Help - max flight distance

MattyJ · May 21, 2020

Hi All , I dont have a drone yet but have been looking. I want a drone for doing one main job and that is flying out to water tanks and checking the level.
the furthest tank is 6.2Km away I would want to have it fly out , and check the level ( via external Indicator ) then fly home .
Is this asking too much for the Mavic series of Drones .the area it will be flying is very flat rural country but has a few trees .

I know the Mavic 3 is coming out soon so maybe I hold off till then , I was looking at the mavic 2 zoom

Cheers

lannes · May 21, 2020

You would at the practical limit for a Mavic air 2, based on specs it would be achievable, but the realistic range and video feed quality is hard to gauge.

ibookje · May 21, 2020

Seen several distance videos on YouTube. Despite Ocusync the maximum distance was no way near the distance DJI says it can go

old man mavic · May 21, 2020

welcome to the forum

Olav van Gerven · May 21, 2020

The problem will not be the limited distance of a drone flying. The problem you will get is, that no one will believe you being able to SEE the drone in that distance - and since in most countries VLOS (Visual Line Of Sight) ist requiered to operate legal, you will have a problem there.

Juggler · May 21, 2020

Olav van Gerven said:
The problem will not be the limited distance of a drone flying. The problem you will get is, that no one will believe you being able to SEE the drone in that distance - and since in most countries VLOS (Visual Line Of Sight) ist requiered to operate legal, you will have a problem there.

True but if he is on his own property or station then who would know

Wild Wayne · May 21, 2020

Welcome!!

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Meta4 · May 21, 2020

MattyJ said:
I want a drone for doing one main job and that is flying out to water tanks and checking the level.
the furthest tank is 6.2Km away I would want to have it fly out , and check the level ( via external Indicator ) then fly home .
Is this asking too much for the Mavic series of Drones?

It's not clear if you are looking at a simple 6 km out and back flight or a longer track to check a few dams.
The Mavic 2 should be able to deal with 6+6 km.
But .. a longer route might be stretching things.
And ... if the drone has to deal with a headwind on one leg that could make things quite different.

MattyJ said:
I know the Mavic 3 is coming out soon so maybe I hold off till then

Ignore the fake rumours.
The Mavic 3 has allegedly been coming out soon for the last year.
No-one knows when (or even if) a Mavic 3 will be released.

Drone Master · May 21, 2020

Welcome to Mavic Pilots!

Enjoy the forum! Thumbswayup

dirkclod · May 21, 2020

Welcome to the forum.
I hope you will find our site helpful and look forward to any input , photo's/video's you might post . Thumbswayup

RayOZ · May 21, 2020

ibookje said:
Seen several distance videos on YouTube. Despite Ocusync the maximum distance was no way near the distance DJI says it can go

Depends on environment. It can go further than what DJI says it can go in ideal situations. I got to 8.7km on my Mavic 2 Pro, signal still strong, but any further I won’t make it back.

RayOZ · May 21, 2020

MattyJ said:
Hi All , I dont have a drone yet but have been looking. I want a drone for doing one main job and that is flying out to water tanks and checking the level.
the furthest tank is 6.2Km away I would want to have it fly out , and check the level ( via external Indicator ) then fly home .
Is this asking too much for the Mavic series of Drones .the area it will be flying is very flat rural country but has a few trees .

I know the Mavic 3 is coming out soon so maybe I hold off till then , I was looking at the mavic 2 zoom

Cheers

Possible with either M2P or MA2. But you won’t really know for sure until you test it out. Different environment yields different results. And wind becomes a factor. I won’t dare go that far if it’s windy.
If you go down this path, I’d recommend back up strategy. Setup a landing platform halfway between your home and the water tank. If you’ve less than 25% battery and you are closer to that midway point, you probably want to land there and drive out to retrieve it.
I am assuming the land along the stretch belongs to you, not public area that anyone can come across, or private land that you can’t access.

wjkrysak · May 21, 2020

Welcome to the forum. You will find plenty of support and assistance here. We look forward to your view of the world.

mrjohnc1 · May 21, 2020

Welcome!

apeel · May 21, 2020

Juggler said:
True but if he is on his own property or station then who would know

Still not a reason to break the law. Anyways, technically he would not be on his property. He would be in the air. He does not suggest he is flying over his property. If he was, could he simply not get closer to the tanks so he does not need to fly so far? There is a reason for VLOS, and it is for the safety of others who may also be in the air, legally. Since the original poster is a new drone pilot (soon to be pilot, actually), we should all be encouraging him to follow the rules, not break them if he thinks he won't get caught. The more we, as a community break the rules, the more constraining rules will be created, destroying our hobby.

OK. Getting off my soap box now.