Night time lessons learned with Mini 2

New England Droning · Jul 2, 2022

I'm going to try to do a nighttime launch and I am Part 107, I have my aux lighting for the top plus extras for general lighting. The intent is to stand off 2-3,000ft from fireworks and shoot video and stills of the fireworks.
At dusk I get the notices that it can't determine its location due to low light. I assume that this will not prevent the UAS from flying but landing may be an issue... I.E. bring it in close and light the ground with a flashlight to illuminate the LZ?
I also realize I should have practiced this prior to the night of the fireworks

but It will be a learning occasion.
I will check aloft and B4fly for any TFRs and get my Lance (class D airspace)
Is there anything else I might have missed? Any lessons Learned for a Mini 2 at night?
Thanks...

Yorkshire_Pud · Jul 2, 2022

You might find you need a strong torch/flashlight to light the ground well enough for VPS to work during landing but, in the absense of that, the drone's position holding will be as good as it is at height since both use GPS for that. It's definately not as good as VPS position holding but I would say on the good side of adequate.
I have flown where the take off / landing point was in relative pitch blackness and both a Mavic Mini and a Mini 2 where ok. I might have even hand caught them but if I did it was at maximum reach rather than my norm of a slightly extended arm.

New England Droning · Jul 2, 2022

Yorkshire_Pud said:
You might find you need a strong torch/flashlight to sufficiently light the ground in order for the VPS to work during landing but in the absense of that the drone's position holding will be as good as it is at height since both use GPS for that. It's definately not as good as VPS position holding but I would say on the good side of adequate.
I have flown where the take off / landing point was in relative pitch blackness and both a Mavic Mini and a Mini 2 where ok. I might have even hand caught them but if I did it was at maximum reach rather than my norm of a slightly extended arm.

thanks, I have noted that the station keeping is non-existent in low light and it drifts (ran into a screen door) because I was in close to the house, it wasn't dark but it was dim... Note to self extra flashlight

timinator · Jul 2, 2022

I flew my mini 2 last night for fireworks and had no problems. It landed in the dark (multiple times) on both asphalt and concrete with no problem. I got decent results between 40 and 80metres in altitude and a distance of 140metres. It wasn't a huge fireworks display so if you are shooting something put on by a city or other commercial entity you'll probably want to have a greater distance than what I had last night.

Video results were much better than stills and I just used the auto settings which seemed to run between 1600 and 3200iso.

For an idea of the results, here is one short clip I uploaded to YouTube.
Fast forward to the 20sec mark since i didn't have time to trim it.

Yorkshire_Pud · Jul 2, 2022

Incidentally where I was was dark enough that the light from the phone's screen was interfering with my vision of the drone when the drone was at close quarters. And I probably did have ithe screen's brightness turned down.

Any drift due to darkness/lack-of-vps should be controllable with careful use of the controller and you can give the drone forwards/backwards & left/right commands whilst it is descending in an RTH etc.. But I would suggest you turn the drone so that it is pointed away from you. That way the necessary commands are 'normal' rather than 'reversed'.
You can practice VPS-less flying in daylight by covering the 3 downward looking sensors, on the bottom rear of the drone, with suitable sticky tape.
BUT BE AWARE that that and perhaps darkness may disable "landing protection", if it does the drone will most likely NOT slow its descent as it approaches the ground. It is VERY easy to become accustomed to the drone slowing its descent automatically and to also become accustumed to holding the throttle fully closed during a descent and landing.
I think that, with out landing protection, holding the throttle closed could result in the drone decending into the ground. I almost did this with my P3 after having flown only mavic xyz's for a while.

New England Droning · Jul 7, 2022

Well I did a preflight on the 3rd at Salem harbor and flew down at night and back with extra lighting beyond the top light and I was able to see it clearly for quite a distance. For landing, I got it over me and then I pointed my flashlight up so I could see it in the camera... (landing in a very dark area). So that was mission #1
Mision #1 was on the 4th and in Marblehead MA for their fireworks. 30-40 min before the fireworks start the town sets off road flares all around the harbor and I hoped to get that and then the fireworks coming back to change the battery.

First problem is this, When 10,000+ people come to the shore for the fireworks does this constitute an "assembly" so no transitions from land over crowds to get to the ocean. I'm calling it an assembly so I found a location at Fort Sewall and found a ledge to launch from so no one was between me and the harbor. It was still daylight when I launched and I was on the way back to my ledge when the drone wanted to RTH I cancelled but had to endure the battery warning 14% at overhead. it was getting low on light so I lit the ground with my flashlight no problems except I was blinded by my aux lighting.
Mission #2 took off and now you can really see the red flares all around the harbor. I flew out beyond the lighthouse doing AEB shots and 2-360 panos. The red flares contrast against the blue and Mother Nature threw in her own fireworks in the way of a sunset.
I was still up when the fireworks started and I slid sideways across the harbor keeping my attention on the fireworks and the lighthouse. I need to put this into Premiere to do a timelapse. I lasted to almost the halfway point of the show when I had to come back.
Problem 1 people saw me on this ledge and joined me and while not packed in they were within 10-15'. So I brought it low to the for wall and then I flew it in at eye level to me and I slowly brought it over the ledge making sure no one was going to get hit. Had to illuminate the ground to land in the dark.
Mission success!
Attached are some of the evening's images

Gator9329 · Jul 10, 2022

Haha I was right there under you on one of those boats. It was a great night.
We also did the fireworks display off west beach.
There was a Drone there with a green strobe, maybe you?

Hayds · Jul 11, 2022

Salem-Drone said:
I'm going to try to do a nighttime launch and I am Part 107, I have my aux lighting for the top plus extras for general lighting. The intent is to stand off 2-3,000ft from fireworks and shoot video and stills of the fireworks.
At dusk I get the notices that it can't determine its location due to low light. I assume that this will not prevent the UAS from flying but landing may be an issue... I.E. bring it in close and light the ground with a flashlight to illuminate the LZ?
I also realize I should have practiced this prior to the night of the fireworks but It will be a learning occasion.
I will check aloft and B4fly for any TFRs and get my Lance (class D airspace)
Is there anything else I might have missed? Any lessons Learned for a Mini 2 at night?
Thanks...

A little show I did a few years back

Luckyguy9 · Jul 13, 2022

I decided to try my first drone video by filming the fireworks over Rockville Centre, NY this past Saturday. The view is looking east on Long Island.

I kept it short (40 seconds) to avoid boredom! Let me know what you think. Hopefully, I can only get better!