Litchi - how to create a safe mission

[spiderpig]

So been seeing a lot of Litchi talk here and noticed that people are using Litchi to create missions which are frankly unsafe. So created a video of the steps I take when I'm creating a litchi mission that will ensure safety and that I have my drone at the end of the mission.

UPDATE: Just noticed the audio is off sync with video...will work on fixing and re-upload. But you can still get the point of it.

The main points of this video are as follows:
-always plan to be in controller range
-always plan to be in video range
-always have visual line of sight
-always be ready to take control of the drone!

I think if people learn how to use Litchi correctly we'd have a lot less crashes and flyaway. Consider this a PSA for this group, since it hurts me to see people's drones get hurt.

 

[Robert]

So been seeing a lot of Litchi talk here and noticed that people are using Litchi to create missions which are frankly unsafe. So created a video of the steps I take when I'm creating a litchi mission that will ensure safety and that I have my drone at the end of the mission.

UPDATE: Just noticed the audio is off sync with video...will work on fixing and re-upload. But you can still get the point of it.

The main points of this video are as follows:
-always plan to be in controller range
-always plan to be in video range
-always have visual line of sight
-always be ready to take control of the drone!

I think if people learn how to use Litchi correctly we'd have a lot less crashes and flyaway. Consider this a PSA for this group, since it hurts me to see people's drones get hurt.

Great topic. Have you had to deal with an area that the terrain is not flat? I have to deal that in my area because I live in a very hilly area. This could be tricky when you setup the attitude of each waypoint as you have to fact in the attitude of each point. Google Earth is really a great tool for that as it has accurate attitude information. I wish Litchi used that information in the app.

 

[spiderpig]

Great topic. Have you had to deal with an area that the terrain is not flat? I have to deal that in my area because I live in a very hilly area. This could be tricky when you setup the attitude of each waypoint as you have to fact in the attitude of each point. Google Earth is really a great tool for that as it has accurate attitude information. I wish Litchi used that information in the app.

Elevation is something to note as well. When you create a waypoint mission it uses google earth to determine altitude MSL. When you add more waypoints it tells you if the altitude it higher or lower then the first waypoint. So if you want to fly at 150 AgL and the second waypoint is 50 above waypoint one - set height of waypoint 2 at 200. There is actually a spreadsheet floating around that helps with this.




Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots

 

[Logger]

Elevation is something to note as well. When you create a waypoint mission it uses google earth to determine altitude MSL.

No that is incorrect. Litchi does not determine altitude from Google earth at all. Litchi has no idea about the terrain beneath your flight plan. First waypoint defaults to 98'/30m above wherever you take off from and maintains that level for subsequent WPTs until you modify them.

 

[spiderpig]

No that is incorrect. Litchi does not determine altitude from Google earth at all. Litchi has no idea about the terrain beneath your flight plan. First waypoint defaults to 98'/30m above wherever you take off from and maintains that level for subsequent WPTs until you modify them.

Actually it is correct. Check this out. Waypoint one shows it's at 350 ft MSL:
View media item 329
Then when you add another waypoint, it gives you elevation difference:
View media item 330Notice that waypoint 2 is 8 feet above waypoint one. So if waypoint one is set at 150, you should set waypoint 2 to 158.

So all the info you need is here is the mission hub, which is where you should be doing the preflight planning.

 

[Logger]

I see what you mean. To clarify - the Waypoint heights stay constant and it is up to you to change them as the terrain rises and falls. . Litchi does know to do this for you. But I do stand corrected and see what you mean when you say Mission Hub gives you the relative altitude which one can use if you wish as a reference. The Litchi apps do not have any idea though. I find planning much simpler on the iPad actually. It is an end to end process with all actions available. Doing them in Mission Hub means I have to re visit every plan in either my iPad to finish the WPT settings.

 

[spiderpig]

I see what you mean. To clarify - the Waypoint heights stay constant and it is up to you to change them as the terrain rises and falls. . Litchi does know to do this for you. But I do stand corrected and see what you mean when you say Mission Hub gives you the relative altitude which one can use if you wish as a reference. The Litchi apps do not have any idea though. I find planning much simpler on the iPad actually. It is an end to end process with all actions available. Doing them in Mission Hub means I have to re visit every plan in either my iPad to finish the WPT settings.

I use an iPhone for my Mavic, so not as easy to do field day edits - but possible. I do most of my preflight missions in Mission Hub so I can get a sense of heights and I can get a basic gauge of where I'll be flying. I make one mission to test out the ranges I want to fly at, and then another one that is more of a filming one with POI. Once at the field, I modify the second mission as needed based on the results of the ranges flight.