Launching from within a typical neighborhood

[Marko9219]

Not my favorite place to fly for sure, but I'm asking for some experienced opinions here: First, I realize the FAA says I need to stay visual with my drone. Given that the typical house in a typical neighborhood is surrounded by other homes and trees, visual contact with the drone is lost very quickly. So, legal aspects aside, let me ask about anyone's experience with radio signal distance when flying from within a neighborhood. Within moments of launch, the radio signal is going to be passing through trees and homes. How far away have you been able to maintain contact effectively while staying under the 400 ft limit? The reason I ask is I have a big mountain 3/4 of a mile away that I want to fly to, but the drone will be passing over my neighborhood on the way to the foothills.

 

[Mossiback]

I would recommend getting as close as possible to the area you want to explore (nearby mountain) before launch. You realistically only have 18-20 minutes of flying time so you do not want to waste any of that in the commute.

Experimenting in my neighborhood, after about 1/2 mile I start to get weak connection and choppy video. I have a lot of trees to contend with and probably a lot of WiFi and other electronic congestion, your location may be better. Proper antenna positioning is important when signals get weak. When I did fly my neighborhood, I kept it over the road at 400 feet. I now limit my flights to open spaces as far away from people as possible and can get considerably more range than at home. The only reason I fly at home any more is testing a feature or practicing close movement in tripod mode within 30 feet of the ground. My neighbors are nice and I have done roof inspections for them to introduce them to my new "toy" so they are cool with it. What I don't know about is the guy down the street that might think I am spying on him/her/them.

 

[Mr. Salty]

A half-mile is about right. My neighborhood is flat, with typical single- and two-story houses and tree coverage. At 400 feet I top out around 3,000 feet of distance, if I'm lucky.

 

[hychewright]

Mr. Salty is right on! At about 400ft and 3,000 to 3.500ft out.

 

[Xtreme Drone Pilot]

Is it hard to hop in a car and launch drone away from houses/people? Because the altercation with neighbors is inevitable.

 

[Nicklenutz]

I fly my neighborhood all the time it takes about 3 miles before I get signal transmission issues..

 

[Mr. Salty]

Is it hard to hop in a car and launch drone away from houses/people? Because the altercation with neighbors is inevitable.

Sometimes yes, it is a pain to get in the car and go elsewhere.

My neighbors do all kinds of things that are noisy and annoying. They've never worried about disturbing others.

If you're going to fly in a neighborhood, make every effort to keep it moving, don't hover, and get the drone high enough that the sound isn't an issue and you should be fine.

 

[Hollow Dog]

Is it hard to hop in a car and launch drone away from houses/people? Because the altercation with neighbors is inevitable.

I will ask my wheelchair-bound friend who doesn't have a vehicle.
Sounds like you got some real nosy neighbors

 

[hammick]

I've only had my MPP for a couple weeks but all my 20 or so flights were in God's County in Montana. The flights were simply stunning and I had a blast.

Now that I am home in suburbia I haven't flone. I'm reluctant to fly in my neighborhood b/c I'll probably piss people off and start the rumors churning. I have an RC area about a 1/2 mile away but that will get old pretty quick. Luckily I will be in God's country a fair amount.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

I'm pretty lucky in that my front deck overlooks a mountain valley. I've flown from it LOS over 8000 ft with no loss of signal.

That said, I panic anytime anything gets between me and the Mavic because frankly, I don't want to rely on RTH if I don't need to. I know many have lost their ship for various reasons while relying on RTH.

When I'm in town I always keep it VLOS. With some planning you can usually find a spot that'll get you pretty far out while maintaining LOS, if not VLOS.

 

[Marko9219]

Is it hard to hop in a car and launch drone away from houses/people? Because the altercation with neighbors is inevitable.

"Hard"? Nope. Not hard. Not at all. Inconvenient? Yup. If I want to make a quick 18 minute flight to try out a small change in video or photos settings, then step back into the house, look at it on my 75 inch TV, make another tweak, swap batteries and repeat, why should I give a rat's about flying over the roofs of people's homes at 400 ft.? I don't go to those extents to placate idiots. If they are nervous about a drone passing over their roof at 18 mph and 400 ft in the air, I'm not worried about them being worried.

 

[Ianc]

I don't see how you guys can get that far and maintain VLOS. I got a little over 1000' the other day and started panicking because I couldn't pick the Mavic out against an empty sky. Granted my 55 year old eyes are not what they once were, but still...

ianc

 

[Marko9219]

8X binoculars?

 

[Xtreme Drone Pilot]

8X binoculars?

I have an 8x monocular ($10, Bushnell) that can easily be used if flying at constant altitude ATOP, since I have my RC in custom mode where right stick controls forward/back and turns, so I can hold the monocular with left hand and fly Mavic with right hand only.

So, at 8x the panic would start at 8000'.

 

[NestleQuik]

Hmmm i thnik the furthest i've flown in my area was 1200ft, i was still able to see it clearly, at an altitude of about 190ft i still had a good signal , i just stopped there and turned around. i rarely go higher than 200ft. at that height i am well above any trees and obstacles by many feet. like someone said, just dont hoover over anyones property longer than the time it takes to turn around, and you should have no problems, I worry more about potential bird strike than my neighbors down below. Also, put some strobes on it, they are fairly visible during the day, if you happen to take your eye off of it, that blink might catch your eye.

 

[FASTFJR]

I don't see how you guys can get that far and maintain VLOS. I got a little over 1000' the other day and started panicking because I couldn't pick the Mavic out against an empty sky. Granted my 55 year old eyes are not what they once were, but still...

ianc

Lets not fool ourselves here. I think very few people fly VLOS. We have a thread thats is 107 pages long about how far people fly. I'll admit it, I don't. Half of my flights with my P3P and Inspire were preprogramed in Litich. I find the whole VLOS kind of laughable when DJI sells a product with a range of 3 plus miles. With that said my Non VLOS flights are usually in wide open areas.

 

[Mymgb]

I have found that I must go to baseball fields or drive into the countryside to fly

 

[Marko9219]

Lets not fool ourselves here. I think very few people fly VLOS. We have a thread thats is 107 pages long about how far people fly. I'll admit it, I don't. Half of my flights with my P3P and Inspire were preprogramed in Litich. I find the whole VLOS kind of laughable when DJI sells a product with a range of 3 plus miles. With that said my Non VLOS flights are usually in wide open areas.

Yeah, the VLOS thing is quite hard to live by with a drone that will nearly fit into a pocket. Add to that variables like my 63 year old eyes and the fact that if I fly in either of 2 directions, it literally has a mountain behind it. Just try to pick that little guy out from a mountain covered with scrub oak and pine trees. It's impossible! I might be flying line of sight, but it leaves visual line of sight for me VERY quickly.

 

[WAXMAN]

I don't see how you guys can get that far and maintain VLOS. I got a little over 1000' the other day and started panicking because I couldn't pick the Mavic out against an empty sky. Granted my 55 year old eyes are not what they once were, but still...

ianc

I know what you're saying. I'm 73 and I panic when it goes up 200ft. Must come with age.lol.

 

[mclarke86]

I am going to say ... delete your flight records!