Mavic 27min flight time is legit but....

[Jacknet007]

DJI's Specs of 27 mins flights times is legit but this has to be done very carefully!

Battery % drops quickly towards end of flight. Here were my results from 2 flights on 2 different batteries.
Flew Mavic around on low throttle 6mph or so. No sport mode or significant movement changes. Hovered close to ground in final minutes to avoid damage if power was suddenly lost.

Flight 1
26:57mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 14seconds
Battery percentage 3% 11seconds
Battery percentage 2% 3 seconds
Battery percentage 1% 5 seconds
Mavic dropped like rock into grass from 1.5 feet (No damage, had clear gimbal cover on)
Video recording stopped a few seconds after hitting grass and Mavic powered off itself.

Flight 2
27:14mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 21seconds
Battery percentage 3% 15seconds
Battery percentage 2% 7 seconds

Landed Mavic before 1% ( Lesson learned from previous flight!)
Video recording stopped after landing. Mavic stayed powered on till manual turn off

The bottom line here is that when your battery hits 4% you have roughly 30 seconds to land because battery voltage drops off faster than at full charge. Flight times may have been a hair bit longer if I flew at lower altitudes with less prevailing winds.

(Note that this was done as part of battery refreshing which should be done rarely. Its recommended to land with 20% to 30% battery remaining on 95% of flights for battery longevity.)

 

[FlyGuy8675309]

Good stuff! Thanks/

 

[L.L.]

Thank you for sharing the data!

 

[MavicBouvier]

What was the outside temperature?

Good job!

 

[dwallersv]

I'll bet it will hover for quite a bit longer than 27 min.

 

[MrsTreat]

Nice report!!

 

[Qoncussion]

Well played sir! Question: how new/old are your batteries? I have a feeling that these numbers diminish with well worn batteries.

 

[Jacknet007]

What was the outside temperature?

Good job!

High 60's. Try finding yesterday's weather out there or a week ago. Forecasts seem to disappear after they have passed.

 

[Jacknet007]

Well played sir! Question: how new/old are your batteries? I have a feeling that these numbers diminish with well worn batteries.

These batteries are were purchased end of July and were made in April timeframe. Both have had more than 50 flights / 9 hours flying time each.

 

[Swing4TheRing]

If only I could last 27 minutes...

 

[Jacknet007]

I can get 50Mpg in my V8 going down a mine shaft.

If we wanted to fly around close the ground at 6mph we should have bought a kite.

Im not buying it, thats not flight time, its survival time and in no way represents how these things are operated in normal use.

By running your Lipo down to those percentages you are at very high risk of damage to the cells in order to prove DJIs false claim.

Yes, it is advisable not to run your batteries to those percentages all the time since it can reduce the life of the battery, however the point I was making is that the DJI claim of 27 minutes flight is not false. It's Marketing!!
I normally get 14- 20 minutes flight time depending on a variety of factors including how fast I'm flying and the fact I usually RTH when I get the notice to do so. I rarely override RTH unless I'm testing the limits like I did with these flight time tests.

Actually the DJI marketing claims are accurate compared to Marketing BS I have seen with other companies.

 

[MChittum]

I'll bet it will hover for quite a bit longer than 27 min.

Hovering takes more battery power---flight time is reduced the more you hover!

 

[Prasan0211]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Robbyg]

Nice test, it makes for a good starting point in making a flight time graph. Now if we add in a full throttle sports mode test and a 15mph test we would have three good points to plot a basic time vs speed graph. Wind and other factors will make a difference but this would be a good baseline graph.

Rob

 

[Porto]

DJI's Specs of 27 mins flights times is legit but this has to be done very carefully!

Battery % drops quickly towards end of flight. Here were my results from 2 flights on 2 different batteries.
Flew Mavic around on low throttle 6mph or so. No sport mode or significant movement changes. Hovered close to ground in final minutes to avoid damage if power was suddenly lost.

Flight 1
26:57mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 14seconds
Battery percentage 3% 11seconds
Battery percentage 2% 3 seconds
Battery percentage 1% 5 seconds
Mavic dropped like rock into grass from 1.5 feet (No damage, had clear gimbal cover on)
Video recording stopped a few seconds after hitting grass and Mavic powered off itself.

Flight 2
27:14mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 21seconds
Battery percentage 3% 15seconds
Battery percentage 2% 7 seconds

Landed Mavic before 1% ( Lesson learned from previous flight!)
Video recording stopped after landing. Mavic stayed powered on till manual turn off

The bottom line here is that when your battery hits 4% you have roughly 30 seconds to land because battery voltage drops off faster than at full charge. Flight times may have been a hair bit longer if I flew at lower altitudes with less prevailing winds.

(Note that this was done as part of battery refreshing which should be done rarely. Its recommended to land with 20% to 30% battery remaining on 95% of flights for battery longevity.)

View attachment 21415 View attachment 21416 View attachment 21417 View attachment 21418

I am actually more interested in knowing how you managed for Safer Auto Land to work. Since we are not allowed to talk about "how to" for things that are related to parameters changes here, maybe you can tell me through Private Coversation?

I am on .700 and all other parameter changes (that I need) work. Only Safer Auto Land doesn't.

 

[Jacknet007]

I am actually more interested in knowing how you managed for Safer Auto Land to work. Since we are not allowed to talk about "how to" for things that are related to parameters changes here, maybe you can tell me through Private Coversation?

I am on .700 and all other parameter changes (that I need) work. Only Safer Auto Land doesn't.

This was stock with no mods or parameter changes. I cancelled auto land and when it went to critical battery auto land I just pushed left throttle stick up to hold its altitude till battery was at 2%.

 

[Jacknet007]

Nice test, it makes for a good starting point in making a flight time graph. Now if we add in a full throttle sports mode test and a 15mph test we would have three good points to plot a basic time vs speed graph. Wind and other factors will make a difference but this would be a good baseline graph.

Rob

The specs that DJI states for the Mavic are all achievable but not on the same flight. 40mph is possible but sport mode will reduce flight time. 4.3 mile range is also possible ( I was able to get 4.0) but it takes efficient altitude and speed to achieve that.

I won't try the 15 mph and full throttle test anytime soon . Perhaps down the road at next battery maintenance. Maybe someone due up for battery maintenance can try those tests.

 

[CoolBreeze]

DJI's Specs of 27 mins flights times is legit but this has to be done very carefully!

Battery % drops quickly towards end of flight. Here were my results from 2 flights on 2 different batteries.
Flew Mavic around on low throttle 6mph or so. No sport mode or significant movement changes. Hovered close to ground in final minutes to avoid damage if power was suddenly lost.

Flight 1
26:57mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 14seconds
Battery percentage 3% 11seconds
Battery percentage 2% 3 seconds
Battery percentage 1% 5 seconds
Mavic dropped like rock into grass from 1.5 feet (No damage, had clear gimbal cover on)
Video recording stopped a few seconds after hitting grass and Mavic powered off itself.

Flight 2
27:14mins Hovering a few feet off the ground in the final 2 minutes
Battery percentage 4% 21seconds
Battery percentage 3% 15seconds
Battery percentage 2% 7 seconds

Landed Mavic before 1% ( Lesson learned from previous flight!)
Video recording stopped after landing. Mavic stayed powered on till manual turn off

The bottom line here is that when your battery hits 4% you have roughly 30 seconds to land because battery voltage drops off faster than at full charge. Flight times may have been a hair bit longer if I flew at lower altitudes with less prevailing winds.

(Note that this was done as part of battery refreshing which should be done rarely. Its recommended to land with 20% to 30% battery remaining on 95% of flights for battery longevity.)

View attachment 21415 View attachment 21416 View attachment 21417 View attachment 21418

Thank you sharing your findings. Good to know if pushing battery limits.

 

[Porto]

This was stock with no mods or parameter changes. I cancelled auto land and when it went to critical battery auto land I just pushed left throttle stick up to hold its altitude till battery was at 2%.

Thanks for your info. Apparently the Mavic take height into consideration when forcing autoland. When I was in this condition:

Don't be deceived by calm wind

Forced autoland kicked in when I still had 7% battery. Wouldn't response to pushing the left stick up anymore. Landed with still 5% battery remaining. 5% could be the difference between landing in someone's roof or your home point