Keep your drone in view at all times?

Alastair · Jul 17, 2017

At the risk of wearing out my welcome, I have yet another question.
Is it realistic to follow the "rule" of always keeping visual contact with your drone? A glance down at the screen would cause one to lose visual track of the drone even when flying well within comfortable distance and altitude limits. What good is a 4 mile capability when we can only see a drone at a fraction of that distance? Am I being too literal? Does the on-screen view of the drone's camera constitute "visual contact"? Or do we all just ignore this rule because, **** it, I want to see what this baby can do!?

Aerial-Pixel · Jul 17, 2017

Technically VLOS according to the FAA means you can see it un-aided with your own eyeballs, but yes, many tend to ignore it and go for distance.

bowens44 · Jul 17, 2017

I have never flown out of VLOS.

butterflyslicer · Jul 18, 2017

I brought mine specifically for the miles it can do. If I wanted to fly within VLOS I would have brought a Spark.
btw. It will return to home right on 4kms even though maximum is set to 8kms.

Alastair · Jul 18, 2017

butterflyslicer said:
I brought mine specifically for the miles it can do. If I wanted to fly within VLOS I would have brought a Spark.
btw. It will return to home right on 4kms even though maximum is set to 8kms.

Thank you. Are you saying it is your experience that it won't return to home between 4 & 8 kms? Sorry, just not sure what that means.

dbyantis · Jul 18, 2017

Alastair said:
At the risk of wearing out my welcome, I have yet another question.
Is it realistic to follow the "rule" of always keeping visual contact with your drone? A glance down at the screen would cause one to lose visual track of the drone even when flying well within comfortable distance and altitude limits. What good is a 4 mile capability when we can only see a drone at a fraction of that distance? Am I being too literal? Does the on-screen view of the drone's camera constitute "visual contact"? Or do we all just ignore this rule because, **** it, I want to see what this baby can do!?

I don't trust the DJI software with my investment, I keep it in sight.

tcope · Jul 18, 2017

In the US for hobby flight it's the law. Do most people abide by it? I'd say not even close. Does this mean it should be ignored? No.

butterflyslicer · Jul 19, 2017

Alastair said:
Thank you. Are you saying it is your experience that it won't return to home between 4 & 8 kms? Sorry, just not sure what that means.

It will return home at 4 kilometres. Likewise my Phantom 4 "Reaches maximum distance" at 3km even though set for 5km.

( The Mavic will not travel further than 4km. )

butterflyslicer · Jul 19, 2017

Masheen said:
EU applied restriction compared to the full 7Klm for US ?

Sorry but I don't know what a EU restriction is, nevertheless is seems like some sort of restriction is placed on it even though I live in a rural area.

butterflyslicer · Jul 19, 2017

Masheen said:
View attachment 17605
I think in Australia we are under the EU label that uses CE

Thanks mate
I'll google those compliancy capital letters.

Brunovic · Jul 19, 2017

butterflyslicer said:
It will return home at 4 kilometres. Likewise my Phantom 4 "Reaches maximum distance" at 3km even though set for 5km.

( The Mavic will not travel further than 4km. )

Lol....my mavic go 5.5 km out and 5.5 back...at 120 meters high .. stock....no mods..

butterflyslicer · Jul 19, 2017

Brunovic said:
Lol....my mavic go 5.5 km out and 5.5 back...at 120 meters high .. stock....no mods..

Where do you live?

Brunovic · Jul 19, 2017

UK.. ..and only have hoods and open fields.....

Brunovic · Jul 19, 2017

Well from my backyard i can see about 10km distance....but mavic don't go that fare...wich boost my staff but no money for spend on that...

Basztor · Jul 19, 2017

Since i ended up in the water, I never loose it out of sight.

Johnmcl7 · Jul 19, 2017

dbyantis said:
I don't trust the DJI software with my investment, I keep it in sight.

Same here, aside from it being legal to do so I'd keep the Mavic in view anyway so I've a better chance of recovering it if things go wrong. I'm generally out a walk or cycle anyway so it's easy to chuck the Mavic back in its bag and fly it up further along if needed.

John

Ping^Spike · Jul 19, 2017

Alastair said:
A glance down at the screen would cause one to lose visual track of the drone even when flying well within comfortable distance and altitude limits

Yup, this EXACT thing happened to me. I was well within UK limits, I looked down at the screen, looked up again, GONE!!!

For the life of me, I could not find my Mavic in the sky

I could hear it.... couldn't see it

I panicked, brought it in on RTH and it then magically appeared out of no where.

I tell ya, as a new pilot, with a +£1500 investment, I **** an actual brick...

Alastair · Jul 19, 2017

Ping^Spike said:
Yup, this EXACT thing happened to me. I was well within UK limits, I looked down at the screen, looked up again, GONE!!!

For the life of me, I could not find my Mavic in the sky

I could hear it.... couldn't see it

I panicked, brought it in on RTH and it then magically appeared out of no where.

I tell ya, as a new pilot, with a +£1500 investment, I **** an actual brick...

That's the whole point. We have to look down to fly the darn thing. It's really too much to ask to re establish visual contact with something that small. I intend to practice with my monitor until I feel comfortable knowing the Mavic's location based mainly on the video feed. I still won't be flying crazy distances, just enjoying watching what the Mavic sees. After all, I'm not flying a kite!