Max distance with time to shoot at 500 meters flight altitude

[lomposlapos]

Mavic 3
Mavic 3 Pro
RC Pro

What's the maximum distance one actually can fly safely to in real life, spend 5-7 minutes to photograph, then return to the home point with not less than 5 minutes RTH time left (as a safety)?

After takeoff, cruise climb to 500 meters, the entire flight is at 500 meters, descend upon landing.

Interested in what photographers actually able to do routinely.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Such an opened ended question, too many variables to contemplate for any sort of specific answer.
You’re best to play that as it develops in flight, and leave a safe margin for descent with reasonable battery remaining.
Wind at 500m is going to play a big part in this, it might be blowing 10x harder in the opposite direction to ground wind, something to do when the pilot is quite experienced in ‘what ifs’for such a flight.

 

[lomposlapos]

too many variables

So, with that in mind, what's your safe max 'shooting at' distance at 500 m?

 

[Meta4]

So, with that in mind, what's your safe max 'shooting at' distance at 500 m?

Not many actually fly at 500 metres to be able to answer your question.
Whatever wind speed and direction you find up there would be a big part of the answer.

 

[slup]

So, with that in mind, what's your safe max shooting at distance at 500 m?

What @MAvic_South_Oz tried to explain is that you ask us to give an answer to "How long is a piece of string".

Experienced flyers don't think in terms of "safe height/distance/time/percentage/wind", trying to create a "safe" framework where it always ends well, they use their knowledge/experience & make continuous decisions depending on how the flight unfolds & always calculate in the "what if" factor.

The environment is far too changing in order to say anything about general "safe" limits...

 

[lomposlapos]

Experienced flyers

Experienced flyers would be able to give a number.

 

[Meta4]

Experienced flyers would be able to give a number.

Experienced flyers would recognise that it's not that simple.

 

[slup]

Experienced flyers would be able to give a number.

No one will be able to state what's "safe" in an random ever changing environment... it's as simple as that.

An experienced pilot understands all this... a newbie tries in vain to define what "safe" is.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Experienced flyers would be able to give a number.

I doubt many experienced pilots fly regularly at that height, especially if it is AGL.

I'd love to be in the terrain to be able to 'get up there' but within the legal AGL constraints but such flights would be move whilst climbing i.e. within the 400ft AGL layer, get the shots desired and then immediately return whilst descending.
Unless you are shooting clouds, I see no reason to loiter at a height of 500m and 'plenty of reasons ' to get-below/remain-within the appropriate AGL ceiling.

Between here and the DJI forum I recollect several threads where there have been problems with intentionally high flights and at least some of those flights were to distance.
In at least two of those the drone ran out of battery whilst still well above the ground though one of those was due to a problem with the maximum achievable descent rate being well below spec.

Long ago I did a high flight and I can say it can take an awfully long time to get the drone down from height especially when you are watching the battery tick away.

 

[lomposlapos]

A easier version of the question:

What's the farthest distance you regularly fly and at what altitude when you actually perform shooting?

 

[slup]

A easier version of the question:

What's the farthest distance you regularly fly and at what altitude when you actually perform shooting?

For photographic purposes regularly... I usually know what I want & try to get as close as possible in person then maybe fly out a couple hundred meters. Then I know that photos or videos rarely create any special wow factor from really high altitudes (most have looked out the window from the plane taking them to vacation & seen that kind of view already) instead it's like 50-60m that sparkle a viewers curiosity. So up to 300-400m out up to 50-80m height.

 

[GadgetGuy]

A easier version of the question:

What's the farthest distance you regularly fly and at what altitude when you actually perform shooting?

Based upon your requirements of 5 minutes for RTH and up to 7 minutes shooting at your destination, subtract that 12 minutes from 32 minute realistic flight time, leaving 20 minutes for flying there and back. In 10 minutes, at 31mph in N mode, you can fly 5 miles away and return. The altitude is of your choosing. As long as you have clear LOS for signal, 100-200 feet AGL should be good to 5 miles away on the RC Pro.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I see you joined in 2017, not long after I did.
Even if you fly only occasionally, that should make you a reasonably experienced pilot in regards to the variables your question parameters would pose.

I am curious as to why the question is posed like it was, that's a very short timeframe for the photography part of a flight.
The location might be very remote, difficult to get near to, or even a location well inside a National Park type location, and you want to fly from outside the park boundary.

It's still a very high altitude to get normal drone photos or video.

I do exactly what @slup does in his post reply #11, pretty much know what I want to capture, get close to the subject (love walking to my shoots), fly quite close to what I'd like to see / photograph / video, and usually have a very large window of time to spend doing that.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

"How long is a piece of string".

I was a bit hesitant to use that, in case the meaning was lost, guess it's more well known worldwide than I thought.
Someone might come back with . . . no, not tethered flight

 

[BobaFut]

Well, at 30-minute nominal flight time (what I've been getting out of my Mavic 3 Pro), you essentially have 10 minutes out and 10 minutes back to give you that 7 minutes of camera time and a buffer. At 30mph (48kmh), that's five miles (8.8km) you could theoretically travel from the home point and still get your 7 minutes of photos. You probably lose some time going all the way up to 500 meters, but you'd also gain some time back descending, so...

That said, math was never my strong suit...

 

[lomposlapos]

Has anyone done 8 km (5 miles) distance with at least 5 min photography at destination, then 8 km back? At any altitude?

If I try, what's a safe time to turn back? RTH time + 5 minutes?

 

[lomposlapos]

Based upon your requirements...

Thank you!

 

[slup]

Has anyone done 8 km (5 miles) distance with at least 5 min photography at destination, then 8 km back? At any altitude?

If I try, what's a safe time to turn back? RTH time + 5 minutes?

Any indicated remaining time left in the app can't be trusted, those calculations don't count in the wind. If having a headwind on the way back that leg will consume much more power than on the way out... even if the drone manage to achieve the same ground speed.

 

[BobaFut]

Has anyone done 8 km (5 miles) distance with at least 5 min photography at destination, then 8 km back? At any altitude?

If I try, what's a safe time to turn back? RTH time + 5 minutes?

Just fly out 500m on a straight line and back 16 times and then do circles around the home point for as long as you can? I would say just make sure you're on your way back down from your 500m altitude* once the battery is at like 15%?


*this isn't an endorsement of flying that high but for the sake of the experiment we'll assume you're doing it safely and legally

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I think it is time to air this video again