New Mavic Owner is puzzled

[1ianc8]

After a few weeks ownership I am delighted with my new Mavic pro, but there is one thing that puzzles me. Now retired from a career as a professional pilot, I know a bit about flight instruments and the Directional/Attitude indicator seems wrong. When the nose goes up, the horizon appears to go down - correctly shown on the DJI Go 4 display. When the aircraft banks right wing down, however, the horizon banks right wing down on the display, which seems the wrong way. It should reflect what the pilot would see from the cockpit - the horizon remaining level and appearing to bank left wing down. In the rolling axis this is the opposite of what happens on the "artificial horizon" on normal flight instruments. I wonder why DJI have designed it this way.

 

[rfc]

After a few weeks ownership I am delighted with my new Mavic pro, but there is one thing that puzzles me. Now retired from a career as a professional pilot, I know a bit about flight instruments and the Directional/Attitude indicator seems wrong. When the nose goes up, the horizon appears to go down - correctly shown on the DJI Go 4 display. When the aircraft banks right wing down, however, the horizon banks right wing down on the display, which seems the wrong way. It should reflect what the pilot would see from the cockpit - the horizon remaining level and appearing to bank left wing down. In the rolling axis this is the opposite of what happens on the "artificial horizon" on normal flight instruments. I wonder why DJI have designed it this way.

Welcome on board, Sir.
I can't speak to DJI's design philosophy, but can offer this: Any resemblance in flight characteristics between a Quadcopter and fixed wing A/C should be ignored. They are two different animals.
You can, however, simulate what you're talking about in DJIGo4, by switching to...wait for it..."Airplane Mode". That will program the camera to simulate the visual horizon characteristics when you perform a balanced turn in an A/C.
When NOT in that mode though, if you're seeing the horizon flop around at all, you're probably flying too aggressively and what you're seeing is the camera gimbal just trying to keep up, lol.
The whole purpose of the gimbal is to smooth things out for photography.
Enjoy the ride, and fly safe!

 

[gnirtS]

Which flight modes in particular?

The gimbal should keep the horizon level regardless of pitch or roll movements so you shouldn't be seeing any movement on the screen.

Are are you referring to the pitch/roll on the radar display in the corner? In which case, yes they're backwards for some reason and ive got no idea why.

(That and the pseudo fixed wing mode has pitch up/down reversed to how it should be which drives me nuts).

 

[Bunny Too]

After a few weeks ownership I am delighted with my new Mavic pro, but there is one thing that puzzles me. Now retired from a career as a professional pilot, I know a bit about flight instruments and the Directional/Attitude indicator seems wrong. When the nose goes up, the horizon appears to go down - correctly shown on the DJI Go 4 display. When the aircraft banks right wing down, however, the horizon banks right wing down on the display, which seems the wrong way. It should reflect what the pilot would see from the cockpit - the horizon remaining level and appearing to bank left wing down. In the rolling axis this is the opposite of what happens on the "artificial horizon" on normal flight instruments. I wonder why DJI have designed it this way.

Howdy from Wyoming @1ianc8 , welcome to the community, plenty of fine folk and excellent information here.

 

[rfc]

Which flight modes in particular?

The gimbal should keep the horizon level regardless of pitch or roll movements so you shouldn't be seeing any movement on the screen.

Are are you referring to the pitch/roll on the radar display in the corner? In which case, yes they're backwards for some reason and ive got no idea why.

(That and the pseudo fixed wing mode has pitch up/down reversed to how it should be which drives me nuts).

I was referring to "Airplane Mode", aka "fixed wing mode"..It's in the special flight modes along with POI, Tripod, Homelock, Courselock. You can't be in beginner mode to access them. When Airplane Mode is enabled, the aircraft camera (the POV) acts like you're flying a fixed wing A/C. I don't have the screen shots of where it is in the menus, but if you do a youtube search for "DJI Fixed wing, or Airplane mode" you'll get a ton of videos on it. By the way, you can reverse the controls for pitch to suit your taste.

 

[gnirtS]

Ah i gave up on fix wing mode because its nothing like fixed with other than dialling in fake roll (with roll limits) when you turn etc. The only use i can see for it is to maintain a constant speed with no control input (for max distance flights etc).

 

[Former Member]

Now retired from a career as a professional pilot

Congrats on your retirement. If you would like your drone to have the same affect as an airplane would, camera banks the same as the aircraft, simply use "FPV" mode. That does, however, defeat the purpose of having a gyro mounted gimbal that seeks a level horizon up to a certain degree of bank.

FPV Mode: Camera is locked to Aircraft orientation so video image will tilt when the aircraft rolls.

 

[1ianc8]

Congrats on your retirement. If you would like your drone to have the same affect as an airplane would, camera banks the same as the aircraft, simply use "FPV" mode. That does, however, defeat the purpose of having a gyro mounted gimbal that seeks a level horizon up to a certain degree of bank.

FPV Mode: Camera is locked to Aircraft orientation so video image will tilt when the aircraft rolls.

 

[1ianc8]

My main concern is that the horizon line on the "radar" display ( the top of the blue segment ) works in a different sense in pitch and roll. In pitch, it works like the traditional artificial horizon - if the nose comes up the horizon appears to go down. BUT, in roll, if the right side of the Mavic goes down, the right side of the horizon goes down also - the opposite algorithm from pitch !! I can't see any logic in an attitude display which works in opposite ways for pitch and roll.

 

[Former Member]

Forget everything you learned in flight school. You will need to relearn the mechanics of the DJI Go app which has little to do with flying an actual aircraft, including the altimeter.

 

[1ianc8]

Thank you all for your welcome and good information. There sure is a lot to learn !!

 

[ivpmaniak]

That also confuses me quite. I cant find the logic behind this artificial horizon, in left and right movement, it is just oposite.
There is old video showing it wroking correctly, but looks like DJI has changed it.

 

[jeplane]

I think you are thinking what you have been seeing on an artificial horizon in the western world all theses years....

Think of DJI like a Russian Artificial Horizontal. Remember on how they reverse it, compared to the western world? (It is the horizon that moves and not the plane like us)
It has killed quite a few expats flying over there....

...And maybe what DJI, being Chinese is using as far as display.

 

[gnirtS]

Even in the west the artificial horizon and attitude indicator are different. In the horizon, the horizon moves. In the other the aircraft moves so yes they;re opposites.

 

[sdold]

What instruments are you guys talking about? The artificial horizon and attitude indicator are the same thing, just renamed. Do you mean the attitude indicator and the Turn coordinator?

 

[gnirtS]

The turn co-ordinator (im assuming american phrasing here) is going to be the opposite of the horizon (ie its showing the aircraft from the rear not the horizon.

On the mavic its on the radar display and gives a pretty useful indication of how much the drone is banking and pitching to stay steady in the wind (so a feel for direction and strength).

 

[sdold]

The turn co-ordinator (im assuming american phrasing here) is going to be the opposite of the horizon (ie its showing the aircraft from the rear not the horizon.

On the mavic its on the radar display and gives a pretty useful indication of how much the drone is banking and pitching to stay steady in the wind (so a feel for direction and strength).

Correct, I think in the previous post you were confusing the Turn Coordinator with the attitude indicator, which is the current term for Artificial Horizon.