Newbie Question for Mini 2

[hAltonJones]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

What does the manual say?

 

[hAltonJones]

I believe the manual says or implies 6.2 miles. However, my question is not about what is "possible"; it's about was is reasonable, safe, and offers a very high probability of safe return and control.

 

[old man mavic]

no one can answer your question (what is reasonable and safe)
that will depend on an individuals definition of that statement

 

[Deleted member 103366]

It all depends on the flying enviroment, there are no hard and fast rules***.
I am not being awkward for the sake of being awkward but the manual also tells you what should happen in the event of a disconnection.
I have not, as yet, flown the Mini 2 out to disconnection at extreme range but I have had one or two disconnections in the 600m to 1km range due to the enviroment, trees, possible radio interference...that sort of thing, yet I have gone further than that elsewhere with out disconnection.
BUT, if every thing is setup correctly, homepoint, RTH height, failsafe settings etc. the drone has yet to fail to get home. So much so that I have also shut off the controller just to lieterally see what the drone does.
Watch out for wind, the Mini 2 is better than the Mavic Mini but wind could still be a threat to it, especially if you set needlessly high RTH heights.

***HOWEVER, there is also the law that the drone is supposed to be flown such that you can always see it with your own eyes, and maybe determine its orientation, all without the aid of binoculars etc. My 'distant' flights have been over empty sea.

 

[old man mavic]

welcome to the forum ,and please make yourself aware of the requirements for safe flight of your drone

 

[slup]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

Newbie + no knowledge + pushing limits = you lose ... & probably not only the connection.

Newbie + gaining knowledge + keeping it low & near = you will learn where the limits are & when you're pushing them ... & you most probably will keep your Mini 2 away from disaster and have the possibility to gain further knowledge without a need to sacrifice your Mini 2 in the learning process.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

Welcome to the Mini 2 Family :

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your Mini 2 in the Rain. land on the Water

 

[Deleted member 84685]

Safe is not to lose sight but bit hard with these little things,heck I can just see it at 400ft,my eyes are shot from years of wielding, I never go beyond what I cant see now days,just to many risks now days

 

[Saladshooter]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

If you are careful about three things there is little risk of losing your Mini 2:

1. Maintain VLOS (Visual Line of Sight). That is the rule in the US for recreational pilots and a good practice anyway. It will likely restrict you to half a mile or less with the Mini 2. I have been able to see mine at that distance but lose it in the sky if I take my eyes off it for even a second.

2. Do not fly on days with heavy wind. Mini 2 is very susceptible to blow-aways. Take particular care not to fly against winds of any substance.

3. Set your RTH (Return to Home) to an altitude higher than any objects between you and your Mini 2. DJI's RTH function is very reliable. If you wait for the Mini 2 to establish its home point before flying off, it will return to you if the signal is lost for any reason. In my area, a 200ft height is sufficient to fly over trees, buildings, etc. Because wind can be much stronger up high, RTH for the Mini 2 should be set to the lowest altitude that will safely clear obstacles.

My apologies to @PhiliusFoggg. I wrote this without reading what he had written above and have just realized that much of the info is repeated. I'm posting it anyway only to reinforce his opinions.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Take particular care not to fly against winds of any substance.

That brought to mind something else............
when the wind is 'moderate' or light it is generally better to ensure you do NOT fly any loooong out bound leg downwind. Doing so would mean that the return leg is upwind and may be problematic.
You can to some extent assess the wind at height by switching the camera to FPV mode and then hover and do a 360 deg rotation. In general the drone will be side on to the wind twice in that rotation and the drone and camera will roll. Where the roll is greatest the drone is side on to the wind, the amount of roll indicates the strength of the wind.
If you have the attitude indicator (artificial horizon type thing) switched on, that too shows the roll but it will also show the pitch. When the drone is hovering any tilt, be it roll or pitch is due to wind.

 

[Starz]

Probably best not to use the word mini and 6.2 miles in the same sentence.
Keep having fun, but watch out for wind that you can’t see from ground level.

 

[Skwirl]

As a new mini 2 pilot also, welcome and my advice would be to read. A lot. Download the manuel for the mini 2. Theres a lot to understand about how the drone functions and what it will do when and why.
Heres is thread in the crash/flyaway section you'll need to read and be able to do.

Mavic Flight Log Retrieval and Analysis Guide

With the introduction of the Mavic Mini there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of posts requesting help with lost or crashed aircraft. While there is plenty of help and advice available on this forum, and detailed guidance and options on several other websites, I thought that perhaps a...

mavicpilots.com

Heres a thread from that section that an "experienced pilot" did, a good read for understanding wind.

Air 2S Fly away

please help. Brand new Air 2S simply flew away and DJI blames me. I'm not sure how to get the best out of the flight records but I know DJI is ignoring the many factors that caused this. I had a Mavic Pro Platinum and I have flown the same flight many times without incident. I bought the Air 2S...

mavicpilots.com

Enjoy the mini 2 and have fun, but most importantly become a good pilot.
Or I'll be reading your thread in the crash/flyaway section, lol.

 

[smfry60]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

VLOS..

 

[Chaosrider]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

I did some explicit testing to determine exactly this in my little aerodrome. I have three Mini-2s, and I ran the test on all of them.

I moved gradually farther out, while keeping a close eye on the RC-AC connection strength. In my canyon location, they can all go out to about 3000 ft, at which point the signal strength drops to 4 bars. Only a couple of hundred feet more, and it drops to 3 bars, and turns red.

I'm not willing to push lower than that with my current level of experience. When the signal drops to 3 bars, I immediately back it up until I have at least 4 again.

YMMV. I live in a canyon, with a lot of squirrely terrain (the terrain really is infested with squirrels, but that's different...). Flying in dead flat, unobstructed terrain, the control signal would probably stay good longer.

Thx,

TCS

 

[samtex]

I have watched hundreds of videos and have seen successes as well as failures when going beyond the line of sight. One thing that I learned from those videos is that you always fly against the wind outbound so you have a reasonable chance of returning home inbound. : )

 

[March411]

I learned my lesson this afternoon, line of sight is relative. Fly to close to a tree and can't see those smaller branches..... getting old is a drag!

 

[footfly]

Received my Mini 2 and having a ball with it. However, as a person that generally likes to push the limits, my question is this: How far should I fly from home without risking losing control of the drone?

Have a few helpful hints that might work for you:

Get to know the drone within very easy visual range so you know most of the important controls and what these controls do. Easy visual range is like, a few hundred feet, you can easily see without squint.

Then you can extend further distance.

But to answer your question: It has to be within Visual Line of Sight (that is the abbreviation VLOS) and clear of any obstructions like trees / houses / branches/ etc. This is only way to essentially guarantee "without risk of losing control of drone". Of course, you can still be literally 20 feet from your drone and if there is a hardware or software failure, the drone could literally fly away, but unlikely.

Like the rest of the comments on this forum, you can fly further but you would need to accept the risk of flying further, you may lose control. There is not really one answer for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) because that depends on how much risk you want to take as yourself compared to someone else.

 

[Chaosrider]

I learned my lesson this afternoon, line of sight is relative. Fly to close to a tree and can't see those smaller branches..... getting old is a drag!

Don't say that!!

If drag increases, you just need to add more thrust to maintain speed.



TCS

 

[Mike Mas]

A good word of advise - don't fly it any futher than you can see it with your own eyes.

Mike