Line of Sight - Really?

[THE CYBORG]

Legality aside I prefer to be able to see where my expensive toys are when in the air.

 

[Jet skier]

Most people would be my guess.

Maybe this has already be presented, but just in case, here it is:

My Mavic 2Z has a body roughly 0.25 ft wide. This is the most visible part when flying away or toward the pilot. Now the accepted angular resolution of the human eye is about 1/60 degree or 0.000291 radian.
Calculations:
Distance X Angle (in radians) = Arc length
Distance X 0.000921 = 0.25 ft whence distance = 859 ft or 0.16 mile.

Now even if we up the angular resolution of your eye by a factor of 4, we get about .064 mile straight line.

Note: if the drone is at h=300 ft, the horizontal distance is 804 ft.

I challenge anyone to let someone fly your drone out somewhere randomly to a distance of, say 0.64 mile, while you keep your back turned and then you turn around and see the drone.

Who flies their Mavic 2 drone no farther than 1000 feet? As for myself, I have trouble seeing it four or five hundred feet away.

All you have to do is use the powerful LED light on the bottom of the drone

 

[Edward Knight]

As a potential new owner in the very near future, this is one of my questions.

YouTube is full of videos of people doing range tests and range hacks, some of them linked to this very site. I think I saw 11 miles on a video yesterday.

I know some of these videos may be from places where these rules don't exist, but definitely not all.

Look at the date or how long ago the video was posted.

 

[Dan C]

I have a Mavic Air. In good light, I can reacquire it visually out to around 400 meters.

At night, about 300 meters or so against a mostly dark background. That green taillight strobes pretty brightly.

 

[Bryan Byrne]

Out of curiosity what might you suggest the manufacturers could be doing? The currently available models all perform BVLOS exceptionally well.

The FAA’s main concern is uncontrolled flying that puts lives and vital infrastructure in danger. The agency must be assured that drones sharing the sky with airplanes will not result in midair collisions and that the risk of damage to people and property on the ground is mitigated.

 

[FASTFJR]

Are we supposed to fly LOS? Yes, however I'm going to guess most of us don't. Honestly I try, and with some of my filming I'm within a 100ft. However other times in the mountains, at the beach I could be 2000-3000ft away. Ever take a look at the amount of post about how far can I fly, who has flown the furthest? What the best long distance antenna?

 

[krodgerson]

Attaching a small bright LED facing backwards to the rear base of the Mavic with velcro means that if you rotate it you can identify it and pull back on the lever to bring it towards you. It makes it much more visible, especially on a cloudy day.

 

[Paul Schulze]

Just a curious question - has anyone ever been questioned about VLOS while flying? I’m not advocating breaking the rules as some do, but enforcement seems next to none as based on many on-line postings. It seems that flying location is more important issue to consider, for example, flying in areas like cities and towns as opposed to fields, mountains and lakes or oceans. For safety reasons, I never fly over people, houses, buildings, etc., only open areas. Even with VLOS, how safe is a drone flying in populated areas?

 

[EricJT]

I have a pair of the Race Edition goggles and prefer that to line of sight. FPV is so much fun that I got a 3 inch race/freestyle quad to fly with them.

What latency do you experience with your FPV setup?

 

[Dave Maine]

The issue is not enforcement, but being responsible for causing an accident, either fatal or not.

 

[Paul Schulze]

The issue is not enforcement, but being responsible for causing an accident, either fatal or not.

How will people who ignore rules be held to account without enforcement?

 

[Bigbird48]

I have a Mavic Air. In good light, I can reacquire it visually out to around 400 meters.

At night, about 300 meters or so against a mostly dark background. That green taillight strobes pretty brightly.

and with a strob you could probably see it a half mile or more

 

[theDRONEranger]

(USA)
I lose VLOS every time I take my eyes off DRONE to make a RC adjustment, i.e., camera adjustment! It does take a few seconds to regain. I cannot begin to imagine how one could maintain VLOS at excessive distances previously posted on forums. Each persons eyes are unique, and visual acuity will definitely vary person to person.

I am not of a mathematics background, and therefore unable to do the gozintas. How large does an object measuring 4” wide x 2” high x 9” long, at an altitude of 150’ appear to a person with 20/20 unaided vision at a distance of 1 mile, 2 miles, and 3 miles, all the while said object is in a stationary hover state. 1/8”? 1/16”? ???

I become fascinated, knowing the immense size of the AC, by the fact I can see a 777/747/737 at a cruising altitude of 30k‘ to 35k’. I hold my arm extended and pinch the AC between thumb and index fingers and lucky to measure 1/4”. (Non-flying, bored outta my mind, wishing I had a beer day!)

Using the “pinch” method, my fingers are barely apart when looking at my drone, in a hover state, at 1/4 mile distant with an altitude of 150’ (against the sky, not terra firma!).

Since there is no distance specified for a hobbyist concerning VLOS, I easily become envious of those pilots who fly the DRONE out to 3~infinity miles doing their range tests. Their eyes are absolutely far superior to mine in their ability to maintain VLOS.

If Mother Nature can provide an eagle with the ability to spot a mouse dinner from a distance of three miles, then why not me with my DRONE at 1?

 

[MacCool]

What latency do you experience with your FPV setup?

Depends on the resolution, but on an Occusync 2 system like the M2, 50-60 ms is common on 1080P 30FPS. I don't have enough experience flying quads analog on 5.8mhz to know the latency, but the video is outstanding, and I'm not good enough flying those little buggers for the latency to affect my flying.

 

[Paul Schulze]

TheDRONEranger above has posted some very interesting and sensible comments.

VLOS is very nebulous in that it is so unspecific as to be almost ridiculous. If the VLOS rule was really of public safety concerns, a specific distance would be (should be) specified and mandated to drone manufacturers. It is possible to scientifically determine the average maximum distance for human VLOS and put that into law for pilots and manufacturers.

 

[Paul Schulze]

A note added to my last entry - specified drone to pilot distances with and without strobe lights would be good.

 

[deleted member 877]

(USA)
Since there is no distance specified for a hobbyist concerning VLOS, I easily become envious of those pilots who fly the DRONE out to 3~infinity miles doing their range tests. Their eyes are absolutely far superior to mine in their ability to maintain VLOS.

If Mother Nature can provide an eagle with the ability to spot a mouse dinner from a distance of three miles, then why not me with my DRONE at 1?

There is no need to be envious of drone operators who falsely claim to be be able to see their aircraft (without strobes attached) out to 3 miles. They could possibly be referred to as "sovereign citizens" of the drone flying community - LOL

 

[Cyclonetog]

Look at the date or how long ago the video was posted.

When did the MM come out?

I actually saw another one last night that went to 1800M, when he got it back he said "obviously you're not allowed to fly it that far" (or words to that effect).

 

[KScottNZ]

Bear in mind some of the range tests being done are in their own country which will have different flying rules to where you are.

Watched yesterday a tiny Mavic Mini fly @4.5km away and return (just). Add the grey colour to spot on a cloudy day = challenges.

 

[Paul Schulze]

I have been doing some more thinking about the VLOS issues and safety concerns. Does keeping a drone within VLOS really ensure safe operation of a drone? In order to drive a car, most countries require a drivers license yet this does not ensure a safe driver. I believe reasonable laws should be in place for pilots and manufacturers; however, we pilots need to reprimand those who post obvious violations. As long as we watch and encourage such behaviors, it will encourage violators.