How the heck people get 5km+ range?

[Macabre]

Thanks for the tips all.
Some of you are getting a bit off topic though

 

[MavicFT1P]

I fly to 3500' 6-10x a day every day from inside my house sitting on the sofa. I fly to 16,000' when outside 1-2x per week. I have M2Z , new pilot, owned since March 4, 125 hours in air, 425 flights, 700 miles .

inches? Centimeters?
and Are you playing Flight Simulator II on the sofa?

This is the max distance I managed to reach with M1 in Maldives (4.9km equal to 3.1 miles)View attachment 73239 Signal was very strong and I could not go further because of battery. I landed with 12% of battery left.

Were you were flying from a boat, Sea-Doo maybe?


Personally i wouldn't press the RTH button if the drone was 5 ft in front of me (And RTH was set to 5ft)

The RTH button should have a "?" on it like a Loot Box on eBay.

Auto RTH in settings maybe.

 

[Deleted member 94307]

I went 15100 feet at 60 -200 ft over ocean .. stock Mavic 2.. with smart controller. I could have gone further but it was insisting on returning to home... got back with 30% battery.

I don’t recommend doing this because it is always possible to encounter a coast guard chopper training which I have since seen.. but if you must wide open ocean or desert is safest..

Also CHECK TFRs on FAA.GOV.. if a TFR goes into effect while your that far away, it will make you land in the ocean

 

[Cymruflyer]

inches? Centimeters?
and Are you playing Flight Simulator II on the sofa?



Were you were flying from a boat, Sea-Doo maybe?


Personally i wouldn't press the RTH button if the drone was 5 ft in front of me (And RTH was set to 5ft)

The RTH button should have a "?" on it like a Loot Box on eBay.

Auto RTH in settings maybe.

He clearly shows you he is showing you feet in his numbers, or don't you know what that mark means?

 

[Billyboy72]

This was in another thread, but i couldnt find it, so here tis again

Yup this is exactly how I hold mine too but It weird with the new DJI controller, granted its only used for the MP2 but still those are pointed down instead of up. Or so I've seen it used on youtube.

 

[Deleted member 94307]

I have had strange things going on with GO4 recently.. I hope DJI isn’t taking it upon themselves to put limits on us. I thought I read someone saying they are limiting range... I hope that’s not true.. with a strobe you can fly over a mile in vlos during civil twilight.

 

[MavicFT1P]

He clearly shows you he is showing you feet in his numbers, or don't you know what that mark means?

Us with respect ' doesnt nessacerily mean feet. but lets leave that for anther day
His post was he flys "to" 16,000' not "for"
So there was some confusion on my part as 400ft is the highest you can fly.

Also I was interested how he was flying from inside the house

 

[Cymruflyer]

Us with respect ' doesnt nessacerily mean feet. but lets leave that for anther day
His post was he flys "to" 16,000' not "for"
So there was some confusion on my part as 400ft is the highest you can fly.

Also I was interested how he was flying from inside the house

Well this is what you quoted him as stating:

… "I fly to 3500' 6-10x a day every day from inside my house sitting on the sofa. I fly to 16,000' when outside 1-2x per week. I have M2Z , new pilot, owned since March 4, 125 hours in air, 425 flights, 700 miles." ...

Here he clearly shows he is stating feet with this mark [ ' ] and I believe everyone else reading here who also showed this mark [ ' ] also meant feet. When someone writes 100' and then 20" that would mean 100 feet and 20 inches. When you say, and I quote you QUOTE: "
with respect ' doesnt nessacerily mean feet." ... UN-QUOTE, what else could that possibly mean to you, since we are all discussing range/distance?

Since the OP was asking about range and not altitude and everyone has been stating range as in distance, not altitude, I would assume that everyone would also understand that his mention of 16,000' would in fact also mean distance, as in range. There should be no reason to assume he suddenly changed things to altitude, especially since he did not mention altitude at all.

 

[MavicFT1P]

Well this is what you quoted him as stating:

… "I fly to 3500' 6-10x a day every day from inside my house sitting on the sofa. I fly to 16,000' when outside 1-2x per week. I have M2Z , new pilot, owned since March 4, 125 hours in air, 425 flights, 700 miles." ...

Here he clearly shows he is stating feet with this mark [ ' ] and I believe everyone else reading here who also showed this mark [ ' ] also meant feet. When someone writes 100' and then 20" that would mean 100 feet and 20 inches. When you say, and I quote you QUOTE: "
with respect ' doesnt nessacerily mean feet." ... UN-QUOTE, what else could that possibly mean to you, since we are all discussing range/distance?

Since the OP was asking about range and not altitude and everyone has been stating range as in distance, not altitude, I would assume that everyone would also understand that his mention of 16,000' would in fact also mean distance, as in range. There should be no reason to assume he suddenly changed things to altitude, especially since he did not mention altitude at all.

Fair enough Guy
You don't need to be informatively agressive.
The Flying from his couch 6 to 10 times a day stemmed my curiousity?

 

[Cymruflyer]

Fair enough Guy
You don't need to be informatively agressive.
The Flying from his couch 6 to 10 times a day stemmed my curiousity?

I didn't mean to be, just hoping to clear up what he actually posted regarding feet. I read of another guy last year who also flew from his living room, sitting by the window, so it does not seem to be a one off case. I wonder or worry about lost connection though, doing that, as nice as it might be on a cold day.

 

[Stephenmaycol]

Despite all the hype, and Youtube click bait, 1.6km is actually normal range for a ready to fly, out of the box M2. My Mavic Pros usually get 2000' before the connection starts getting bad. Every single Mavic 2 that I have owned, sold or test flown has easily doubled what Mavic Pros get. I have learned what to expect from Mavics, and 5000 feet for an M2 is really normal. The fact that you are getting 1.2 km is to be expected.

Really???? With a 7 km advertised range??? obviously, Thunderdrones, you know much more about drones than I do. And I have learned alot from your postings over the last year or so, but this seems off. I routinely fly 3-4 kilometers from home without issue. (always with VLOS of course ). When flying that far I am either starting from and elevated position or I need to be flying very high, keeping in mind the 400' height limit above the terrain the drone is over. (Flying up hill or down)

 

[MavicFT1P]

I think people have stopped posting because of the obvious guy. But I'll oblige

If your living in a large predominately flat Major city, you are basically in a big sphere of 2.4/5.8ghz, Any and every kind
of Telecommunications noise.

In this environment, the signal from your controller cant get 'away' from the controller properly, and subsequently even LOS range is limited.
It's easy to get frustrated as the difference between 1.5km and advertised 7km seems a lot, almost unattainable.

But as you move away from the city, I promise you the range wont just get better, it will increase exponentially.

I was a diver at one point, so I liken it to being underwater.
At or near the surface (country) light penetrates, there no pressure and you have room the breathe.
But it doesnt take much depth (the city) before all 3 become a problem.

Corny boring post, but i trust that clears it up for you

 

[Aussie Oldtimer]

In Australia, we have to maintain VLOS. How the bloody hell do you even have visual contact with something the size of a football at 1km? i lose mine around 800m.

 

[Elblasco]

io faccio 13 km senza problemi in CE

 

[Gringorio]

I used to EASILY get 5-6km range with MP; I'm luckly to get 500m to 1km now. DJI definitely has buggered their software to restrict range...there can be no other explanation imo.

I don't know if that's true. My Mavic Pro easily made 3.1 miles and my Mavic Pro 2 3.5 miles. In both cases I returned because of battery power concerns, not connectivity. On edit: I should state that this was in the middle of nowhere so there weren't any other signals that could interfere.

 

[Gringorio]

Dude put it in 1080p mode

What does the 1080p setting do to help range? I was going to try the 720p for the video feed. But this has nothing to do with controller connectivity. I figured the lower resolution video link would be easier to transmit.

 

[Geodiver]

I was able to get 3 km no problem. Relatively flat with some wooded area and through a wind farm. Only once have I tried that far.

 

[Thomas B]

In remote area of AZ desert I easily got almost 4 miles and still had almost full bars signal strength (max) on stock controller before getting an RTH warning from my controller and turning around.
Of course flying that far away is illegal as I can’t see it past 2 miles or so in optimal lighting with my ARC2s on board.

 

[Moose1967]

Wow - last July I tried my first 5.0 km run with my MP1 - not a problem - still had 4 bars - returned at 5.0 km and when the drone came back I still had almost 30 percent battery life. This was done out in a rural area with little interference and I took off from 200 feet above the water and flew along the waters edge along the highway (in case I had to force land).

I regularly go 2.0 km and still have 5 bars of strong signal from remote to drone.

 

[Macabre]

Hmm, I guess that people with long range are flying in FCC? Because I read that in Europe (where I live) we only have CE which is lower range.