Keeping Eyes on the Drone

[SlabRyder]

I have a visual contact issue when I am flying my MA. My issue is not being able to keeping my eyes on the drone when flying. If I wear my polarized prescription sun glasses I find it hard to actually see the polarized iPhone screen, let alone find the drone in the sky (light or cloudy). Anyone else experience having difficulty finding the drone in the air, if so, how do you overcome this?

 

[Van Shteffy]

I have attached three different strobes on my Mavic Zoom. You can clearly see the drone in the daylight.

Firehouse Technology ARC Blue. $34-36. Well
worth it. Available on ebay. Very bright.

 

[Van Shteffy]

It is very wise to have another person with you to keep an eye on the drone at all times. These drones are expensive.
My Amish friends love flying the drone. I keep it set at tripod mode .

 

[SlabRyder]

I have attached three different strobes on my Mavic Zoom. You can clearly see the drone in the daylight.

Firehouse Technology ARC Blue. $34-36. Well
worth it. Available on ebay. Very bright.

What are your placement areas?

 

[Mossiback]

...Anyone else experience having difficulty finding the drone in the air, if so, how do you overcome this?

I think we all have this difficulty. When I lose track of my MP I will stop it, turn it so I can see my location on the screen, then line up ground features to help re-acquire it. It helps me find it by moving it up and down a dozen feet or more. Most other things in the sky do not move like that so it tends to be more noticeable.

 

[skyrex]

Using the prop guards also assists in generally making the unit appear bigger in the sky thus easier to see at or near VLOS limits.
The wind resistance is greater when using guards so the AC will "feel different" through the controls - something to take into account if the weather conditions call for it.

"Winning combo" for maximum visibility may be prop guards with the strobes attached to the guards.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Stobes like the FHT, or a few other brands, but FHT ARCIIs are brightest by far.
Too bright ?
Maybe.

They have ARCIIs (4 leds), Duals (2 leds), others are a mix or red / blue or red / white in public safety series ARCIIs.
There are also a couple of housed models like the 'Spark' strobe.
Google Firehouse Technology strobes, go to their own website to see all the range and order, Amazon etc don't list them all.

I have my duals on front arms (red and green as per nav setup), and one ARCII on rear in red / white.



By FAR, the white leds are most visible, so if wanting total VLOS I'd just get a white ARCII and place it on the back, or underneath, if possible on the back slightly down is good.

Google strobes here on the forums (all forums search) there are a dozen or more recent threads with various makers and options, loads of pics.

 

[SlabRyder]

Stobes like the FHT, or a few other brands, but FHT ARCIIs are brightest by far.
Too bright ?
Maybe.

They have ARCIIs (4 leds), Duals (2 leds), others are a mix or red / blue or red / white in public safety series ARCIIs.
There are also a couple of housed models like the 'Spark' strobe.
Google Firehouse Technology strobes, go to their own website to see all the range and order, Amazon etc don't list them all.

I have my duals on front arms (red and green as per nav setup), and one ARCII on rear in red / white.

View attachment 83582 View attachment 83583 View attachment 83584 View attachment 83585

By FAR, the white leds are most visible, so if wanting total VLOS I'd just get a white ARCII and place it on the back, or underneath, if possible on the back slightly down is good.

Google strobes here on the forums (all forums search) there are a dozen or more recent threads with various makers and options, loads of pics.

Thank you very much!

 

[Radio]

Thank you very much!

Firehouse ARC on my MA keeps her in sight

 

[Dale D]

I have a visual contact issue when I am flying my MA. My issue is not being able to keeping my eyes on the drone when flying. If I wear my polarized prescription sun glasses I find it hard to actually see the polarized iPhone screen, let alone find the drone in the sky (light or cloudy). Anyone else experience having difficulty finding the drone in the air, if so, how do you overcome this?

Speaking to you as an ophthalmologist ( I am a board certified ophthalmologist-e.g.: eye doctor and surgeon, in USA and have practiced for 38 years and am now retired).... The answer really depends on your age and you eye glasses prescription (refraction), if any. If you are younger than about 40 years old, you should have enough near vision to focus on the phone screen without reading aids and still see distance. If you are near sighted, (you see better up close) then you are fine for the phone but will need distance glasses. It gets complicated. It really depends whether or not you are far sighted (see better at distance), nearsighted (see better at near), or normal sighted (no glasses or refraction at all). You might want to spend some time with your ophthalmologist or optometrist working on your exact problem. You will need clear NEAR vision, clear DISTANCE vision. So whatever your individual refraction for near and far are, the prescription can be built into a special pair of DRONE GLASSES. These glasses should not be polarized, but they can have a tint, the darkness of which still allows you to see the phone screen. If you have a know refraction (glasses prescription) post it to this thread and I'll try to help.

 

[crlmjohnson]

Thank you very much!

I just started using the fh arc4...very bright

 

[1919Films]

We always use strobes, day or night: Firehouse Arc IIs. Whites on the left forward and right rear arms, green on the right forward arm, and red on the left rear arm. That helps with both acquiring the drone and quickly orienting it. That being said, sometimes you still have to stop and rotate the drone, because even with four strobes, there are certain angles where they're difficult to see.

 

[offtheback]

I have a visual contact issue when I am flying my MA. My issue is not being able to keeping my eyes on the drone when flying. If I wear my polarized prescription sun glasses I find it hard to actually see the polarized iPhone screen, let alone find the drone in the sky (light or cloudy). Anyone else experience having difficulty finding the drone in the air, if so, how do you overcome this?

Polarized sunglasses are not a good match for the screen.You'll find if you tilt your head a bit the screen may be more visible or less.Non polarized work better.You canalso get clip on sunglasses that flip up though I couldn't find non polarized flip ups.

 

[awsan5]

I have a visual contact issue when I am flying my MA. My issue is not being able to keeping my eyes on the drone when flying. If I wear my polarized prescription sun glasses I find it hard to actually see the polarized iPhone screen, let alone find the drone in the sky (light or cloudy). Anyone else experience having difficulty finding the drone in the air, if so, how do you overcome this?

Only thing you can do is to keep it close

 

[Endeavor]

VLOS for drones is like oil treads on car and motorcycle forums. Meanwhile hundreds of videos on "how far will it go" VLOS only matters when things go wrong.

 

[irpnetgb]

The simple solution for being able to see your phone screen wearing polarised glasses is to get a phone with an OLED display. This is what I have done.
Depending on your budget/country/network/thoughts I can recommend either a Samsung S10 or a Huawei P30 Pro. My P30 Pro came with Google installed but I am not sure what the status is right now (I got mine before the embargo) so check before purchase. There are many other options, but just make sure the screen is OLED and not LCD.

 

[Dale D]

I just Googled it - the iPhone 10 xs MAX and the iPhone 11 both come with a built in OLED display. I have the 10 XS MAX but take off my polarized glasses to see the phone, and usually, I use my iPAD which does not have that display and I see the image just fine. Of course your vision is affected by your eye's refraction, or eyeglasses prescription as I have explained at the onset of this thread.

 

[WithTheBirds]

I am in the 40+ category where mild Presbyopia provides that seeing the telemetry in GO4 can be a strain- no issues seeing the Mavic in the air. Obviously wearing readers makes seeing the Mavic a challenge. The solution for me was the Epson Moverio glasses as my display device. I don’t need any correction with the Moverios and being able to see the telemetry and camera view without having to look away from the drone is a huge advantage. For those who have a lens prescription fitting lenses to the supplied frames in the moverios works very well by many accounts of those who are using them. Worth considering.

 

[WithTheBirds]

I just Googled it - the iPhone 10 xs MAX and the iPhone 11 both come with a built in OLED display. I have the 10 XS MAX but take off my polarized glasses to see the phone, and usually, I use my iPAD which does not have that display and I see the image just fine. Of course your vision is affected by your eye's refraction, or eyeglasses prescription as I have explained at the onset of this thread.

Given your speciality you may have some clues why with the Epson moverio AR glasses I can see the projected display from GO4 without my reading glasses perfectly (I am squinting to focus on the iPhone screen).

 

[irpnetgb]

I just Googled it - the iPhone 10 xs MAX and the iPhone 11 both come with a built in OLED display. I have the 10 XS MAX but take off my polarized glasses to see the phone, and usually, I use my iPAD which does not have that display and I see the image just fine. Of course your vision is affected by your eye's refraction, or eyeglasses prescription as I have explained at the onset of this thread.

Your assumption is the OP has the iPhone 10 or 11. The OP stated that he was unable to see the polarized screen with his prescription polarized sunglasses, therefore suggesting that he does not have one of these models. Older models would tend to have LCD screens.