Mavic Air GPS trouble

[Pegasusboysa42]

I flew last weekend and took off from a canyon. My drone had trouble getting a satellite connection and would go above 10 feet or so. Is there anyway to over ride that. I’d like to think a few feet higher and it could have acquired more gps signals. I tried sport mode. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[The Editor]

I flew last weekend and took off from a canyon. My drone had trouble getting a satellite connection and would go above 10 feet or so. Is there anyway to over ride that. I’d like to think a few feet higher and it could have acquired more gps signals. I tried sport mode. Is there anything else I can do?

No - the Air is designed that way to stop individuals flying without a robust GPS lock.

 

[Pegasusboysa42]

No - the Air is designed that way to stop individuals flying without a robust GPS

Disappointing! Thank you for the info!

 

[InvisibleName]

Why on earth would you try & take-off without sufficient sat locks? Or are you an experienced ATTI flyer?

Anyway, read the manual & it will explain the limitations of trying to fly without sufficient sat lock

 

[Pegasusboysa42]

You would take off without sat. Lock when there is something blocking them. I wouldn’t want to do a whole flight without them but I figure if you go straight up eventually u will get a lock then I’d proceed. I had prob 5 or so cheap quads with no gps before I got a cheap one with it. So I do have some experience with atti. But I just wanted to acquire a signal using altitude because in my canyon location it prob wasn’t gonna happen on the ground.

 

[InvisibleName]

You would take off without sat. Lock when there is something blocking them. I wouldn’t want to do a whole flight without them but I figure if you go straight up eventually u will get a lock then I’d proceed. I had prob 5 or so cheap quads with no gps before I got a cheap one with it. So I do have some experience with atti. But I just wanted to acquire a signal using altitude because in my canyon location it prob wasn’t gonna happen on the ground.

As the other comment, not with the MA

 

[Meta4]

I flew last weekend and took off from a canyon. My drone had trouble getting a satellite connection and would go above 10 feet or so. Is there anyway to over ride that. I’d like to think a few feet higher and it could have acquired more gps signals. I tried sport mode. Is there anything else I can do?

Why you had trouble getting GPS:
Your drone has to have a good skyview to get enough sats for good GPS.
The canyon blocks most of the sky .. and most sats.

Why it would only go to 10 ft:
page 48 Mavic Air manual

How you could have made it go higher:
Turn off the downward sensors

But be aware that without GPS your drone would have had no brakes or position holding ability.
It would drift with the breeze and continue drifting when you centre the joysticks.

 

[Pegasusboysa42]

Why you had trouble getting GPS:
Your drone has to have a good skyview to get enough sats for good GPS.
The canyon blocks most of the sky .. and most sats.

Why it would only go to 10 ft:
page 48 Mavic Air manual

How you could have made it go higher:
Turn off the downward sensors

But be aware that without GPS your drone would have had no brakes or position holding ability.
It would drift with the breeze and continue drifting when you centre the joysticks.

Thank you very much. That happened 3 times on that trip and it was a first. I’ll just have to remember to remember to switch it back on right when I get a lock. I hovered in place for over a minute once before it acquired a lock. I’m sure another 10 feet would have fixed that. It was in a canyon so no real wind. Whenever I’m on top of a mountain and it’s windy it’s never an issue.