Keep Your Drone Low and Close... Setting Maximum Distance and Height...

[LoudThunder]

I recently posted my experiments with the Return to Home function for my Mini 2. While I was out, I also played around with the flying the drone at a preset Maximum Height and at Maximum Distance.

If you want to see the Return to Home Posting…

When Your Drone will Return to Home (RTH) and When it Might Not…

I am posting this in the General Discussion Forum even though I am flying a Mini 2, it may affect many other DJI Drone Models. On another Drone Web Site, one of the members posted that their Mini 2 Drone was working perfectly however the Return to Home (RTH) function did not work and they...

mavicpilots.com

Now, back on point… I wanted to see just what would happened when my Mini 2 hit the setting and it was interesting, you should try it…

OK, first off I'm flying in a large park and I'm keeping my drone within the "RTH Unavailable Distance" (see the RTH Posting…) so I'm not worried about the altitude setting being below the trees.

I set the Max Altitude to 49' and that is exactly the maximum height my Mini 2 flew to. Once it hit 49' it was like the drone hit a glass ceiling. I could maneuver it around, fore and aft, and left and right, and yaw to my heart's content, but it would climb no higher…






I reset the Height and set the Maximum Distance to 65' and it flew no further than 63'. This I chocked up to deviations in GPS. You know, like when you hit RTH and the drone comes back and lands just off the Pad… I could fly the drone all over the place, up, down, left, right, and yaw in circles but the drone would fly no further. It was like flying in a glass cylinder.






These features are a boon if you want to let you friends or family try your drone and you do not want to worry that they will fly it straight into a tree or get so high, it violates the altitude limits. Just situate them in an open area, such as the middle of the yard, park, or wherever, away from trees, buildings, and anything else you do not want to your drone to hit… You can keep your drone low and close…

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Also try setting the RTH height higher than your maximum height just to see what happens.
For a subsequent flight, set your max height & RTH height to say 200ft, climb to 200ft and leave the drone hovering there then reset the maximum height to 150ft and see what happens to the RTH height AND the drone.

 

[wardtom084]

I would never fly at that altitude. I am always above 200 feet at least. Not looking for errors and trees.

 

[Faster]

Max Altitude setting in Fly app is priceless for maintaining LAANC approved Max Altitude or FAA 400' AGL allowable Max Altitude.

 

[IFlied]

Please forgive my insatiable curiosity, but what are those interesting structures in your pic ?

 

[LoudThunder]

Also try setting the RTH height higher than your maximum height just to see what happens.

Resetting the Maximum Distances to less than the drone's present position sends shivers down my spine. I already get anxious when I use the RTH. Where I fly, there always seems to be a really tall tree much higher than the surrounding area so I set the RTH height to avoid any happenstance where I've lost signal or such when the drone is just on the other side of the "monster."

Even during the recent test of the RTH, I was very nervous to have the Drone autonomously gain altitude and zoom off heading for Home.

But to send my little Mini 2 out to "play" and then reset its "playground" is synonymous to sending the kids out to play and then locking the door so they cannot come home…

What I fear is that once I've reset the distance or height, the firmware in the drone might treat it like Geo-Fencing and prevent the drone from returning and I would be struck trying to fly the drone around the "fence" to a suitable landing location…

Yeah, I know, I'm anthropomorphizing my Mini 2, but if you've ever read my "Welcome Notes" to new members, I write, "Turn on the drone and watch it come to "life." Watching the Gimbal go through its self-check is almost like watching a kitten or puppy opening its eyes for the first time…"

However, I read with interest that another member did just this thing and I applaud his bravery…

What happens if you reduce the range limit to something less than the drone's current distance?

There's an active, at the moment, thread concerning an apparent flyaway by a Mavic 3. One of the posts in that thread brought to mind something that occurred with my Mavic Mini, I accidentally reduced the MM's maximum height setting to less than the MM's current height. The MM descended to the...

mavicpilots.com

Fly Smart and Fly Safe…

 

[LoudThunder]

what are those interesting structures in your pic

This park has a paintball and airsoft battlefield park. What you see are all sorts of obstacles, hidey-holes, barricades, sheds, old trailers, even an old wrecked airplane shell. The dark colored screen is meant to keep the general public safe from a direct hit. I do not fly my drone when the battlefield is in use on the weekends.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

When I took my first flight, I used beginners mode, and that lasted, oh, about 10 minutes, lol.

The restricted distance and altitude could be useful for a while more while learning, until one feels comfortable with the drones various features and behaviours.
But in general, I feel such restrictions really have no place (or need I can easily think of) once you know the ropes / have built confidence of your drone and systems.

I suppose some might set max distance to what they feel is good for them and general VLOS capability.
Much like leaving your max alt on 120m / 400' if you follow that rule to the letter, makes it easy not to accidentally go higher.

There are cases when flying mountainous terrain to open it up a bit more to allow for some altitude gain within a country's altitude rule limits.
250m, 500m ?
That's up to the pilot and their flight situation, how well they can keep VLOS, the other rule some may break (or bend) more than others.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Resetting the Maximum Distances to less than the drone's present position sends shivers down my spine. I already get anxious when I use the RTH. , the new setting will not take

But experimentation in a safe place is the best way to encounter things for the first time with these drone.

For the record from memory you will not be able to set the RTH height higher that the maximum-height, the attempted RTH height setting will not 'take'.

Likewise, from memory, if you reduce the maximum height to something below the drone's current height the drone descends to the new maximum. When I tried this the drone was more or less directly overhead and no horizontal flight would have been necessary other than to correct for drift.

I did not suggest reducing horizontal distance limits to less than the drone's current distance. I rarely have a distance limit set simply because my VLOS limit, or less, is normally my distance limit. But if I were going to try that I would only do it over a large open space with nothing in the way of any flight home at any height.