Going way too far with Mavic Air 2 - CE Range Test (Mallorca, Spain)

[Yaros]

I know I'm going to receive negative comments about this flight.
I am aware I ignored some local drone regulations during this flight (BVLOS and higher than allowed), I am 70km away from an airport and I tried to not fly over urban areas as much as possible, so the flight was relatively safe.

Also! This was a while ago, back when I didn't really care about flying legally, but now I do, so please don't hate me for this flight, really.
I will NOT do attempt this again, and you shouldn't either.

Well anyway, here is me going 6.3 km away with Mavic Air 2 in CE Mode…



If I find the video from that flight I might upload it to YouTube and share it here.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

When I wanted to range test I would fly out to sea or over sea and not over boats. It's probably equally as illegal but it isn't endangering anything other than the drone and yes I would ditch it if it ran into trouble that could endanger someone.
Make sure you RTH height is set low enough to keep it out of wind and watch battery levels and wind direction.

 

[vindibona1]

I think this makes a pretty good argument regarding the stated advantages of Ocusync 3 vs Ocu 2. 6km is a crazy long distance for a drone. Ocu2 with CE? Wow. The farthest I've had my Mavic 2 out is 10,000 ft (3km) at night, over water with strobes and full VLOS the whole way, though it wasn't a range test and I was just shooting building lights along the lakeshore. I've had my Mini 2, FCC/Ocu2 out over water 5000'. I haven't tried it yet, but I don't think my Mini 3 Pro, even over water would go that far before losing signal to the controller.

 

[mattitech07]

I know I'm going to receive negative comments about this flight.
I am aware I ignored some local drone regulations during this flight (BVLOS and higher than allowed), I am 70km away from an airport and I tried to not fly over urban areas as much as possible, so the flight was relatively safe.

Also! This was a while ago, back when I didn't really care about flying legally, but now I do, so please don't hate me for this flight, really.
I will NOT do attempt this again, and you shouldn't either.

Well anyway, here is me going 6.3 km away with Mavic Air 2 in CE Mode…

View attachment 159005

If I find the video from that flight I might upload it to YouTube and share it here.

How much battery did you have at landing?

 

[Yaros]

How much battery did you have at landing?

5% battery.

 

[mattitech07]

5% battery.

I also did a range test and got to 6 km and came home with 9%. Do your batteries also average 20-21 mins of flight time?

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

The farthest I've had my Mavic 2 out is 10,000 ft (3km)

I have seen a CE spec M2P/Z reach 4.3km over the sea and it was the pilot's nerve that went, not the control signal.
My 'bottle' would have run out LONG before that lol.
As I remember the pilot was fretting about battery but the drone got back before things got dicey.

 

[coullit]

I know I'm going to receive negative comments about this flight.
I am aware I ignored some local drone regulations during this flight (BVLOS and higher than allowed), I am 70km away from an airport and I tried to not fly over urban areas as much as possible, so the flight was relatively safe.

Also! This was a while ago, back when I didn't really care about flying legally, but now I do, so please don't hate me for this flight, really.
I will NOT do attempt this again, and you shouldn't either.

Well anyway, here is me going 6.3 km away with Mavic Air 2 in CE Mode…

View attachment 159005

If I find the video from that flight I might upload it to YouTube and share it here.

hmm well how did you get back? enough battery? I find that at 4km flying out to sea with no wind ill be at about 50% battery and have to return...

 

[Yaros]

6km is a crazy long distance for a drone. Ocu2 with CE? Wow. The farthest I've had my Mavic 2 out is 10,000 ft (3km)

You should check range tests done by DJI Androsean on Youtube, he is a crazy dude fro m Kazakhstan doing mods to DJI drones and DJI flight apps.
Some of his range tests are impressive, he gets 10km+ over cities! Check this video (sorry, not English)

Or this:

Or where he flies to 7000 meters and then turns off motors!

 

[twickers14]

I know I'm going to receive negative comments about this flight.
I am aware I ignored some local drone regulations during this flight (BVLOS and higher than allowed), I am 70km away from an airport and I tried to not fly over urban areas as much as possible, so the flight was relatively safe.

Also! This was a while ago, back when I didn't really care about flying legally, but now I do, so please don't hate me for this flight, really.
I will NOT do attempt this again, and you shouldn't either.

Well anyway, here is me going 6.3 km away with Mavic Air 2 in CE Mode…

View attachment 159005

If I find the video from that flight I might upload it to YouTube and share it here.

Forgive me, I should know, but what is CE mode. I too have an MA2 And love it. No comment on the range test but secretly jealous!!

 

[Yaros]

Forgive me, I should know, but what is CE mode

No worries, I will try to explain.
Depending on where you fly your drone, it would use different signal strength. There is FCC and CE.
CE is used in Europe and surrounding countries, while FCC is used in US mainly.
FCC is much stronger than CE and has better range.
If you check the specs of the Mavic Air 2, you can see that the range is 12KM, but only 6km in Europe (according to DJI) this is because of CE. There are software mods that can force FCC no matter where you fly, however flying in EU with such mods in technically considered illegal.

This is not to be confused with the frequency bands (2.4Ghz vs 5.8Ghz) which also do affect range and signal stability in general.

 

[mattitech07]

No worries, I will try to explain.
Depending on where you fly your drone, it would use different signal strength. There is FCC and CE.
CE is used in Europe and surrounding countries, while FCC is used in US mainly.
FCC is much stronger than CE and has better range.
If you check the specs of the Mavic Air 2, you can see that the range is 12KM, but only 6km in Europe (according to DJI) this is because of CE. There are software mods that can force FCC no matter where you fly, however flying in EU with such mods in technically considered illegal.

This is not to be confused with the frequency bands (2.4Ghz vs 5.8Ghz) which also do affect range and signal stability in general.

Btw another question. Do you use 2.4,5.8 or double band ?

 

[Yaros]

Do you use 2.4,5.8 or double band ?

Double band here in Spain.

 

[Dawnvt]

I know I'm going to receive negative comments about this flight.
I am aware I ignored some local drone regulations during this flight (BVLOS and higher than allowed), I am 70km away from an airport and I tried to not fly over urban areas as much as possible, so the flight was relatively safe.

Also! This was a while ago, back when I didn't really care about flying legally, but now I do, so please don't hate me for this flight, really.
I will NOT do attempt this again, and you shouldn't either.

Well anyway, here is me going 6.3 km away with Mavic Air 2 in CE Mode…

View attachment 159005

If I find the video from that flight I might upload it to YouTube and share it here.

Wow, Interesting... 500meters altitude? = 1640.42 feet
I'm curious about the aviation rules there and what the legal ceiling is? (USA=400AGL is our limit, unless we have our pt 107, and only in certain circumstances)

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

An indicated height of 500m would illegal almost every where unless the drone had been flown upslope to above a point on the ground that was itself 378m above the launch point.

 

[Yaros]

I'm curious about the aviation rules there and what the legal ceiling is?

120m/400ft here too. However I'm far from airports so I kind of ignored it during this flight, as many others in my area do. Actually, I live so far from airports that with a Mavic 3 I could fly to 1000m technically, however I wouldn't do that for safety reasons.

 

[DavidT_ NZ]

120m/400ft here too. However I'm far from airports so I kind of ignored it during this flight, as many others in my area do. Actually, I live so far from airports that with a Mavic 3 I could fly to 1000m technically, however I wouldn't do that for safety reasons.

The last time I flew in a plane it went quite a long way from an airport ………

 

[Yaros]

The last time I flew in a plane it went quite a long way from an airport ………

Yeah, but much higher than 500 meters at that distance. Check my area on flightradar24 if you don't believe me...

Actually, not many planes here, right? And even if there are some, they are much higher than 500 meters!

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

But what of the occasional sight seeing or private helicopter flying legally in manned aircraft airspace?

 

[Yaros]

But what of the occasional sight seeing or private helicopter flying legally in manned aircraft airspace?

Yeah, that might have happened. However, the chance of a collision in 3D space is pretty low still.

Anyway, in my original post I mentioned that I don't want to receive negative comments about this, I have changed since then and I'm not doing crazy stuff like this now.