my P3 Pro one time I tried to take off with very low battery trying to discharge it completely and it would not take off on a very low battery. Don't know if there is a battery limit on turning it on as well. Back in the old P3 days they used to recommend completely disharging the battery like every 20 cycles or something.

Motor start CSC is all you need to do.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

That isn't a problem - it doesn't appear to prevent motor restart in the air.

What's the foundation for that statement Sar104?. Not challenging it but I would like to know the source of the statement, it's not an area where error is good lol.
I have certainly hand held and wobbled the heck out of a mini whilst trying to restart the motors and it was very hit and miss as to whether they would restart. I am reluctant to try it with a mavic 2 but I suppose I could take the props off.
I must admit I was surprised by two things in that video,
1) how much it appeared the mavic pro tipped
2) the props appearing not to rotate during the freefall. (from memory the phantom's recorded a -ve speed)

Question - is just turning the drone back on enough to keep it from free-falling or do you have to "take off" with the joysticks to prevent the fall

with the P3, following a successful restart YOU MUST THROTTLE UP to halt the fall, the props restart at idle. Mine continued to fall at terminal velocity for the second or two that it took me to realise what was happening and 'floor it', it came uncomorfortably close to going for a salt-water dive as a consequence.

I have certainly seen battery charge threshholds below which the drone will NOT take off and or maybe even start motors and that could be a 'danger' if you do distant touch and goes.

 

[sar104]

What's the foundation for that statement Sar104?. Not challenging it but I would like to know the source of the statement, it's not an area where error is good lol.
I have certainly hand held and wobbled the heck out of a mini whilst trying to restart the motors and it was very hit and miss as to whether they would restart. I am reluctant to try it with a mavic 2 but I suppose I could take the props off.
I must admit I was surprised by two things in that video,
1) how much it appeared the mavic pro tipped
2) the props appearing not to rotate during the freefall. (from memory the phantom's recorded a -ve speed)

with the P3 YOU MUST THROTTLE UP to halt the fall, the props restart at idle. Mine continued to fall at terminal velocity for the second or two that it took me to realise what was happening and 'floor it', it came uncomorfortably close to going for a salt-water dive as a consequence.

I have certainly seen battery charge threshholds below which the drone will NOT take off and or maybe even start motors and that could be a 'danger' if you do distant touch and goes.

There are quite a few examples of this maneuver, including the one that I linked above, showing that motor restart is not inhibited by the aircraft tumbling.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Ok and thanks

 

[Algebruh_m8]

But still, why risk your $1000+ drone? I've thought of the exact scenario before but I see no reason to risk not only crashing the drone but their lives or other people's lives for doing a maneuver that can go seriously wrong in any given moment. Well, I hope it wasn't all for nothing.

 

[naiku]

Well, I hope it wasn't all for nothing.

Yeah, I'd hope that picture is worth it. I tried getting a picture with my M2P, but only at about 150' AGL and wasn't having much luck.

I can't even imagine flying my drone to a height of 5,000' I've put it up to 400' a couple times, that's nerve-wracking enough for me, another 4,600' higher, no thanks.

 

[Algebruh_m8]

I can't even imagine flying my drone to a height of 5,000' I've put it up to 400' a couple times, that's nerve-wracking enough for me, another 4,600' higher, no thanks.

Yeah, I do trust the drone to be stable at 400 ft but it's not worth it since at times I get high wind velocity warnings at that altitude. The view is pretty beautiful up there but past 400 ft? No thanks I value the money that's in the air right now. 5000 ft practically being 1 mile up in the air and the thought of it being that high scares me enough to never do it.

 

[dwaine.freez]

It can happen, even at 4km altitude.

 

[itsneedtokno]

It can happen, even at 4km altitude.

Welcome to the forum!

This is definitely not a Mavic. Looks like a fixed wing set up to me.

Cool video, but what "can happen" exactly?

 

[Torcan]

It can happen, even at 4km altitude.

I could have done without a 10 seconds focus of the guys crotch at the start of that video. One would think editing could have been a bit better on his part

 

[Mario McFly]

But still, why risk your $1000+ drone? I've thought of the exact scenario before but I see no reason to risk not only crashing the drone but their lives or other people's lives for doing a maneuver that can go seriously wrong in any given moment. Well, I hope it wasn't all for nothing.

Like he said in the video ''I love this drone so much''

 

[mcbutler]

Like he said in the video ''I love this drone so much''

Its social media, this generation do anything and everything to get something posted. Even chucking themselves off buildings etc......

 

[Donnie Frank]

Yesterday I read here that a person flew at 5000 ft to take pictures of Comet Neowise and obviously ran out of battery on the way back and the drone went into free fall. I was wondering if he turned off the engine to save the rest of the battery and a few seconds after switching it on , could it prevent the fall or would the drone be unable to stabilize itself ?.

I did this with my Phantom 1 YEARS ago (pre-telemetry data).

D