Max distance with time to shoot at 500 meters flight altitude

[mavic3usa]

I think it is time to air this video again

Yeah, remember this; should be required viewing!

 

[MS Coast]

Experienced flyers would be able to give a number.

Experienced flyers would say that the question is simplistic. It's like asking, "How far can a boat go on a tank of gas?"

They would also wonder where you can fly at an altitude of 500 meters.

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

Good suggestion. I try to have 20% battery capacity over the Home Point.

 

[wco81]

Maybe it's different with telephoto lenses but with my M2P, it seems even at 120 meters, which is the ceiling allowed in most jurisdictions for recreational or non-professional flights, ground objects are distant that you don't get details you would if you were flying lower.

The other issue is, even at like 60 meters altitude, VLOS is kind of difficult. That also means if you fly more than that from the pilot, again VLOS becomes an issue.

VLOS requirement is becoming more common, if it's not pretty much universal.


I just flew in a few places in France. These places had no zones indicating aircraft activity, at least according to drone maps.

But I saw planes and helicopters flying not much higher than 120 meters.


The other factor is whether you can maintain radio contact with the aircraft after a certain distance. I think the furthest I've flown my M2P is maybe 2.5-3 kilometers from Home.

But I've had many instances where I got warnings about weak signals or even disruptions to the video feed from only a few hundred meters distance from Home.

If you lose radio contact at 500 meters altitude, will the aircraft gracefully return home, descend first and return?

Or will RTH not work and the aircraft just drops, not descend under control?

 

[lomposlapos]

the ceiling allowed in most jurisdictions for recreational or non-professional flights

Do you have a reference for this?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

If you lose radio contact at 500 meters altitude, will the aircraft gracefully return home, descend first and return?

Or will RTH not work and the aircraft just drops, not descend under control?

RTH will work fine.
The aircraft will stay at 500m, and provided you flew more than X distance away (min distance as per each drone model), it would fly at 500m to above the HP, then descend.

Do you have a reference for this?

You need to check your countrys' airspace authority drone rules, not sure where you are located.
Eg, In the USA FAA has a max 120m (400') drone ceiling, without jumping through approval hoops.
In the UK the CAA has similar rating, CASA here in Australia the same, EU pretty much everywhere is 120m / 400'.

 

[Cecil]

I think it is time to air this video again

You can see indications on the surface of the water that you had a tailwind. Any water, (dams, rivers) trees, cattle or sheep will tell you what the direction and how strong the wind is.

 

[lomposlapos]

2.7 km off oceanic island at 500 m + time to shoot at destination is doable. (5 flights, last landed with 36% battery and ~7 min RTH time above home point if i recall correctly. Will check the flight logs)

Interested at 1,000 m, as well if anyone has experience.

 

[js47]

2.7 km off oceanic island at 500 m + time to shoot at destination is doable. (5 flights, last landed with 36% battery and ~7 min RTH time above home point if i recall correctly. Will check the flight logs)

Interested at 1,000 m, as well if anyone has experience.

Are these numbers from an actual flight you did over a remote island? Would be interested to see pics. I suppose any altitude is fair game in international waters.

I've never flown much over 120m but as others have said if you want to maximize your flight distance you really need to factor in the wind layers. For max distance flights you will need to use the wind to your advantage. Sometimes there will be a constant wind at all altitudes — if it is blowing away from your destination (towards you) then you'll want to fly out as low as possible, ascend when you arrive, and fly back at altitude (and vice versa). Sometimes the wind will blow in different directions at different altitudes, in which case you will want to change your altitude based on the leg of the flight that you are on. You'll probably need to sacrifice a battery before the main flight to figure out what direction the wind is blowing in the different layers.