Is it only a matter of time before I lose her? Or should I........

[Iclickjohn]

Just spent the money only a few days ago. Plan on getting FAA107. Mostly pictures rather than video. Mostly straight up, get the shot, come down, get paid.
I'm thinking that I should earn enough from the up and down before I go distance nuts. That way my wife won't end my life.
So here is my personal dialogue with myself. "Look, Don't trust that RTH stuff, dependent on GPS, signal, obstacles, etc. Since you are flying in known areas, just go up high enough to avoid trees and fly home watching the familiar landmarks, houses, landscape features etc. So I know it would be fun to orbit around something, but you know very well that obstruction prevention sensors are NOT going to work and you're going to hit a tree. Listen, just stick to the business side of things until the technology is fool-proof you fool. But I wanna have some fun too. Is that too much to ask? So you know.......I'm going to take it farther and farther away and orbit and dip and dive and just prove to you that you are right, eventually I'll be the fool."
Is this personal dialogue correct?
Should I get a range extender (not for extended range, but for better signal even flying close)?
Should I trust RTH ever????
Should I avoid flying around sunset?
Can I still have fun with it even though I am playing it really really safe?

 

[Kate]

Welcome to the Forum

Ive yet to press the RTH button on my controller
I just wait for the signal to die, and let it do it.
If you just fly stick (ie: "Straight up"), and dont use all the "modes";
it's hard to have an incident that wasn't due to carelessness.
So i would relax and stop talking to yourself

 

[dirkclod]

The most of my flight's have been distance test with the different firmware or app's . Not counting over 700 flight's with my Phantoms
with this mavic with 143 flight's over 100 have been bought back in RTH
and has never failed me . Not even 1 time in all my flight's has it not worked .
Might not work tomorrow since I posted this but I trust it .
As far as an extender I guess that depends on where you are flying .
I'm in the country with the only noise being animals and it will do what it says low in the right conditions without one but I really wouldn't start out trying to much at first and as far as that OA . I have yet to even use it .
Everyone is different and in different locations and want it to do differant
things . I am not a photographer but do take pictures and video's but i
do like to fly like a crazy chimp . So like Kate told ya

relax and stop talking to yourself

Welcome to the forum

 

[Iclickjohn]

Welcome to the Forum

Ive yet to press the RTH button on my controller
I just wait for the signal to die, and let it do it.
If you just fly stick (ie: "Straight up"), and dont use all the "modes";
it's hard to have an incident that wasn't due to carelessness.
So i would relax and stop talking to yourself

I've been reading all of the online manuals, since my eyes can't focus on that little book they give you. It does mention the three types of RTH. You are speaking of the "Failsafe" option. So, what I haven't found in the manual is the calibration in which you rotate the MP 360 and then point it straight down and rotate it 360 (which I saw in a Youtube video) Was that old firmware? The controller doesn't seem to ask me to do that, and that is now one of the reasons I am being safe. Until I find out that, that procedure is not used any more. Prior to each flight, I go into settings and press the home location button. Shortly after, the pleasant lady urges me that it's OK for flying. But in Failsafe mode it mentions that the compass should be functioning. I need to know if that is on me, with a procedure or automatically part of the function of the software itself?

 

[Kate]

lol i totally know who this is

Nevermind.
You dont need to change the home location setting.
You need to go into settings and set the compass.
Do it in a field or park, anywhere with No interference.
Set it and forget it.

 

[JeepDSL]

So, what I haven't found in the manual is the calibration in which you rotate the MP 360 and then point it straight down and rotate it 360 (which I saw in a Youtube video)

Check page 52 in the manual (V1.6): Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads

Once you have the compass calibrated, you shouldn't need to recalibrate unless the Mavic tells you to (page 12), the app says it's needed, or you travel far from where you last calibrated (e.g., calibrated in the U.S. then took the drone to South Africa).

 

[rcflyingaddict]

I've been reading all of the online manuals, since my eyes can't focus on that little book they give you. It does mention the three types of RTH. You are speaking of the "Failsafe" option. So, what I haven't found in the manual is the calibration in which you rotate the MP 360 and then point it straight down and rotate it 360 (which I saw in a Youtube video) Was that old firmware? The controller doesn't seem to ask me to do that, and that is now one of the reasons I am being safe. Until I find out that, that procedure is not used any more. Prior to each flight, I go into settings and press the home location button. Shortly after, the pleasant lady urges me that it's OK for flying. But in Failsafe mode it mentions that the compass should be functioning. I need to know if that is on me, with a procedure or automatically part of the function of the software itself?

FYI --- when I did my calibration for the first time it was in the sun and the pic's were a bit unclear.... so it took me a while to figure out why it would not complete the calibration. The pic's actually show tipping the mp up on it's side and top .. I missed this the first few times but once figured it out calibration went off w/out a hitch.

 

[KiterTodd]

Do those range extenders really work?

I haven't found the need for one. I did one distance flight and needed to turn around (due to battery) long before I had signal issues.

The only time I do have signal issues is when my line of sight is blocked due to trees, land or structure. And then, I figured "blocked is blocked" and the extenders wouldn't really help. ?

 

[Kate]

Do those range extenders really work?

I haven't found the need for one. I did one distance flight and needed to turn around (due to battery) long before I had signal issues.

The only time I do have signal issues is when my line of sight is blocked due to trees, land or structure. And then, I figured "blocked is blocked" and the extenders wouldn't really help. ?

I think your spot on. If there's interference it's all over the place, the same signal is going to get away from the controller.

Maybe if you are standing in a cornfield and it's cornfields around you in a 7km radius, they would probably help.
But I can think of much better ways to increase your signal in this situation

Few would argue (hopefully) that LOS is the biggest factor, Second I think is the signal getting away clean.
As in dont launch from the 2 x 2m spot in your backyard where there's enough GPS to take off.
But safe to say theres 3000 wi-fi signals once you get up there.

I just thought of a great experiment. Kind of like google map vans "accidentaly" collecting Wi-Fi data

So I would strap my smartphone to Mavic, Somehow set it to scan Wi-FI without timing out. Takeoff vertically and Log all the candidates encountered along the way