Mavic Air Range Problem/Question

[SkyTopCinema]

I wanted to do a range test with my Mavic Air. So I went to a location where there wasn’t much around me to interfere with the connection. I flew into the wind, but I only got about 3300 ft away before I started loosing connection to the drone. I even had trouble activating the return to home at that distance.
I was expecting to get a lot more distance that that. I am using an iPhone 6s, which is an older phone. Could that effect the capable distance? If not, what else could it be?
Thanks!

 

[Starz]

Does seem a bit short.
Elevation?

 

[SkyTopCinema]

Does seem a bit short.
Elevation?

I think it was around 200 ft up at the time.

 

[Starz]

Try more elevation and see if that helps.

 

[DanMan32]

As they say, your mileage may vary.

 

[Jimbo41158]

I purchased the four Hawks range extender for my mavic air. Incredible Improvement and worth the money

 

[SkyTopCinema]

I purchased the four Hawks range extender for my mavic air. Incredible Improvement and worth the money

Ok, thanks! I’ll have to look into that. By how much does it improve your range?

 

[Jimbo41158]

Ok, thanks! I’ll have to look into that. By how much does it improve your range?

I've gotten close to two miles in a suburban environment!!

Cheers

Jim

 

[SkyTopCinema]

I've gotten close to two miles in a suburban environment!!

Cheers

Jim

Ok, thanks!

 

[harle83]

I get that everyone wants to stretch the limits and see how far you can go but why? Bragging rights don't matter if you lose a 1000.00 drone and DJI has no heart for folks who do it unless the logs show a massive failure of the drone in some way. I would like to try but I love my Air. I had a fly away with my Phantom 3SE once, I was very lucky took almost an hour to find it but I did. I don't even want that to happen with a smaller harder to see drone. Everyone's different I guess.

 

[Paulricchi]

You know it really amazes me that so many people on this site talk about extending the range of their drones. My question to you is this, are you maintaining VLOS on your drone? If you don’t have a BVLOS waiver from the FAA, your violating the law and you are a menace and a a**hole, you also jeopardize the reputations of responsible UAV operators everywhere. I fly as a hobbyist, but also as as public safety operator. I can tell you that myself and the two other operators I work with, have a good amount of experience ( including night missions, which we have a waiver for) We do not have a BVLOS waiver, you know why? Because it’s dangerous and we choose not to subject our drone program and the city we fly for (and the people we fly over) to an unacceptable level of risk. We also don’t need it for the type of missions we fly. “ Pushing the limit “doesn’t interest me in the slightest and should probably be limited to military aviators who need to push it to the limit. I am pretty sure many drone hobbyists on this site who talk about extending the range of their drones don’t have a BVLOS waiver. So if you can’t see your drone, and you don’t have a BVLOS waiver (which is not easy to get) turn it around and bring it to within VLOS and cut the the crap, your irresponsible behavior is giving us a bad name

 

[Paulricchi]

Ok, thanks!

Ok, thanks!

Hey Jim can you see your drone two miles away? If you can, good for you, you have better eye sight than me. If not, and you live in the USA, do you have a BVLOS waiver? If not, your breaking the law and jeopardizing lives.

 

[aokusman]

I purchased the four Hawks range extender for my mavic air. Incredible Improvement and worth the money

I second this. Apart from range it makes the video feed much more stable as well.

 

[aokusman]

Hey Jim can you see your drone two miles away? If you can, good for you, you have better eye sight than me. If not, and you live in the USA, do you have a BVLOS waiver? If not, your breaking the law and jeopardizing lives.

I fly my air 2km away, over vegetation and not people.

 

[Harold Morgan]

I always have my binoculars with me for VLOS questions.

 

[DanMan32]

I always have my binoculars with me for VLOS questions.

Unfortunately FAA specifically excludes that. They specify visual with unaided eye other than corrective lenses.
Even with binoculars you lose peripheral vision perspective, much like FPV.

 

[Southwest-flyer]

You know it really amazes me that so many people on this site talk about extending the range of their drones. My question to you is this, are you maintaining VLOS on your drone? If you don’t have a BVLOS waiver from the FAA, your violating the law and you are a menace and a a**hole, you also jeopardize the reputations of responsible UAV operators everywhere. I fly as a hobbyist, but also as as public safety operator. I can tell you that myself and the two other operators I work with, have a good amount of experience ( including night missions, which we have a waiver for) We do not have a BVLOS waiver, you know why? Because it’s dangerous and we choose not to subject our drone program and the city we fly for (and the people we fly over) to an unacceptable level of risk. We also don’t need it for the type of missions we fly. “ Pushing the limit “doesn’t interest me in the slightest and should probably be limited to military aviators who need to push it to the limit. I am pretty sure many drone hobbyists on this site who talk about extending the range of their drones don’t have a BVLOS waiver. So if you can’t see your drone, and you don’t have a BVLOS waiver (which is not easy to get) turn it around and bring it to within VLOS and cut the the crap, your irresponsible behavior is giving us a bad name

Very interesting and spot on. I was reading this thread (in the UK where I am currently taking my PfCO licence - licence for commercial ops). Even BEFORE taking this course I know that flying your aircraft beyond vis line of sight is illegal. This forum is based in the US I think, but surely you have the same rules and regs as we do here in the UK? It baffles me why so many people want to fly beyond the VLOS, it's dangerous and you do stand more of a chance of the aircraft ditching/or being lost. There's a law just come in here in the UK for ALL drone owners to register their drones and take a mandatory test. It's somewhat short sighted as the irresponsible owners will just ignore it. But as with everything it's the irresponsible flyers that will eventually spoil it for the rest of us. I lose it with people sometimes.

 

[1bad]

I was having limited range with my AIR as well in my neighborhood, I was barely making 1200 feet. I brought up the elevation to 250 to 300 and got it out around 2000 which is not to bad considering this is the middle of a large city with any number of interference's. The other day I took it out for some video footage of some flooding here locally and had a straight shot with minimal interference's down a large wash and it went out about 4500 feet. Overall I suppose it is pretty decent range for how small it is and in reality besides exploring I don't really need much more than that.

Side note: Before anybody gets on their soap box again, this is a thread about device capability and range, not if you think what he is doing is legal, There is a section for that. If you haven't tested the range on your device then it seems there is not much value you can add to his question or this conversation.

 

[Jimbo41158]

I have to correct myself.....I meant two KM....I live in Canada....and the area I fly is over barren land with no houses..just lots of fields... I mistakenly put miles cause lot so people use imperial....

 

[slup]

700-1000 meters in urban environment before video stream cutouts.
Slightly above 2500 meters in suburban ... Most important thing to keep the connection for as long as possible seems to be to have the drone in line of sight (LOS).

From my one & only test of the tech.limits ... 2,4 Mhz & FCC mode until lost connection followed by auto RTH.

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