Litchi Mission on Mavic Air - Mission and video

[RedSoxFan42]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2353356128017507

 

[Air_Joe]

Just wondering pal, how long have u owned your MA?
Im a fairly new MA owner .
Trying to ‘master’ and practice hard on go 4.
But after joining this forum, am so tempted to get Litchi !

 

[Aviator]

ReSox, nice.
AirJoe, do it. Its fun.

 

[Air_Joe]

ReSox, nice.
AirJoe, do it. Its fun.

Thks for your encouragement bro,

If u notice my history, my 1 month old MA failed due to some manufacturer defect i guess.
Long story short is , i got replacement from dji,
However im very nervous abt flying now.
Trying to practice hard on go 4.
Not sure should i jump onto another platform so soon.

 

[Aviator]

Thks for your encouragement bro,

If u notice my history, my 1 month old MA failed due to some manufacturer defect i guess.
Long story short is , i got replacement from dji,
However im very nervous abt flying now.
Trying to practice hard on go 4.
Not sure should i jump onto another platform so soon.

Sure, I get where you are now. But just get out there man and fly the **** thing. And you will want Litchi for missions in a short while. You dont necessarily have to send it over water.

 

[Air_Joe]

Sure, I get where you are now. But just get out there man and fly the **** thing. And you will want Litchi for missions in a short while. You dont necessarily have to send it over water.

Yes Sir, u just gave me more confident!
Thinking back , u are so right, whats the point of ‘storing’ and limiting the flights after paying so much, we should fully utilize and have fun with it man.

Thks bro!

 

[RedSoxFan42]

Just wondering pal, how long have u owned your MA?
Im a fairly new MA owner .
Trying to ‘master’ and practice hard on go 4.
But after joining this forum, am so tempted to get Litchi !

Got it in January of this year. My first drone. What Litchi does for me I could never do at the moment using sticks on my controller. When you do video like the one I posted, you basically lose visual of the drone, so that would be even more difficult just viewing the screen. Plus, while litchi drives your drone, you can watch it's progress on the monitor. I would recommend Litchi to anyone, plus you definitely need to download and install the free VLM V2.3.0 which lets you run a virtual flight using Google Earth Pro which is now free to download.. I guess I am assuming you have a Windows computer which you would need for the VLM app. Also, as a beginner, I always set my heights higher than I think I need if I'm flying around trees or any power lines. After the flight, I can always go back and edit my Litchi flight for lower altitudes if I want. Good Luck. It's taken me a couple of weeks of playing with Litchi to do my first flight (over land) and now I have two flights over water under my belt.

 

[Prismatic]

Just wondering pal, how long have u owned your MA?
Im a fairly new MA owner .
Trying to ‘master’ and practice hard on go 4.
But after joining this forum, am so tempted to get Litchi !

Being a pilot--I mean, consciously flying your drone by hand rather than in a "smart" mode or under Litchi control--is a fundamental requirement to this biz. Don't stop practicing.

That said, for the Mavic Air, the Litchi app offers astonishing capability. (True also for other Mavic models, despite the "waypoint" function in DJI Go4 for those models, which is a primitive shadow of Litchi.)

However, I strongly caution against the Litchi 'Orbit' function unless you're OK with its behavior in emergency conditions: "If signal is lost between the aircraft and the mobile device, the aircraft will continue the Orbit session until it reaches the critical battery level. It will then land in place automatically, even if your failsafe is Return to Home."
You: "Dang! My controller battery died!" (or any number of reasons a comm-link disconnect might happen)
Drone: "Seems I've lost contact with the RC. But this is Litchi, so I ain't going home; I'll just orbit here 'till I die!"
And you were orbiting a buoy ...

Again, I've had remarkable results using Litchi with my Mavic Air. As others have noted, as a rule your Litchi mission footage will far surpass your "hand piloted" footage because of its silky handling of the aircraft and gimbal. And in Waypoint flights, losing the comm-link is generally minor; at the end of the mission, the drone will do what your flight plan requests (corollary: IMHO, it's crazy to set the "end of mission" action as anything other than "RTH", unless you have drones to burn).

 

[RedSoxFan42]

Being a pilot--I mean, consciously flying your drone by hand rather than in a "smart" mode or under Litchi control--is a fundamental requirement to this biz. Don't stop practicing.

That said, for the Mavic Air, the Litchi app offers astonishing capability. (True also for other Mavic models, despite the "waypoint" function in DJI Go4 for those models, which is a primitive shadow of Litchi.)

However, I strongly caution against the Litchi 'Orbit' function unless you're OK with its behavior in emergency conditions: "If signal is lost between the aircraft and the mobile device, the aircraft will continue the Orbit session until it reaches the critical battery level. It will then land in place automatically, even if your failsafe is Return to Home."
You: "Dang! My controller battery died!" (or any number of reasons a comm-link disconnect might happen)
Drone: "Seems I've lost contact with the RC. But this is Litchi, so I ain't going home; I'll just orbit here 'till I die!"
And you were orbiting a buoy ...

Again, I've had remarkable results using Litchi with my Mavic Air. As others have noted, as a rule your Litchi mission footage will far surpass your "hand piloted" footage because of its silky handling of the aircraft and gimbal. And in Waypoint flights, losing the comm-link is generally minor; at the end of the mission, the drone will do what your flight plan requests (corollary: IMHO, it's crazy to set the "end of mission" action as anything other than "RTH", unless you have drones to burn).

Just curious, are you referring to the Litchi "Orbit" function? If so, I didn't use that in my mission. I used waypoints and poi. Otherwise, as you point out, if on a Orbit function I was to lose my RC connections, it is good to know the drone won't RTH even if specified in my Litchi mission. I assume that's common knowledge with experienced Litchi users? As far as flying under pilot control, I agree and practice anytime I can. Never one to play video games, I am as new to the Joysticks as I am to flying drones. Thanks for your comments.

 

[Prismatic]

Just curious, are you referring to the Litchi "Orbit" function? If so, I didn't use that in my mission. I used waypoints and poi. Otherwise, as you point out, if on a Orbit function I was to lose my RC connections, it is good to know the drone won't RTH even if specified in my Litchi mission. I assume that's common knowledge with experienced Litchi users? As far as flying under pilot control, I agree and practice anytime I can. Never one to play video games, I am as new to the Joysticks as I am to flying drones. Thanks for your comments.

Yes, I meant the Orbit mode/function in Litchi. When using the Waypoint mode/function, you can and should set the "End of Mission" action to "RTH". (I don't think you can "insert" an 'Orbit' segment into a Waypoint mission anyway.)

 

[webvan]

Yeah it seems it woulnd't be too hard to add an option in the "Orbit" mode to force an RTH in case of a lost connection. It would also be nice to set the number of rotations instead of having it turn forever !

 

[Nostris]

The reason I have held on to my Mavic Air is because it does Litchi. There are plenty who talk up the Air 2 and the Mini, and sure, they are great drones, particular with the flight time that the both have…Oh how a Mavic Air would just love that….But, at the moment the Mavic Air is a better drone in very many ways. 1. Litchi. 2. wi-fi flight, with just your phone. 3. Hand gesture flight..with just your drone. 4. and it is very, very compact...Sure it has rubbish flight time..15 minutes if you’re lucky…Sure it has rubbish range ( in Europe ) ..maybe a kilometre, if you’re lucky… but it does do litchi. I’ll probably get an Air 2s at some point…But I’ll be keeping the Air 1

 

[webvan]

All good points, it has some features that have sadly been abandoned on the more recent models, WiFi control is a huge plus if you want to take it with you on a road bike outing in a frame pouch, not to mention how compact it is. Also it's below 500 grams so until the end of 2022 you can fly "A1" in Europe, it's not the case of the Air 2/2s. Hand gestures work surprisingly well too and I was happy to discover the "goup selfie" that will automatically take 3 pictures at various angles. It's too bad Litchi doesn't seem to work in follow mode without the RC.