I get nervous flying my Mavic Mini over trees, because if it falls in the forest around here, there is a very good chance it’s going to be stuck 40 feet up somewhere, and I don’t think the neighboring landowners would like me coming onto their property to look for my drone with a chainsaw in my hand! Haha.
I got brave one day and decided to make a long distance flight across flat fields and forests. I was quite nervous but went about 1.2 miles the first time before having signal strength issues and returning. A few days later I put parabolic reflectors on the controller and tried again.
I flew at 200 feet altitude to a distance of almost 2 miles (2.8km). I had good LOS, and it was supposed to be a calm evening, wind about 7 mph from the west, on both weather apps I use. I was flying out directly south.
I had no issues on the outward leg, but shortly after I swept around a loop to come back, I started losing signal. The video kept cutting in and out, and I was getting signal warnings. I quickly started to climb assuming some trees might be interfering with the wifi. I only reached 230 feet before getting wind warnings for the first time in the flight, and it was telling me that automatic return to home was not possible.
I couldn’t believe it because it was such a calm evening. I figured out later from looking at the drone attitude on PhantomHelp there was quite a cross wind, a bit north of west – so also a little bit of a headwind on the return leg. I would never have attempted the flight if I had known those were the conditions.
The signal was still cutting in and out as I flew home, but I was afraid to go higher trying to improve it because of the wind. The last thing I wanted was to lose signal and have a fly away at the same time. I was also worried it might try and land where it was which might have meant losing it in the forests. I dared not go higher because of the wind, or lower because of the weak signal. So I kept flying and prayed.
I had climbed to 230 feet, but I lost the signal completely anyway. At some point I got and RTH intiated message, then nothing. My heart rate started to rocket! I kept trying to fly it forward in the hope it was getting my joystick commands, and that it might reconnect when closer. I didn’t know what else to do. I had no video or telemetry.
I thought about closing and reopening the GoFly app, but didn’t think that would help. I was really unsure in my panic as to whether I should initiate RTH, but was afraid it would land where it was because of the wind, and I wouldn’t have the GPS info and never find it. In fact I thought it might be landing at that very moment anyway.
After the longest 30 seconds of my life, and with my heart pounding, the connection suddenly restored. I switched it to Sport mode and flew it home. It took me a while to calm down from that experience.
When I looked at the flight records, the MM had initiated Go Home after the disconnect, in spite of the wind and saying automatic RTH wasn’t available. It actually stopped, re-oriented to point home, and accelerated to Sport Mode speed (didn't know it would do that, but in windy conditions that is really smart!). I had set the RTH to 170 feet so it was already above that. It did exactly what I would have wanted it to do, but didn’t expect.
I’m not sure why it went into Go Home mode when it was giving me the warnings saying automatic RTH wasn’t possible, but happy it did. Maybe RTH was only suspended very briefly with a strong gust?? It came out of the mode for some reason during the return flight and handed control back to me. I’m not sure if that was because I was continuing to provide stick inputs. I didn’t even know it had ever taken control away from me, I was simply attempting to fly it the whole time.
Not sure I fully understand how MM's safety system works, but I'm very impressed. However, next time before a long flight I think I’ll go up to 400 feet briefly and check for wind warnings first.
I got brave one day and decided to make a long distance flight across flat fields and forests. I was quite nervous but went about 1.2 miles the first time before having signal strength issues and returning. A few days later I put parabolic reflectors on the controller and tried again.
I flew at 200 feet altitude to a distance of almost 2 miles (2.8km). I had good LOS, and it was supposed to be a calm evening, wind about 7 mph from the west, on both weather apps I use. I was flying out directly south.
I had no issues on the outward leg, but shortly after I swept around a loop to come back, I started losing signal. The video kept cutting in and out, and I was getting signal warnings. I quickly started to climb assuming some trees might be interfering with the wifi. I only reached 230 feet before getting wind warnings for the first time in the flight, and it was telling me that automatic return to home was not possible.
I couldn’t believe it because it was such a calm evening. I figured out later from looking at the drone attitude on PhantomHelp there was quite a cross wind, a bit north of west – so also a little bit of a headwind on the return leg. I would never have attempted the flight if I had known those were the conditions.
The signal was still cutting in and out as I flew home, but I was afraid to go higher trying to improve it because of the wind. The last thing I wanted was to lose signal and have a fly away at the same time. I was also worried it might try and land where it was which might have meant losing it in the forests. I dared not go higher because of the wind, or lower because of the weak signal. So I kept flying and prayed.
I had climbed to 230 feet, but I lost the signal completely anyway. At some point I got and RTH intiated message, then nothing. My heart rate started to rocket! I kept trying to fly it forward in the hope it was getting my joystick commands, and that it might reconnect when closer. I didn’t know what else to do. I had no video or telemetry.
I thought about closing and reopening the GoFly app, but didn’t think that would help. I was really unsure in my panic as to whether I should initiate RTH, but was afraid it would land where it was because of the wind, and I wouldn’t have the GPS info and never find it. In fact I thought it might be landing at that very moment anyway.
After the longest 30 seconds of my life, and with my heart pounding, the connection suddenly restored. I switched it to Sport mode and flew it home. It took me a while to calm down from that experience.
When I looked at the flight records, the MM had initiated Go Home after the disconnect, in spite of the wind and saying automatic RTH wasn’t available. It actually stopped, re-oriented to point home, and accelerated to Sport Mode speed (didn't know it would do that, but in windy conditions that is really smart!). I had set the RTH to 170 feet so it was already above that. It did exactly what I would have wanted it to do, but didn’t expect.
I’m not sure why it went into Go Home mode when it was giving me the warnings saying automatic RTH wasn’t possible, but happy it did. Maybe RTH was only suspended very briefly with a strong gust?? It came out of the mode for some reason during the return flight and handed control back to me. I’m not sure if that was because I was continuing to provide stick inputs. I didn’t even know it had ever taken control away from me, I was simply attempting to fly it the whole time.
Not sure I fully understand how MM's safety system works, but I'm very impressed. However, next time before a long flight I think I’ll go up to 400 feet briefly and check for wind warnings first.
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