Important to flyers using or planning on using Strobes or Lighting.

[aeciolemos]

A lamp that can be seen for 3 miles is no small lamp! I have little blinkers I attached to the underside of the drone. two small disks operating on little disc batteries. It is quite bright and shines well enough to see my Mini 2 from far. I am not sure if they would be enough in countries such as the US, but they are quite bright and call attention. I'll try to snap a picture.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

A lamp that can be seen for 3 miles is no small lamp!

To be honest, I've always through it impossible to actually have drone strobes that REALLY are visible at 3mi, that's like 4.82km . . .

They just get that small, you can't even pick up the colour differences, then they finally disappear.

That is also WAY out of the 'spirit' of VLOS, one can't possibly see another (manned) aircraft or it's travel path at that distance even during the day, let alone at night . . . then have the situational awareness to avoid it ??
Not a chance.

To me, drone strobes are simply about assisting in locating your drone when looking up from the screen, when the drone is at a reasonable distance to the PIC.
Yes, they will give you a better distance advantage for VLOS on the light, but go too far and you cannot have the situational awareness required if small aircraft, planes and helis, are potentially operating in airspace lower than 120m / 400'.

Aircraft lights have the 3mi regulation, it's written for them, they have the ability to carry a lot larger and effective set of navigation lights for night flight.

 

[Droniac]

I just learned a very valuable lesson on using Bicycle Strobe/lights or alike.

I found a Bike/Helmet/ Head light. It is very bright and can see it more than 3 miles.
I mounted it on the Mavic 2 Zoom, and it blew the compass value off the chart.
My value normally is 7-24 but with the light it brought it into the RED.
The Green turned Red and filled the entire bar graph Red..

If you plan on using a non-designed strobe/light for your drone, check if it affects the Compass at all..

Thanks and Happy Safe Flying,
Rick aka. SilverDragon

Interesting. Thanks. Flysafe fly calibrated and Godspeed, Droniac

 

[Droniac]

I use two strobe’s on a bracket I made out of a plastic cup holder. I use it for day time to locate and track my drone. Here’s a picture of the bracket.

Where does the coffee go?