Group Mavic flying - flight risk?

[AquaMan]

Have never flown w other pilots: not sure of the physics, but is there any bandwidth issue if multiple MA are in the air at same time? A unique ID is established between each drone and RV? How does that work? Just curious. Thanks

 

[FoxhallGH]

Photo credit to @Anthony Viscomi - in another thread. That answers the question in one picture.
Modern digital transmission for RC has pretty much removed channel separation issues - but there have been instances where two operators standing close together can experience interference due to the 'swamping' of the transmitter next door. If that happens, move apart a little.

 

[jwt873]

I have a friend that I sometimes fly with. He has a DJI Phantom. There's no problem with control. But, as FoxhallGH points out there is 'swamping'. The strong nearby signals reduce the range considerably.

 

[Former Member]

Aside from the problem of interference from another Mavics controller, drone identification is the biggest hurdle.

Controller interference by another Mavic can be reduced by making sure the controllers are separated by at least 10 feet and everyones antenna is pointed in the correct orientation to their drone. If there is even one person using a controller thats putting out a stronger signal than yours, it could interfere with yours and induce loss of control. Happened to me one time, and my Mavic ended up in the bushes.

Identification can be enhanced by using a bright tape or other mark that makes your Mavic different than the others. When flying with multiple drones in the air, I highly recommend LOS at all times, and not FPV. This will bolster separation from other drones and give you better situational awareness.

 

[fozzzy]

I regularly fly 6 tellos in classrooms, I realise this isnt the same as a flock of mavics, but we have had no problems, even from wifi interference which i was suprised at tbh.

 

[DesG]

The telemetry and control on pretty much anything on the 2.4Ghz is frquency agile within very narrow parameters (model aircraft etc). The transmitter and receiver bond with each other (pairing if you will) and change frequency in sync many times a second in accordance with an algorithym preset in the system. As all of the various devices are using their own algorithym even if two or more units are operating together they will never be on exactly the same ferquency for more than a tiny fraction of a second. Clever eh?

As suggested, stay a few feet apart to limit swamping. If you get problems then moving further apart should help.

 

[ff22]

Aside from the problem of interference from another Mavics controller, drone identification is the biggest hurdle.

Controller interference by another Mavic can be reduced by making sure the controllers are separated by at least 10 feet and everyones antenna is pointed in the correct orientation to their drone. If there is even one person using a controller thats putting out a stronger signal than yours, it could interfere with yours and induce loss of control. Happened to me one time, and my Mavic ended up in the bushes.

Identification can be enhanced by using a bright tape or other mark that makes your Mavic different than the others. When flying with multiple drones in the air, I highly recommend LOS at all times, and not FPV. This will bolster separation from other drones and give you better situational awareness.

Someone posted about crashing their drone into some cliff. Analysis after the fact seems to have led to the conclusion that they were looking at another's drone and not theirs and thought they had lost control. But they were not "controlling" the one they were looking at.

 

[DanMan32]

That's when VLOS fails us.

 

[AR15Keef]

I flew my spark with a couple other friends on New Years so we could cover different angles. We just made sure to announce current altitude when we hovered and then again when we started moving. We all took off from the same spot so as long as we kept a 25' height difference we were fine. We weren't buzzing around in Sport mode either.

 

[DesG]

A few years ago when I went to model aircraft competitions there was a Dutch (I think) team who’s party trick was to fly half a dozen identical delta aircraft of about five foot wing span in formation aerobatics like the red arrows. Halfway through their routine they would juggle the transmitters amongst themselves at random and carry on faultlessly. Very impressive. I’ve tried doing it with only two or three aircraft and found it too easy to be flying the wrong one!

 

[dannybgoode]

A few years ago when I went to model aircraft competitions there was a Dutch (I think) team who’s party trick was to fly half a dozen identical delta aircraft of about five foot wing span in formation aerobatics like the red arrows. Halfway through their routine they would juggle the transmitters amongst themselves at random and carry on faultlessly. Very impressive. I’ve tried doing it with only two or three aircraft and found it too easy to be flying the wrong one!

Any YouTube vids of these guys - that sounds awesome. Just getting into RC planks and love watching footage of stuff I'll never be able to do

 

[DesG]

Any YouTube vids of these guys - that sounds awesome. Just getting into RC planks and love watching footage of stuff I'll never be able to do

It was way back before videos were invented. Seventies or eighties I think.

 

[kilomikebravo]

It was way back before videos were invented. Seventies or eighties I think.

I second Danny's emotion, I too would have liked to see that. Maybe there's something similar on the Web, I'll have to look.